True or false there are about 2 lunar eclipses a year?

Answer 1

Generally, yes; there are normally two lunar eclipses and two solar eclipses each year.

Bot not always. Here in 2009, because the Moon, Earth and Sun aren't lining up quite as precisely as they usually do, we have four partial or "penumbral" lunar eclipses this year, and two partial or annular solar eclipses.

In a "penumbral" eclipse, the Moon only gets partly into the Earth's "penumbra" or outer shadow, and in many cases you can hardly see any darkening of the Moon. In a partial eclipse, the Moon gets completely into the outer shadow but only partly into the inner "umbra", the total shadow of Earth.

Here's what's going on. The Sun is enormous, WAY bigger than the Earth. The Earth's shadow is a cone-shaped region that narrows down to a point. The inner cone or "umbra" is when the entire Sun is hidden behind the Earth, and the outer cone or "penumbra" is when part of the Sun is behind the Earth, and part of it is exposed.

In a partial solar eclipse, Sun is being blocked by the Moon. It doesn't get dark, until about 75% of the sun is hidden, because the part of the Sun that isn't hidden is still very bright. A penumbral lunar eclipse is like a partial solar eclipse as seen from the Moon.

In a penumbral lunar eclipse the entire Moon is is PART of the sunshine, but some fragment of the Sun is behind the Earth.

Answer 2

Answ2. The Plane of the Ecliptic is the imaginary plane of the Earth's orbit around the Sun. The Moon's orbiting plane around the Earth is inclined 5o9' to that of the Earth's Ecliptic Plane. (EP).

This means that for part of the year, the Moon will be above the EP and for the other part, will be below it.

Since the Moon orbits the Earth slowly (about 28 days) there will on occasion be a condition when the Sun and Moon and Earth will all be in line. Thus there will be a Lunar Eclipse. [Or a Solar Eclipse].

Similar orbital planes are valid for different planets, (Mercury and Venus) and thus Transits as they are called, also occur in pairs. But at periods appropriate to their solar distance and relation to the earth's orbit. A Transit of Venus lasts several hours. [From Mars you'd have some Transits of Earthas well!]

This was one of the major driving forces for James Cook's voyages to the Pacific, where observed transits of Mercury (from New Zealand) and Venus (from Fiji).

A1. It depends in the region of which you reside. Typically there are more lunar eclipses than solar eclipses.

Answer 3

True or false there are about 2 lunar eclipses a year

Answer 4

In the 100 years of the 20th Century, there were 228 solar eclipses and 229 lunar ones.

So over a long period of time, that's an average of roughly 2.3 of each kind every year.

Answer 5

True. On average, there are about 2 to 4 lunar eclipses every year. These occur when the Earth passes between the Sun and the Moon, casting a shadow on the Moon.

Answer 6

Usually once or twice a year.