Two Weeks Apart: NASA Captures Solar Eclipse and Lunar Eclipse in a Single Image
Two images captured in different countries on two nights, separated by a little over two weeks, were combined by NASA into a single scene that reveals the intricate relationship between a solar eclipse and a lunar eclips
Translated by Qiyas from الأنباء — Original source
Two images captured in different countries on two nights, separated by a little over two weeks, were combined by NASA into a single scene that reveals the intricate relationship between a solar eclipse and a lunar eclipse.
On Saturday, the U.S. space agency selected a composite image titled “Eclipse Pair” for its Astronomy Picture of the Day series, combining the total solar eclipse that occurred on August 12 with the deep partial lunar eclipse of the night of August 27–28.
The solar eclipse scene was captured in Peñafiel, Spain, near the beginning of the total phase, showing the Sun’s golden corona and what is known as “Baily’s beads”—short points of light that appear when sunlight passes through the lunar terrain and valleys along the Moon’s edge.
The second part of the image was taken in Sèvres, France, during the lunar eclipse, which reached a maximum coverage of about 93%, as most of the Moon’s disk entered Earth’s shadow and acquired a dark, reddish hue.
NASA explains that this pairing is not coincidental: during an “eclipse season,” the Sun, Earth, and Moon align in a configuration that allows for a solar eclipse at new moon, followed by a lunar eclipse near full moon about 14 days later.
However, it is rare for the alignment to be strong enough to produce a total solar eclipse followed by a lunar eclipse of this magnitude within the same eclipse season.
