Key Takeaways:
- Apollo 12 astronauts witnessed a solar eclipse from their spacecraft while returning from the Moon, capturing the event on film.
- The eclipse occurred as the spacecraft traversed Earth's shadow, offering a perspective analogous to a lunar eclipse viewed from Earth, but in reverse.
- Descriptions detail the visual changes observed during the eclipse, including a reddish ring around Earth caused by atmospheric refraction, shifting colors as the eclipse progressed, and increasing darkness and redness of the lunar landscape.
- The article notes the possibility of partial and total eclipses as seen from the Moon, comparing the total eclipse’s visibility of the Sun’s corona to that observed during total solar eclipses on Earth.
Just as the Moon can eclipse the Sun as seen from Earth, Earth can eclipse the Sun as seen from the Moon. These eclipses may be partial or total.
During the lead-up to a solar eclipse from the Moon, a viewer on the Moon would see the Sun approach the dark disk of Earth, with the planet’s nightside facing the Moon. Earth’s atmosphere would be lit from behind, creating a reddish ring around the planet that would glow brighter as the eclipse proceeded. Astronaut Alan Bean, who experienced such an eclipse while returning home on Apollo 12, said in interviews that the light filtering through Earth’s atmosphere shifted from red into the full spectrum of colors during maximum eclipse. On the Moon, the landscape would also grow darker and redder, as the sunlight of every sunrise and sunset on Earth filtered through the atmosphere and reached the Moon. We see this reddish color from Earth during total lunar eclipses.
During a partial eclipse, some bright portion of the Sun would remain uncovered by Earth. For near-total eclipses, this would create a diamond ring effect with the tiny part of the Sun’s disk as the diamond and Earth’s atmosphere acting as the ring. During a total eclipse, the entire Sun would vanish, and the outer regions of the Sun’s corona would become visible, just as it is during a total solar eclipse on Earth.
