              APOD: 2018 February 3 - Earthshadow and the Beehive

                         Astronomy Picture of the Day

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

                                2018 February 3
                                      [2]
                         Earthshadow and the Beehive
          Image Credit & Copyright [3] : Tunc Tezel [4] (TWAN [5] )

Explanation: The Earth's dark umbral shadow is shaped like a cone extending
into space [6] . Of course its circular cross section [7] at the distance of
the Moon is more easily seen during a lunar eclipse. In fact, in this
composite telephoto image from Earth's night side on January 31 [8] , the
Earth's shadow has taken on a reddish tinge. The extent [9] of the shadow
along the lunar orbit is illustrated by aligning three frames taken just
before the start, near the middle of, and just after the end of the total
eclipse phase that lasted about 76 minutes. At the upper right and more easily
seen during the eclipse's darker total phase is M44, one of the closest large
star clusters. A mere 600 light-years away, M44 is also known as the Praesepe
or the Beehive Cluster [10] .

            Tomorrow's picture: Venus and the Ultraviolet Sun [11]

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    Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff [23] (MTU [24] ) & Jerry Bonnell [25]
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Site notes:
  [1] archivepix.html
  [2] image/1802/LE2018M44Trp.jpg
  [3] lib/about_apod.html#srapply
  [4] http://www.twanight.org/tezel
  [5] http://www.twanight.org/
  [6] ap060909.html
  [7] ap130425.html
  [8] https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/details.cgi?aid=4614
  [9] http://www.eclipsewise.com/oh/ec2018.html
  [10] ap140222.html
  [11] ap180204.html
  [12] ap180202.html
  [13] archivepix.html
  [14] lib/apsubmit2015.html
  [15] lib/aptree.html
  [16] https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/apod/apod_search
  [17] calendar/allyears.html
  [18] /apod.rss
  [19] lib/edlinks.html
  [20] lib/about_apod.html
  [21] http://asterisk.apod.com/discuss_apod.php?date=180203
  [22] ap180204.html
  [23] http://www.phy.mtu.edu/faculty/Nemiroff.html
  [24] http://www.phy.mtu.edu/
  [25] https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/htmltest/jbonnell/www/bonnell.html
  [26] http://www.astro.umd.edu/
  [27] lib/about_apod.html#srapply
  [28] https://www.nasa.gov/about/highlights/HP_Privacy.html
  [29] https://astrophysics.gsfc.nasa.gov/
  [30] https://www.nasa.gov/
  [31] https://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/
  [32] http://www.mtu.edu/
