How does the reflection of the shape of the moon seen on earth, ?inverted?
2007-09-30 17:48:22 · 7 answers · asked by garlin104300 1 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Astronomy & Space
Mercury and Venus both sometimes pass in front of the Sun - it's called a transit. Of course they are much smaller than the Sun in both actual and apparent size, so what you see is a tiny black dot slowly (it takes a couple of hours) passing across the face of the Sun. Transits of Mercury happen every few years; the next one is in 2009. Transits of Venus are much rarer; there are two transits eight years apart every 105 or 121 years. There was one in 2004, and there'll be another in 2012; then nothing until 2117.
I can't make any sense of your second question.
2007-09-30 18:10:06 · answer #1 · answered by injanier 7 · 4⤊ 0⤋
No way. Far too small. There was a recent case where one of them (may have been Venus) (or Mars) passed between us and the sun and it's silhouette was seen by several viewers and NASA had vid clips on their site. It looked like a very small disk arcing across the bottom third of a very large ball.
Your second question makes no sense. When we look at the moon from earth, we are not looking at a reflection, only the reflected light from the sun illuminating it. However, in a Newtonian scope, the image is inverted to the viewer.
2007-10-01 01:04:39 · answer #2 · answered by Dusty 7 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Mercury and Venus never completely block the sun from Earth as in a lunar eclipse, as they are too distant from us. However, they do partially block the sun's light from time to time, although not enough to notice with the naked eye. This is called a transit of Mercury, or of Venus, as the case may be. If viewed through a telescope (with proper filters in place!), it looks like a small black spot on the sun.
2007-10-01 10:46:15 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Injanier's answer is correct.
Neilsmyhero is wrong when he says that Mercury and Venus are too small to be seen when in transit. This is true for Mercury, which needs a telescope around 50x to 60x to be visible, but I saw Venus clearly with my naked eyes during the 2004 transit.
2007-10-01 11:05:32 · answer #4 · answered by GeoffG 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
No, they're far too small.
Don't understand your second question, sorry. Are you supposing some observer somewhere in space? What reflection?
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2007-10-01 00:53:56 · answer #5 · answered by tsr21 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Never.
Yes inverted
2007-10-01 01:42:10 · answer #6 · answered by GAYADHAR S 1 · 0⤊ 2⤋
No. Too relatively small and too distant from us to make an impact.
2007-10-01 00:52:54 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋