                        Astronomy Picture of the Day

    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.

                                2021 June 11

                                Eclipse Flyby
      Image Credit & Copyright: Zev Hoover, Christian Lockwood, and Zoe
                                  Chakoian

   Explanation: On June 10 a New Moon passed in front of the Sun. In
   silhouette only two days after reaching apogee, the most distant point
   in its elliptical orbit, the Moon's small apparent size helped create
   an annular solar eclipse. The brief but spectacular annular phase of
   the eclipse shows a bright solar disk as a ring of fire when viewed
   along its narrow, northerly shadow track across planet Earth. Cloudy
   early morning skies along the US east coast held gorgeous views of a
   partially eclipsed Sun though. Rising together Moon and Sun are
   captured in a sequence of consecutive frames near maximum eclipse in
   this digital composite, seen from Quincy Beach south of Boston,
   Massachusetts. The serendipitous sequence follows the undulating path
   of a bird in flight joining the Moon in silhouette with the rising Sun.

                      Tomorrow's picture: light-weekend
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       Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
            NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
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                             & Michigan Tech. U.

