Trees are the natural medium to see the amazing adventures of the sky during the solar eclipse. Image of Crescent Shaped Sun was observed under the tree at Palakkad, Kerala, India, during the Annular solar eclipse of December 26, 2019.
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Figure 1
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Generally, shadows are always a matter of fear for kids as they are unaware of it. A shadow requires a source of light, the sun, or an illuminating object. To have a shadow, you also need to block that light, maybe a hand, or even a space object like the Moon. If an object moves in front of the light, it will make a shadow. For example, Moon's Umbra is called as Solar Eclipse. The darker part of the shadow is called Umbra, and the lighter part is Penumbra. Each shadow has its own story (Figure 2), we should find the reason, light up and get rid of it.
Eclipse, either solar or lunar, both have a substantial impact on our human society. Starting from science to myth, human beings strongly believe in the word "change". Apart from the philosophical changes in the astrological world, there are noticeable changes in the shadows on the earth. Shadows appear as bands and Crescent. Both follow different principles of physics as refraction of light through the atmosphere and leaves
Before (and after), the totality of the eclipse results in a glimpse of shadows on the earth. Shadow bands on the flat surfaces and crescent shapes under the tree are the two scientific display occurred on the earth.
Shadow bands: It appeared as bright and dark bands similar to diffraction bands or undulating ripples of dark and light distributions. It is very hard to notice during such a short time crossing event of the Sun and the Moon (crescent shape). The last Sun rays before the full coverage of individual Moon being distorted by the earth's atmosphere create the shadow bands on the earth.
Crescent-shaped shadow: The weird cloud-like crescent-shaped shadow appeared under the tree when the Moon passes the sun during an eclipse. The photo (figure 1) captured the shadow of the tree at the ending stage of the partial eclipse, the Moon more than half-covered the sun. In Figure 1, we can notice the downward crescent-shaped shadow observed from the opposite of the sun and the tree. Here, mother nature exhibited a stunning science exhibition and mesmerized everyone by her pin-hole camera projection through the gaps between the leaves. The downward crescent-shaped light of the Sun (Figure 2) follows the pin-hole projection through the gap of leaves produced the upward crescent-shaped shadow under the tree (Figure 1, view from the opposite).
In normal days, the bright sunlight produces the blended spherical shadow image which may not attract our attention.
Author: Manjushri Biju
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Updated: January 6, 2020
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