What is an Eclipse?
In Astronomy an eclipse is described as a body coming between us and our light emitter, so that the light can no longer be seen. In our case it is the moon aligning between us and the sun; blocking the sun and casting a shadow on part of the earth. This is called a Solar Eclipse. It depends where on earth you are located as to what Solar eclipse you will experience. As the Moon is much smaller than the earth it's shadow only covers a small portion of the Earth. A Solar eclipse can then only be seen in certain regions, if you're in the darkest part of the moons shadow then this is a total solar eclipse, areas covered by a partial shadow are classed as a partial eclipse. Our last Total Eclipse here in the UK was in 1999, which I am told that it witnessed but due to being 2 years old at the time, I don't remember it!
Other Types of Eclipse
An Annular Eclipse, is when the moon is not at its closest to the sun. So when the moon passes Infront of it you can still see a ring of light from the sun around the edges of it. Have you ever seen the moon glow slightly red/orange? That could have been from a Lunar Eclipse. This occurs when the moon lies in the shadow of the earth, The moon does not completely disappear in a lunar eclipse it does however have a red glow. This is due to it being illuminated by light that has passed through the earths atmosphere and bent towards the moon by refraction.
"When sunlight entering the Earth's atmosphere strikes the particles that are smaller than the light's wavelengths, it gets scattered into different directions. Not all colors in the light spectrum, however, are equally scattered. Colors with shorter wavelengths, especially the violet and blue colors, are scattered more strongly, so they are removed from the sunlight before it hits the surface of the Moon during a lunar eclipse. Those with longer wavelengths, like red and orange, pass through the atmosphere. This red-orange light is then bent or refracted around Earth, hitting the surface of the Moon and giving it the reddish-orange glow that total lunar eclipses are famous for." Aparna Kher - https://www.timeanddate.com/eclipse/why-does-moon-look-red-lunar-eclipse.html#:~:text=The%20Moon%20does%20not%20have,instead%20of%20going%20completely%20dark. Check out this website for more info on Lunar Eclipses!
Patrick Prokop in Savannah, Georgia
When are the next Solar Eclipses?
| Date (UK) | Type |
| 25th Oct 2022 | Partial |
| 23rd Sept 2090 (loooong time) | Total |
We wanted to create something that was understated, comfortable and warm (important for stargazing in the UK, always cold and raining.) However, to give it a bit of a twist, this sweat looks very normal by day but by night it glows! Yes, I used glow in the dark embroidery thread! Check out our tiktok for a video of the creation of our Eclipse Sweat! @stargazing_tshirts or click the tiktok link in the footer.
Image Credit: Solar Eclipse https://www.tiktok.com/@stargazing_tshirts/video/7074910442014903557?is_copy_url=1&is_from_webapp=v1
Image Credit: Patrick Prokop in Savannah, Georgia https://earthsky.org/astronomy-essentials/dates-of-next-lunar-and-solar-eclipses/