equiz8

Eclipse Quiz

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**Question #8**
What do the umbra and penumbra describe? Features of the sun that are observable only during totality in a solar eclipse. The regions of the moon's shadow within which an eclipse may be viewed as partial or total. The beginning and end points of the path of the total eclipse as mapped on the earth's surface.

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Bravo! The regions of the moon's shadow within which an eclipse may be viewed as partial or total.
The umbra is the region of the moon's shadow where the sun is completely obscured from view. It forms a cone with its base as the sunrise/sunset or terminator line on the moon narrowing to a point in space directly away from the sun. When the earth's surface intersects this cone, a total solar eclipse will be visible at that location. Because the sun is not a point source of light (it has an apparent diameter of 0.5 degrees in the sky) there are regions surrounding the umbra where it is only partially obscured from view by the moon. When this portion of the shadow is falls on the earth's surface, a partial eclipse of the sun is visible. What features on the SUN have an umbra and penumbra?
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last update: Jan. 3, 1998 /a/ps