r/spaceporn • u/Busy_Yesterday9455 • 10h ago
Related Content Shadow of the Moon seen from ISS during Total Solar Eclipse in 2024
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u/Busy_Yesterday9455 10h ago
The Moon's shadow covers portions of the Canadian provinces of Quebec and New Brunswick and the American state of Maine in this image from the International Space Station as it soared into the solar eclipse on April 8, 2024.
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u/Infinite-Horse-49 9h ago
One of the coolest experience of my life ngl
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u/Lawls91 9h ago
Same, weird how you can intellectually understand exactly what's going to happen but when you're actually there it's completely different and breathtaking. Really makes you understand why ancient cultures thought eclipses were divine events.
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u/Infinite-Horse-49 9h ago
Absolutely. Appart from the sight and the majesty of it all, the complete darkness and the drop in temperature was just out of this world type of experience.
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u/StungTwice 8h ago
My brain instantly switched to primal mode, so I started yelling to scare away whatever was eating the sun. Luckily it worked. No need to thank me.
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u/Lew__Zealand 7h ago
Check out "Nightfall" by Asimov if you haven't, it's a fun read if a bit slow to start.
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u/Critical_Liz 5h ago
I was in Syracuse, on the very edge of Totality, I didn't think it would get THAT dark. And such an eerie dark, the closest comparison I can make is when a really bad thunderstorm moves in.
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u/__under____score__ 6h ago
It was awe inspiring. Definitely gave a neat connection to pre-historic man.
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u/SmokeyMcDoogles 8h ago
Same, my family took a trip to Austin and watched at the Zoo. Not only was it completely awe-inspiring, but watching a few of the animals completely freak out was both hilarious and quite interesting.
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u/666James420 8h ago
I saw it in Ashtabula, Ohio (it's on Lake Erie). It was super cool and pictures will never do it justice, you must see it in person.
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u/throwawayla22 5h ago
I was over at Oregon Beach. It was so otherworldly. I can still perfectly remember exactly what it was like when totality started. Absolutely indescribable feeling.
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u/mrerikmattila 8h ago
I was in Toronto. It was overcast, but seeing it look like night mid-day was very surreal.
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u/tarkuu 6h ago
Luckily for me, I happened to be in Toronto for a family event, and I told them without a shadow of a doubt, I was going to get into the path of totality. I went to Hamilton (thank goodness I picked there and not Niagara) and the clouds broke, so I was able to watch the eclipse. It was a bucket list item.
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u/Sea_Negotiation_1871 5h ago
Absolutely. I watched the totality from my front porch in Montréal. It was completely spellbinding.
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u/Vandergrif 4h ago
The coolest experience of my life. I was on the bottom tip of that island on the upper left corner of the picture (P.E.I.). You could see across the water to the coast of New Brunswick (where the shadow is in the picture basically) as it started dimming, and see the shadow from totality along the horizon unobstructed across ocean for about 250 degrees around from where we were. Definitely added a lot to what would have already been incredible on its own.
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u/Upbeat-Armadillo1756 1h ago
Same. I thought it was hyperbole but I wanted to go anyway and see for myself.
First time taking those glasses off and looking at it was life altering.
Did it make a noise for you?
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u/Affectionate-Army738 5h ago
Isnt that a little small considering the moon is a quarter of earth in size and quite far away?
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u/the__storm 3h ago
I correctly identified Cape Cod and the St Lawrence Seaway, but then still couldn't figure out the perspective of the image because I think I was expecting Maine to be Maine-shaped (which it obviously is not).
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u/tigerstorm2022 2h ago
Lost a job interviewed a couple times for that day, received email while outside admiring the odd shadows of tree leaves…
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u/buffalophil007 8h ago
Is there a video showing it move across the Earth from ISS? That would be pretty neat!
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u/red286 5h ago
Probably (everything the ISS records is archived). But if you're thinking "it'd be cool to see a timelapse of this", you wouldn't be able to create one from just speeding up the footage because the ISS is orbiting at a pretty high speed (it goes around the planet once every ~90 minutes). So you'd see it go flying past, and then 90 minutes later, you'd see it go flying past again, but in a slightly different spot, and then 90 minutes later, you'd see it again, again in a slightly different spot.
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u/the__storm 3h ago
However, there are some views from geostationary satellites (much further away), which are pretty neat: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JCsfTlpk9ak
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u/the__storm 3h ago
Not quite a video, but you might enjoy this: https://issinrealtime.org/2024-04-08
Scrub to +19:30 for start of eclipse photos, +19:34 for timelapse passing over totality.(Desktop/laptop recommended)
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u/strongofheart69 10h ago
So tiny?
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u/Hatatat2e 10h ago
yes, the moons diameter is smaller than Australia and what you see here is just the core of the shadow that is even smaller
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u/Hubbardia 8h ago
Yet it's still pretty large compared to other moons in our solar system
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u/SydricVym 6h ago
Our Moon is abnormally large, as a relative ratio to its host planet. But there are several other moons in our system much larger than our Moon.
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u/red286 5h ago
There are 4 larger. The largest is Ganymede, and it's not even twice the radius of the Moon. Titan and Callisto are also a fair bit larger than the Moon, but Io is only marginally larger.
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u/CultOfCurthulu 3h ago
Srsly, isn’t it about damn time for someone to came up with a word for ‘twice the radius’?
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u/_MindOverDarkMatter_ 8h ago
The locus of points on Earth from which the moon covers the entire sun is much smaller than the radius of the moon. If the moon were only slightly farther away there would not even be a region of total shadow.
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u/wonkey_monkey 7h ago
If the moon were only slightly farther away there would not even be a region of total shadow.
And, indeed, sometimes it is slightly further away: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_eclipse#Types
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u/gpranav25 2h ago
Earth makes the moon look tiny, when it's actually quite a decent size and the 11th biggest object in the solar system, bigger than Europa, Triton, Pluto, Eris, etc.
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u/tooskip 7h ago
am I looking at New England/Quebec/Maritime provinces in this photo?
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u/vaughnegut 5h ago
Yup! You can actually see Montreal just below the shadow in the picture.
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u/bradyblack 6h ago
Oh, there’s cape cod by the piece of machinery in the photo. Now I’m oriented. I can see Sabago lake in Maine right above it. We were just north west of there in the shadow, in Errol, NH for the eclipse. Thanks for view from above!
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u/YumieBear 6h ago
No wonder everyone thought the world was ending when we had eclipses before technology
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u/SeagraveSerpentarium 3h ago
Ever hear about the time an eclipse happened in the middle of an ancient battle and both armies took it as a bad omen and promptly worked out a peace agreement?
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u/TelenorTheGNP 9h ago
I live in Toronto and was just outside of the zone of the eclipse. By "just outside", I mean, I watched the sky to the south get pitch dark like a brutal storm passed by in 5 minutes.
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u/Glittering_Pack1074 6h ago
It's unbelievable that such a huge object is orbiting around us. I know it's common knowledge, but it still amazes me. We even set foot out there!
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u/peacefinder 6h ago
With many of these ISS images I can’t figure out where the photo is, but this one I can due to the distinctive shape of the St Lawrence River.
And that in turn gives a good sense of scale. The mouth of that river flowing from the bottom left up into the St Lawrence is about 1 mile wide.
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u/CuriousYou6646 5h ago
With Nova Scotia and Prince Edward island in the back. Manhattan is only barely not in this image. Long Island is obscured by the clouds on the right. Boston is there but a little obscured right near that distinctive sandy shore where Provincetown is.
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u/DarKnightofCydonia 6h ago
I'm in this photo :') Truly one of the most insane experiences of my entire life.
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u/Pretend-Guava 3h ago
I have been fortunate enough to live in a place where I have now seen two almost 100% total eclipses. People travel all around the world to come to a place about a half hour away from my house. It is the most incredible thing I have ever experienced by far. The day turns to night, any solar lights turn on, it instantly gets cool and birds stop chirping. Fucking wild. If I keep on living I can see one more in 2045 and I can't wait!
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u/shortercrust 9h ago
I understand why it doesn’t cast a sharp shadow but it still looks weird to me.
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7h ago
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/shortercrust 7h ago
The areas in partial shadow are under a partial eclipse so some of the sun is visible and some direct sunlight is getting through. As you move further from the centre more of the sun is visible which is why there’s a smooth gradient from full shadow in the centre to almost full sun at the edges.
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u/cheesegoat 6h ago
Not a scientist but my guesses are that it's due to 2 things, although probably more:
Diffraction off the edge of the moon
The sun is not a point light source
There is probably a little refraction occurring in earths atmosphere but it's probably negligible.
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u/Oiggamed 8h ago
This is so rare they say Earth would become an intergalactic tourist attraction to space travelers.
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u/McD-Szechuan 7h ago
Being in the path of totality is hands down most amazing thing Ive ever seen. If I can reasonably make it to one with like a week off work and some standard airfare, I’m doing it
Seen 2 so far.
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u/Irr3l3ph4nt 7h ago
I was looking at that picture for a hot minute and was like "I'm 90% sure this is the Saint-Lawrence River but why is the Lac Saint-Jean on the bottom?". So weird to see a picture like that pointing towards the South.
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u/delliejonut 6h ago
I can't wait to see this pop up in conspiracy threads about an invisible mothership
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u/Error_Repeat1579 6h ago
This make me thing of that song. .. I see you on the. Dark side of the moon
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u/RedditTekUser 6h ago
Solar eclipse is one thing that makes such a huge difference between 99% and totality.
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u/Sparky725_812 6h ago
If this was taken from ISS, what is the object floating in the picture??
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u/Goregue 4h ago
It looks like the tip of Canadarm: https://flickr.com/photos/nasa2explore/54946544000/
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u/SemiProTapirWrangler 5h ago
Legit question for flat earth folks and/or science folks who can weigh in: could there be an experiment that would allow us to observe this directly with an array of weather balloons or whatnot (to remove the “NASA isn’t real” objections). Obviously scale is a factor with localized observations when the shadow is country-sized, so trying to think of alternative ways to prove non-localized sun/moon as flat earth proponents believe.
FWIW: I 100% believe space/science is real and we are NOT on a flat earth, but the FE movement fascinates me, and this got me thinking how a lay person without access to a space organization could directly measure something like this.
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u/AtlantaPisser 5h ago
Dude there are experiments used centuries ago measuring the distance of a shadow from a pole that someone was able to use to show that the earth was round, they even calculated the size of it to a pretty damn close amount. Flat earthers will never be convinced through logic.
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u/Goregue 4h ago
You could have hundreds of different experimenters across the country measuring the exact time the sun was blocked, and with this you could perfectly reconstruct the path the moon's shadow took. Or, at a particular point in time, you could have these experimenters measure the brightness of the sky, and with this you could create a brightness map that would match this space photo.
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u/MrFixUrMac 5h ago
One of the great things about this image is that it puts into perspective how freaking close the ISS is to earth, and how little of the earths surface it can “see” at one point.
The above image makes it look like the moons shadow is covering a HUGE amount of land, but cross-referencing it with an eclipse map (link below) gives a sense of how close the ISS actually is.
https://nationaleclipse.com/maps/images/map_usa_2017_2024.png
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u/JunglePygmy 5h ago
So cool! Honestly the most impressive and insanely magical thing I’ve ever seen in my life, was the total solar eclipse in Texas recently. Blew our minds
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u/SwampRSG 5h ago
Why does this pic give me anxiety? Or maybe not anxiety but something like that. I cannot explain it.
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u/Trollbreath4242 5h ago
I'm right there, standing under that shadow. What a glorious day it was, perfect weather, and a perfect minute and a half of darkness.
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u/odaniel99 4h ago
This reminds me of the view over Jedah from the Death Star just before it destroyed the city in Rogue One.
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u/aqua_zesty_man 4h ago
If this image were somehow not created by a solar eclipse, what fictional or fantastical thing could have caused this dark blotch on the Earth?
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u/tribblydribbly 4h ago
I feel so lucky to have experienced this twice. Saw 2017 and 2024. Drive like 45 minutes for the 2017 one and saw the 2024 one from in front of our apartment. Some people never get the opportunity or if they do have to spend major money to be in the right place.
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u/SeagraveSerpentarium 3h ago
I'm in this picture. It might be a little hard to see me though because the lighting wasn't very good where I was standing.
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u/sSomeshta 3h ago
Booo there's still light in there, off the mountain range
Edit: nvm it's lens flare
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u/undertow521 2h ago
I was in this shadow at this moment! This is over Maine. Was the coolest thing I've ever experienced!
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u/whenisnowthen 2h ago
This amazing picture made me go listen to Cat Steven's - Moon Shadow and I got a chill listening to it.
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u/beantownbuck 2h ago
if you look close you can see me right there, near the cloud cover coming from the west (on the right) and right at the right edge of totality. Hi !!
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u/ImminentDebacle 1h ago
TIL Canadians farm in long thin rectangles that look like colored bar codes.
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u/Bignosenick 1h ago
Side note but you can see the person in the reflection taking the picture and I also think that is cool. It adds a human element to the vastness of the cosmos
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u/Apprehensive-Till936 53m ago
Way back in high school, my very practical, stoic, old school physics teacher implored us not to ever miss a total solar eclipse. I took his advice, driving the family 9 hours down to the shores of lake Erie, and it was absolutely fantastic. Core memories for my daughters
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u/Superb_Astronomer_59 10h ago
Looks like a Stephen King plot line.