• bstix@feddit.dk
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    2 days ago

    I watched a stream of the eclipse earlier this month which had a feed of viewer questions.

    • Is it a coincidence that it’s also new moon on the same day as the eclipse?
    • How can the moon cover the sun when it a new moon?
    • In which direction should we watch?
    • Victor@lemmy.world
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      39 minutes ago

      Bruh.

      A solar eclipse can never happen in any other phase than perfect new moon. 😄 People don’t really know what space is, do they. Like, the relationship of planets and moons and stuff.

      I explain shit to my family all the time and my wife is like 🤯 literally can’t comprehend often, even when having it explained.

      Might be overthinking it but still, it’s just balls and a light source.

    • some_kind_of_guy@lemmy.world
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      2 days ago

      Around the north American eclipse in 2024 I learned that it’s purely by complete chance that the sun and moon appear the same size from an observer on earth.

      That’s fucking wild if you really think about it.

      • bstix@feddit.dk
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        2 days ago

        Yeah, it makes me wonder if there’s some mathematical balance about it that we just can’t prove.

        It does seem logical. If the moon was bigger, would it have an orbit further out? If the sun was bigger, would Earth have an orbit further out?

        Perhaps it just lines up that way. The other planets have more or no moons so there’s nothing comparable elsewhere in this solar system.

        • teslekova@lemmy.ml
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          2 days ago

          It really is a coincidence. The moon is slowly moving further out in its orbit, so in a few dozen million years it won’t be eclipsing properly any more. We live at a time when it’s just the right size.

          • bstix@feddit.dk
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            2 days ago

            It would be interesting to play with a simulation and then throw a larger planet at Earth than the one that is assumed to have created the moon. Just to see what it’d look like from Earth.