                        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 28

                         A Paper Moon Solar Eclipse
            Image Credit & Copyright: Wang Letian (Eyes at Night)

   Explanation: It may look like a paper Moon. Sailing past a canvas Sun.
   But those are not cardboard clouds. And it's not make believe.  The
   featured picture of an orange colored sky is real -- a digital
   composite of two exposures of the solar eclipse that occurred earlier
   this month. The first exposure was taken with a regular telescope that
   captured an overexposed Sun and an underexposed Moon, while the second
   image was taken with a solar telescope that captured details of the
   chromosphere of the background Sun. The Sun's canvas-like texture was
   brought up by imaging in a very specific shade of red emitted by
   hydrogen. Several prominences can be seen around the Sun's edge. The
   image was captured just before sunset from Xilingol, Inner Mongolia,
   China. It's also not make-believe to imagine that the Moon is made of
   dense rock, the Sun is made of hot gas, and clouds are made of floating
   droplets of water and ice.

                     Tomorrow's picture: hubble's orion
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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.

