Talk:Eclipse

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[edit] Miscellany

Needs more cultural myths. Leonard G. 00:30, 30 Jun 2004 (UTC)

Two little ones (192.115.248.2 07:02, 29 Nov 2004 (UTC)):

The Eclipse IDE link does not belong here, it does belong at the other end of the disambiguation page.
Add link to the Mr Eclipse page? Mr Eclipse - Fred Espenak's site

[edit] Hybrid eclipses

Really? The Moon would have to be so near its annular/total crossover distance that its shadow cone literally grazes the observer's position within the duration of near-totality. Are there any known occurrences? -- Urhixidur 14:00, 2005 Jan 5 (UTC)

They're rare, but not dramatically so. Go to the hermit.org eclipse search engine (linked from the article) and search for hybrids. There was one in April 2005; next one is 2013. -- Johantheghost 09:21, 19 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Contradiction with Lunar phase

In this article, it is stated:

  • Lunar eclipses - the Earth obscures the Sun, from the Moon's point of view. The Moon moves through the shadow cast by the Earth. This can only happen at full moon.
  • Solar eclipses - the Moon occults the Sun, from the Earth's point of view. The Moon casts a shadow that touches the surface of the Earth. This can only happen at new moon.

However, in the Lunar phase article, the opposite appears to have been said: "Note that the plane of the Moon's orbit around the Earth is tilted by about 5 degrees with respect to the Earth's orbit around the Sun. Therefore, eclipses of the Moon during the full Moon and of the Earth by a new Moon are rare and usually newsworthy."

I believe what is being said is that it's rare to happen during a perfectly full or new moon, but I don't know enough about the subject to tell which is correct--someone who does should make them match up. Chris 01:24, 13 May 2005 (UTC)

A lunar eclipse will always be centered on the instant of full moon. A solar eclipse will always be centered on the instant of new moon. But because of the tilt of the Moon's orbit, a new or full Moon usually isn't perfect -- so eclipses are rare, as opposed to happening every new or full Moon. The "usually newsworthy" comment is a bit off, though. There are at least 4 eclipses every year, and most of them aren't particularly newsworthy -- marginal partial solar eclipses, or penumbral lunar eclipses, etc. I'll fix that. The Lunar phase article could use a little clarifying too. -- Johantheghost 09:28, 19 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Redirect/Disambiguation Error

Currently, "Total Eclipse" redirects to this page, but its disambiguation page is not provided here (it is distinct from that of "eclipse"). I am not sure of how to fix this. If someone with a bit more know-how could take care of it, that would be nice. --Fell Collar 04:30, 4 April 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Unbalanced

I think that this article is currently very unbalanced. The rationale for this topic is to describe eclipses in general, but the vast majority of the prose is about the Moon (which is a summary of solar eclipse and lunar eclipse), and there are only six sentences about other more general types of eclipses in our solar system. I presume that more can be said about the other planets; perhaps someone could contribute more information? Mabye it would be a good idea to slim down the Earth-Moon section as a start. Lunokhod 17:34, 8 January 2007 (UTC)

I partially agree. It seems a bit overdone to have solar eclipse and lunar eclipse and eclipse, covering much the same material. However, I believe that the only other common eclipses are those of Galilean satellites with Jupiter (or at least the only ones regularly observed). Other alignment events are transits or occultations (and a solar eclipse can be considered an occultation too). Most people will only ever see a few lunar eclipses, so maybe the emphasis should be there. I'm not sure how to merge and expand these articles. Tom Peters 21:48, 8 January 2007 (UTC)
We could (1) take the intro paragraph, add it to wikitionary, (2) add terms like syzygy, transits and occultations to the diambiguation page, and (3) put this page up for deletion. If there is little support for this, I will not put this through the WP:AfD process. Lunokhod 20:45, 10 January 2007 (UTC)
It seems a bit drastic to remove this page altogether. "eclipse" is a bonafide lemma for an encyclopedia. I'm more concerned about the replications in the sub-pages. If this one goes, then there is nothing holding them together. Tom Peters 23:25, 10 January 2007 (UTC)


page made by hetz

[edit] Eclipse ~ misnomer?

Quoting a passage from the article

A solar eclipse is actually a misnomer; the phenomenon is more correctly described as an occultation.

I suspect "eclipse" had been in use in normal English long before anyone decided that "occultation" was a great word to be used. If that is the case, which I am sure is, than no amount of redefinition by astronomers would change our use of the word "eclipse". Therefore, to us ordinary folks, an occultation would simply be a type of eclipse.

If "occultation" is an astronomer's term, than calling an eclipse an eclipse is not a misnomer.

Should one day the Society of Engineers tell us that a bridge would be a misnomer and should instead be called a "drain overpass" and bridges are meant for span longer than 100metres? I don't think academic/professional societies has the capacity to willy-nilly change established language.

You may concoct your own deliberated technical terminology but attempting to push them onto established language and declaring normal lay terms which do not agree with deliberated terminology as "misnomer" is foolhardy and quixotic.

Use of established language in contrast with a deliberated technical term is not "misnomer". I wish someone would remove "misnomer" from the sentence or the sentence altogether.

Miamidot 16:46, 27 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Further ideas

I saw this page on the "request for feedback" page. Here's a couple of ideas:

  • The use of jovian eclipses to find the longtitude were confusing. Do the eclipse happen at different times depending on the position of the observer or is it merely a way to synchronize ones clock with greenwich?
    • The local time varies depending on longitude. By knowing the time the event occurs locally and the time the event is expected to occur in Greenwich, you can compute the difference in longitude. (1 hour = 15°.)—RJH (talk) 17:51, 17 March 2008 (UTC)
  • The article mentions eclipsing binary stars, but not the eclipse of a planet in front of a star. The Transit of Venus in front of the sun was used to find the distance between the earth and the sun, while the slight dimming of a star as a large planet passes infront of it has been used to hunt for extrasolar planets.
    —Preceding unsigned comment added by EverGreg (talk • contribs)
    • The question is whether this article is solely about eclipses, or should it also include transits? Perhaps we should consider merging the transit article into this page, since they are so closely related. Alternatively, perhaps a summary section should be added about transits? If so, then what about occultations?
      Thank you.—RJH (talk) 17:47, 17 March 2008 (UTC)

Neither the solar eclipse not lunar eclipse articles seem to cover "Cultural impacts" to any great degree. Should they be discussed here?—RJH (talk) 17:53, 17 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] im confused

this made me really confussled . . . .(confused!) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 81.159.219.20 (talk) 12:48, 25 April 2008 (UTC)