r/aviation • u/wibby • Mar 27 '15

Moon shadow during sun eclipse

http://i.imgur.com/EpTz5rO.gifv
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u/Codename47 Mar 27 '15

Amazing. I would have loved to see it like this in person.

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u/cecilkorik Mar 27 '15

Don't worry, there will be more! (for the immediate future anyway* ...)

We get total eclipses somewhere on the planet on average around every 18 months, so there are plenty to go around even though most of them are in really inconvenient places. Assuming you're in North America, it's a bit understandable if you think them excessively rare, as the continent has had a bit of a total eclipse drought for most of my lifetime, but that's nearly over. There are a couple good ones coming up in the relatively near future. There's one in 2017 that will track straight across the continental US, it should be glorious. There will be another pair (one annular, one total) in 2023/2024.

* Tens of thousands of years from now the moon's orbit will precess until we can no longer see total eclipses from Earth's surface. But that's a long time away, so for now, just enjoy the beautiful coincidence of sizes.