"New Moon occurs when Earth drapes the Moon in its shadow." This is very wrong: New moon occurs when the Earth and the Sun are on opposite sides of the lunar orbit (when the moon is between the Sun and the Earth) and since only the invisible side of the moon is lit there is no reflected sunlight that reaches the Earth's surface. Full moon happens in the opposite configuration (the Earth and the sun are on the same side of the Moon orbit - the Earth is between the Sun and the Moon) and light reflected from the entire lit surface of the Moon reaches the surgace of the Earth .
That is why complete Solar eclipses can happen only during New moon, and complete Lunar eclipses (when the Earth truly "drapes the Moon in its shadow") happen only during Full moon.
Of course you're right. My apologies for my mistake, I have corrected the newsletter. Thank you for pointing it out Stoyan! (And for your kindness while doing do.)
"New Moon occurs when Earth drapes the Moon in its shadow." This is very wrong: New moon occurs when the Earth and the Sun are on opposite sides of the lunar orbit (when the moon is between the Sun and the Earth) and since only the invisible side of the moon is lit there is no reflected sunlight that reaches the Earth's surface. Full moon happens in the opposite configuration (the Earth and the sun are on the same side of the Moon orbit - the Earth is between the Sun and the Moon) and light reflected from the entire lit surface of the Moon reaches the surgace of the Earth .
That is why complete Solar eclipses can happen only during New moon, and complete Lunar eclipses (when the Earth truly "drapes the Moon in its shadow") happen only during Full moon.
Of course you're right. My apologies for my mistake, I have corrected the newsletter. Thank you for pointing it out Stoyan! (And for your kindness while doing do.)
Thought provoking and interesting. I don’t doubt that many little-understood fields affect us in many ways. Thanks