[{"media_type":"image","url":"https://assets.science.nasa.gov/content/dam/science/cds/apod/apod/2017/december/2017AllEclipses_1800px.jpg","hdurl":"https://assets.science.nasa.gov/content/dam/science/cds/apod/apod/2017/december/2017AllEclipses_1800px.jpg","title":"All the Eclipses of 2017","explanation":"As seen from planet Earth, all the lunar and solar eclipses of 2017 are represented at the same scale in these four panels. The year's celestial shadow play was followed through four different countries by one adventurous eclipse chaser. To kick off the eclipse season, at top left February's Full Moon was captured from the Czech Republic. Its subtle shading, a penumbral lunar eclipse, is due to Earth's lighter outer shadow. Later that month the New Moon at top right was surrounded by a ring of fire, recorded on film from Argentina near the midpoint of striking annular solar eclipse. The August eclipse pairing below finds the Earth's dark umbral shadow in a partial eclipse from Germany at left, and the vibrant solar corona surrounding a totally eclipsed Sun from the western USA. If you're keeping score, the Saros numbers (eclipse cycles) for all the 2017 eclipses are at bottom left in each panel.","copyright":"Petr Horálek","editor":null,"date":"2017-12-07","article_url":"https://science.nasa.gov/image-article/apod-2017-december-7-all-the-eclipses-of-2017/"},{"media_type":"image","url":"https://assets.science.nasa.gov/content/dam/science/cds/apod/apod/2008/december/as8-14-2383HR.jpg","hdurl":"https://assets.science.nasa.gov/content/dam/science/cds/apod/apod/2008/december/as8-14-2383HR.jpg","title":"Earthrise","explanation":"Forty years ago, in December of 1968, the Apollo 8 crew flew from the Earth to the Moon and back again. Frank Borman, James Lovell, and William Anders were launched atop a Saturn V rocket on December 21, circled the Moon ten times in their command module, and returned to Earth on December 27. The Apollo 8 mission's impressive list of firsts includes: the first humans to journey to the Earth's Moon, the first to fly using the Saturn V rocket, and the first to photograph the Earth from deep space. As the Apollo 8 command module rounded the farside of the Moon, the crew could look toward the lunar horizon and see the Earth appear to rise, due to their spacecraft's orbital motion. Their famous picture of a distant blue Earth above the Moon's limb was a marvelous gift to the world. Note: APOD Editor to Speak in New York on Jan. 2 digg_url = 'http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap081224.html'; digg_skin = 'compact';","copyright":"Apollo 8, NASA","editor":null,"date":"2008-12-24","article_url":"https://science.nasa.gov/image-article/apod-2008-december-24-earthrise/"},{"media_type":"image","url":"https://assets.science.nasa.gov/content/dam/science/cds/apod/apod/2009/january/eclipseshirt_fishley.jpg","hdurl":"https://assets.science.nasa.gov/content/dam/science/cds/apod/apod/2009/january/eclipseshirt_fishley.jpg","title":"Eclipse Shirt 2009","explanation":"Of course, everyone is concerned about what to wear to a solar eclipse. This is a great example though, especially for the first eclipse of the International Year of Astronomy 2009. In the picture, recorded during the January 26 solar eclipse from the grounds of the South African Astronomical Observatory at Cape Town, repeated images of the eclipse adorn a well-chosen shirt. The effect is familiar to eclipse enthusiasts as small gaps, commonly between leaves on trees, act as pinhole cameras to generate multiple recognizable images of the eclipse. From the Cape Town perspective, the solar eclipse was a partial one, with a maximum of about 65% of the Sun covered. But along a track extending across the Indian Ocean and western Indonesia the eclipse became annular, the solar disk briefly appearing as a fiery ring around the silhouetted Moon.","copyright":"Simon Fishley (SAAO)","editor":null,"date":"2009-01-29","article_url":"https://science.nasa.gov/image-article/apod-2009-january-29-eclipse-shirt-2009/"}]