Visualizing the 2017 All-American Eclipse

Visualizing the 2017 All-American Eclipse

On August 21, 2017, the Earth will cross the shadow of the Moon, creating a total solar eclipse. Eclipses happen about every six months, but this one is special. For the first time in almost 40 years, the path of the Moon's shadow passes through the continental United States.

The video features several visualizations of this event. From behind the Earth, we see the night sides of both the Earth and Moon and the umbral and penumbral shadow cones projecting from the Moon. We then see the tilted orbit of the Moon and the long, thin shadow cones striking the Earth. In the view from behind the Moon, we see the daylit far side of the Moon and the western hemisphere of the Earth, and from this vantage point, the outline of the shadow on the Earth is circular.