Why dint we see 12 solar and lunar eclipses?
Question:
Answer:
There is reason why we didn't see much of solar and lunar eclipse, is that sun, moon and earth has to align together as a line however moon is spinning around the spinning earth that isn't line up, we can't see solar and lunar eclipses until they are.
Even the sunlight did hit moon, but it only reflect the moon's side only because of the tilted earth and tilted moon's axis.
However, astronologists knows because they calculated when the eclipse occurred, which they predicted that Africa will see the eclipse more than others because eclipse moves from countries to other in specific time.
To see more:
Moon doesn't orbit the earth in the same plane.
Given if the earth moon and sun were in a straight line,
they would happen twice a month , one lunar (earth between
moon and sun) at full moon, and one 2 weeks later at new
moon (solar eclipse). But they are not as the Sun and earth
have their own orbit tilt, and the moon and earth have their
own orbit tilt. So you are looking at three different planes
of orbit. Now there is a time when these orbits cross each
other and that point is called a node. So when the earth
moon and sun hit at a node, an eclipse happens.
The Earth shadow is expanse due to size and distance from
the sun. Consequently, the moon enters the earths shadow
(lunar eclipse) a lot more frequent than the moon shadow
hitting the earth (solar eclipse) but is usually partial
and not a total eclipse.
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