Autotelik

I thought I had this figured out, but it looks like I was wrong.

Here is the question (paraphrased)


If a person on earth sees a lunar eclipse, then a person on the moon would see a:

A) Earth eclipse
B) Solar Eclipse
C) Total lunar eclipse
D) forgot what this one was... but it was a ridiculously wrong answer anyway.


Why isn't it A?
A lunar eclipse is when you can't see the moon (sun blocking it completely), right? So someone on the moon would not be able to see the earth, hence an earth eclipse.

The correct answer was apparently B.

Someone explain to me please.

tha_dvd_man

I have NO idea technically what it would be called, but if the sun usually lights up the earth and the moon is blocking the light from the sun, the earth would then not be visible. But the question was unclear, as it didn't specify where on the moon you were.

Very bad question IMO.

tha_dvd_man

Wait.....like I said, I'm not straight on the terms. Would a solar eclipse be when the moon is blocking the sun, and a lunar eclipse be when the earth is inbetween the moon and sun, blocking sunlight to the sun? If so, then from the moon the earth would be blocking the sun, which, as stated above, would be a solar eclipse (if viewed from the moon).
My brain hurts.

Autotelik

I just found out.


Here's how it goes:

a lunar eclipse is defined by the moon passing into the earth's shadow (even this took me a while to understand).

you would see a lunar eclipse at night (on the side of the earth away from the sun) when the moon passes directly into the shadow of the earth created by the sun. so to create a colinear picture... you would get:

moon----earth----sun

that would mean that if you're on the moon, you would see a solar eclipse (earth blocking out the sun).

I was wrong because i thought a lunar eclipse meant the sun blocking the moon, as in: earth----sun----moon
but that would not make sense because the moon does not orbit around the sun!!!! duh!!!


tricky. (for me anyway)

tha_dvd_man

...like I said.