Why does the moon stop moving right at Totality of a complete Solar Eclipse?

a reply to: autopat51

and the ratio of distances involved have to be the same, like from us to the moon and from the moon to the sun, and look they are! what a coincidink.

originally posted by: CircleofFloss
a reply to: DISRAELI

this is pretty simple, really.

Yes, it is. Yet even after several members have explained it, you still appear to be struggling with it. The moon does not stop.

originally posted by: autopat51
and the sun is the exact size of the moon that is covering it.

wow, what are the odds.

Not all of the time, but it is close.

Depending on the location of the Moon during it's orbit, it could look larger or smaller when seen from earth. It could look 14% larger when it is closest to us.

So for some eclipses, it could be slightly larger than the Sun, covering it completely with a little room to spare. For some eclipses, the Moon will look slightly smaller than the sun, never being able to cover all of the Sun, even if it were right in the center of it.

a reply to: Soylent Green Is People

entirely true, since everything has an elliptical orbit to it. which opens up all kinds of other topics for other threads.

but when it's perfectly balanced, the question is for total solar eclipses and why the moon stops moving for quite a long time.

a reply to: F4guy

I see the moon, therefore it must exist, no?

originally posted by: Soylent Green Is People
If you think about it. totality does not occur at one instant. Well, maybe to a single local observer it does, but totality occurs at different times for all of the different places that totality occurs.

Where I might be, I see totality at a certain time. A mile west of me, they saw it a few moments earlier. A mile east of me will see it a few moments after me. Someone 10 miles from me will see it occur minutes before. 100 miles from me might be 30+ minutes before me.

So....if you're right and the moon stops at totality, then for whose totality did it stop? Mine? The guy 10 miles away? What about the guy25 miles away, or maybe for the one a few hundred miles away?

mind=blown

a reply to: AdmireTheDistance

I've already understood the quality of your posts from before, so I think I'll still look for an answer, thanks.

a reply to: CircleofFloss

It doesn't stop moving. Here is a lengthy thread by someone else with the same false assumption, and with numerous succinct explanations as to why that assumption is incorrect.

Try searching before you post.

originally posted by: CircleofFloss
a reply to: AdmireTheDistance

I've already understood the quality of your posts from before, so I think I'll still look for an answer, thanks.

And I have already understood how you choose to ignore answers that don't fit your beliefs. Just as you have done in this thread. Read the thread I posted. It has the answer.

a reply to: Soylent Green Is People

all good questions. maybe those distances aren't enough to matter. I'm not claiming to know the answer, just putting out the question. But when you watch this video, you'll see it stop



from 50 mins on

It doesn't stop, but for a real "Huh?!" look up the Allais effect on pendulums during an eclipse.

a reply to: AdmireTheDistance

originally posted by: Soylent Green Is People
a reply to: WeirdScience

If you think about it, the reason for MOST of the apparent motion of the Sun and moon as seen from earth is due to the Earth's rotation. So there is a synchronization between the apparent movement "westward" of the Sun and the apparent movement of the Moon caused by the rotating Earth.

However, because the Moon is also revolving around the Earth, there is also a small movement of the Moon (relative to the Sun) toward the "East" direction along it's path in the sky. The motion is slow enough that there is approximately 2 minutes of totality before the Moon moves eastward (again, relative to the Sun) and the Sunlight begins to emerge


I mean, the total eclipse happens at a different time for everyone watching along the path of the eclipse, so it certainly doesn't "stop" during totality. If it stopped for one person watching during totality in -- say, for example -- Portugal, then that means at that same moment it would appear to stop before totality ever happens in western Spain. But then if the moon later stopped during totality in western Spain, then at THAT same moment, it would appear stop before totality in eastern Spain -- and so on and so on through France, then Germany, and points east.. Put that all together, and suddenly you have a Moon that doesn't appear to be moving at all, anytime leading up to and after an eclipse.

I might accept this for now

originally posted by: CircleofFloss
so when you see it completely cover the sun at totality, that's when it stops. then you just watch it start moving again. this is pretty simple, really. Kind of surprised I have to keep explaining it.

When you say "it stops moving", what fixed measuring point are you comparing it against? You can't, because there isn't one visible. If the moon was transparent, so that the sun was still visible, it would be obvious enough that the moon continues to move across the face of the sun .

During your night-time, the earth itself is effectively covering the face of the sun. Do you believe that the earth stops moving at sunset and only starts again at dawn? It's the same principle.The moon is eclipsing the sun for a certain length of its orbit, and it takes time to travel that length. It is not instantaneous.

a reply to: Baddogma

I will. and that almost reminds me of another effect with pendulums, but now I can't remember. something about how they are used to measure the orbit of the earth I think, variation and all that.

a reply to: CircleofFloss

Haha, I honestly can't decide if you are trolling or not, well done.

I'm sure you can give us the exact time when it stops, in your video? And when does it start moving again?

a reply to: DISRAELI

but you can still see the plasma filaments around it

originally posted by: CircleofFloss
a reply to: DISRAELI

but you can still see the plasma filaments around it

Which are not fixed points. They are very mobile.

a reply to: Cutepants

watch it starting at 50:45 to get the direction and how it looks when it moves.

it reaches totality at 51:03 to my eyes

it doesn't start moving again until after 52:00 where it starts to move away at what looks like a complete 90 degree angle (noticeable starting at 52:30)

a reply to: DISRAELI

what??? omg, no.

a reply to: CircleofFloss

It moves during that interval.

51:00 - 51:30 you can clearly see the lowest part of the corona(?) being "eaten" away. (I feel like corona is the wrong word, but I mean the irregular golden lining left after the "diamond" disappears.

51:37 - 52:00 the movement is slightly harder to see but if you focus on the dark spots in the flare on the upper right you again see it clearly. Try skipping forward and you see how much the flare has grown.