Astronomy Picture of the Day

   [1]Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
      fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
                    written by a professional astronomer.

                               2020 January 13
    [2]See Explanation. Clicking on the picture will download the highest
                        resolution version available.

                              A Desert Eclipse
                 Image Credit & Copyright: [3]Maxime Daviron

   Explanation: A good place to see a ring-of-fire eclipse, it seemed,
   would be from a desert. In a desert, there should be relatively few
   obscuring clouds and trees. Therefore late last December a group of
   photographers traveled to the [4]United Arab Emirates and [5]Rub
   al-Khali, the largest continuous sand desert in world, to capture clear
   images of an [6]unusual eclipse that would be passing over. A
   [7]ring-of-fire eclipse is an annular eclipse that occurs when [8]the
   Moon is far enough away on its elliptical orbit around [9]the Earth so
   that it appears too small, angularly, to cover [10]the entire Sun. At
   the maximum of an [11]annular eclipse, the edges of the Sun can be seen
   all around the edges of the Moon, so that the Moon appears to be a dark
   spot that covers most -- but not all -- of the Sun. [12]This particular
   eclipse, they knew, would peak [13]soon after sunrise. After
   [14]seeking out such a dry and barren place, it turned out that some of
   the most [15]interesting eclipse images actually included [16]a tree in
   the foreground, because, in addition to the [17]sand dunes, the tree
   gave the surreal background a contrasting sense of normalcy, scale, and
   [18]texture.

               Explore the Universe: [19]Random APOD Generator
                    Tomorrow's picture: venusian volcano
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    Authors & editors: [31]Robert Nemiroff ([32]MTU) & [33]Jerry Bonnell
                                 ([34]UMCP)
          NASA Official: Phillip Newman [35]Specific rights apply.
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                A service of: [37]ASD at [38]NASA / [39]GSFC
                           & [40]Michigan Tech. U.

References

   1. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html
   2. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2001/DesertEclipse_Daviron_2000.jpg
   3. http://maximedaviron.com/bio
   4. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Arab_Emirates
   5. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rub'_al_Khali
   6. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap191228.html
   7. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap170301.html
   8. https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/moons/earths-moon/overview/
   9. https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/earth/overview/
  10. https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/solar-system/sun/overview/
  11. https://starchild.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/StarChild/questions/question6.html
  12. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_eclipse_of_December_26,_2019
  13. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap191227.html
  14. https://www.facebook.com/maxime.daviron.photographies/photos/a.212633518935494/1176723912526445/?type=3&theater
  15. https://www.facebook.com/pg/APOD.Sky/photos/?tab=album&album_id=2313450158759190
  16. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap181230.html
  17. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap160119.html
  18. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap170611.html
  19. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/random_apod.html
  20. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap200112.html
  21. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html
  22. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/apsubmit2015.html
  23. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/aptree.html
  24. https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/apod/apod_search
  25. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/calendar/allyears.html
  26. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod.rss
  27. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/edlinks.html
  28. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/about_apod.html
  29. http://asterisk.apod.com/discuss_apod.php?date=200113
  30. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap200114.html
  31. http://www.phy.mtu.edu/faculty/Nemiroff.html
  32. http://www.phy.mtu.edu/
  33. https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/htmltest/jbonnell/www/bonnell.html
  34. http://www.astro.umd.edu/
  35. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/about_apod.html#srapply
  36. https://www.nasa.gov/about/highlights/HP_Privacy.html
  37. https://astrophysics.gsfc.nasa.gov/
  38. https://www.nasa.gov/
  39. https://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/
  40. http://www.mtu.edu/