交食对

交食对

Eclipse Pair
Image Credit & Copyright: Josh Dury

Explanation: Eclipses tend to come in pairs. Twice a year, during an eclipse season that lasts about 34 days, Sun, Moon, and Earth can nearly align. Then the full and new phases of the Moon, separated by just over 14 days, create a lunar and a solar eclipse. But only rarely is the alignment at both new moon and full moon phases during a single eclipse season close enough to produce a pair with both total (or a total and an annular) lunar and solar eclipses. More often, partial eclipses are part of any eclipse season. In fact, the last eclipse season of 2024 produced this fortnight-separated eclipse pair: a partial lunar eclipse on 18 September and an annular solar eclipse on 2 October. The time-lapse composite images were captured from Somerset, UK (left) and Rapa Nui planet Earth. The 2025 eclipse seasons will see a total lunar eclipse on 14 March paired with a partial solar eclipse on 29 March, and a total lunar eclipse on 8 September followed by a partial solar eclipse on 21 September.

Tomorrow’s picture: light-weekend

交食对
影像提供与版权: Josh Dury

说明: 日月食通常会成对出现。在每年二次、每次为期约34天的交食季里，太阳、月亮和地球几乎排列成行。此外，能形成月食的满月与日食的新月，间隔比14天要多一点。通常每个交食季，都会出现一例日偏食或月偏食。然而，有时候在某个交食季里，如果在新月与满月时，日地月的排列都几乎呈直线，就有可能产生成对的日全食（或日环食）和月全食。而在2024年的最后一个交食季，就产生了这对相隔14天的交食对，包括9月18日的月偏食和10月2日的日环食。这幅组合缩时影像，则是摄于英国的萨默塞特郡（左）及智利的特殊领地复活节岛。在2025年的交食季里，将可见到3月14日的月全食和配对的3月29日日偏食，以及9月8日月全食和接续而来9月21日的日偏食。

明日的图片: light-weekend