# Does The Earth Eclipsing The Sun Make For A Spectacular View On The Moon? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 9, 2024, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-earth-eclipsing-the-sun-make-for-a-spectacular-view-on-the-moon/1000075 "2024-04-09T23:32:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![HeyHomie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heyhomie/32/207_2.png) [@HeyHomie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HeyHomie)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2024, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-earth-eclipsing-the-sun-make-for-a-spectacular-view-on-the-moon/1000075/1 "2024-04-09T23:32:33Z")
If a human were on the ground (at the right spot) on the Moon when the Earth eclipsed the Sun, would they see anything particularly spectacular? Or would it just look like a sort of hole in space where the Sun used to be? ---
**Author:** ![gnoitall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bb73d2/32.png) [@gnoitall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gnoitall)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2024, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-earth-eclipsing-the-sun-make-for-a-spectacular-view-on-the-moon/1000075/2 "2024-04-09T23:47:33Z")
It would look like looking at the nightside of the Earth, with no visible sunlight or sun. The Earth, viewed from the Moon, is four times larger in diameter than the Moon appears from Earth, so the Sun is likely to be completely occluded in short order, for more than an hour. You will see the atmosphere of Earth glowing red because of refracted sunlight, which is the same reason the surface of the moon seems to turn red in a lunar eclipse (exactly the same event, but from Earth’s perspective). > **[Solar eclipses on the Moon](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_eclipses_on_the_Moon)** > > Solar eclipses on the Moon are caused when the planet Earth passes in front of the Sun and blocks its light. Viewers on Earth experience a lunar eclipse during a solar eclipse on the Moon. > These solar eclipses are only seen in the near side portion and smaller parts of the far side where Earth is seen during librations, these areas of the moon making up the visible portion of the Moon. Eclipses there are seen during the lunar sunrise and sunset and extend to the furthermost areas of the near ... The Wikipedia article has a video that depicts how one of these would look. I traced the video back to its origin at NASA, so here it is directly: [https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a000000/a004300/a004341/from\_moon\_1080p30.mp4](https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a000000/a004300/a004341/from_moon_1080p30.mp4) ---
**Author:** ![markn\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f9ae1b/32.png) [@markn\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/markn_1)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2024, 12:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-earth-eclipsing-the-sun-make-for-a-spectacular-view-on-the-moon/1000075/3 "2024-04-10T00:03:42Z")
I think an important point to note is, because the moon has no atmosphere, it is easy to see the sun’s corona any time the sun is visible. You could just cover the solar disk with your thumb and you’d see the corona. (I think this is correct.) ---
**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2024, 11:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-earth-eclipsing-the-sun-make-for-a-spectacular-view-on-the-moon/1000075/4 "2024-04-10T11:04:37Z")
Cool. And what an interesting question. ---
**Author:** ![Al128](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/al128/32/16541_2.png) [@Al128](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Al128)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2024, 11:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-earth-eclipsing-the-sun-make-for-a-spectacular-view-on-the-moon/1000075/5 "2024-04-10T11:22:20Z")
given the lack of atmosphere, and the clarity that goes with it - would it be possible to see light produced by the big metros e.g. NYC-Philly-Baltimore-Washington corridor ? that’d be kinda cool ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2024, 11:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-earth-eclipsing-the-sun-make-for-a-spectacular-view-on-the-moon/1000075/6 "2024-04-10T11:57:32Z")
> [@gnoitall](#): > > You will see the atmosphere of Earth glowing red because of refracted sunlight, which is the same reason the surface of the moon seems to turn red in a lunar eclipse (exactly the same event, but from Earth’s perspective). As Arthur C. Clarke so poetically put it (I can’t recall in what story) when you look from the moon at the red atmospheric corona around the earth during such an eclipse, you are seeing “all the sunsets and sunrises on the Earth at once.”