April 28, 2014 - Ring of Fire
Ring of Fire The Sun, 400 times farther away than the Moon, is also 400 times bigger, so both appear about the same apparent size. This coincidence is why we occasionally see total solar eclipses, with the Moon passing directly in front of the Sun and large enough to block it completely. But the Moon’s orbit is not circular, and its apparent size varies slightly during each lunar month; similarly, Earth’s orbit around the Sun is not circular, so the Sun appears larger in January than it does in July. Under certain conditions, such as those occurring on Tuesday of this week for observers in Australia, an annular eclipse occurs, where the Moon is too small to cover the Sun fully, leaving a ring, or annulus, of the Sun exposed. These images by Fred Espenak were taken each minute during the 2005 annular eclipse.
Image credit: Fred Espenak
Weekly Calendar
April 28 - May 4, 2014
Holidays - Sky Events - Space History
Monday 28
1900: Jan Oort born
1906: Bart Bok born
1928: Eugene Shoemaker born
1991: STS-39 Discovery launched
2001: Soyuz TM-32 launched; Dennis Tito becomes first space tourist
2003: GALEX launched
2006: CloudSat and CALIPSO launched
Tuesday 29
New Moon 2:14 AM ET
Annular solar eclipse (visible in Antarctica and Australia)
1985: STS-51B Challenger launched
Wednesday 30
Thursday 1
1949: Gerard Kuiper discovers Nereid, moon of Neptune
1996: Comet Hyakutake closest approach to Sun
Friday 2
Saturday 3
2003: ISS Expedition Six crew returns to Earth after 161 days in orbit
Sunday 4
Jupiter 5° north of Moon
1967: Lunar Orbiter IV launched
1989: STS-30 Atlantis launched, releases Magellan spacecraft
2002: Aqua satellite launched