HomeSpace & AstronomyPath of Totality 2D: Umbra Footprint & Ground-Track Speed

Path of Totality 2D: Umbra Footprint & Ground-Track Speed

Interactive 2D top-down eclipse-shadow simulator: compute the Moon's umbra-cone geometry from real Sun/Moon angular sizes, watch the footprint sweep across a schematic map, and see ground-track speed as a live vector subtraction of shadow motion and Earth's rotation.

Space & Astronomy2DModerate60 FPS📱 Mobile-adapted⇄ 3D version
2d-solar-eclipse-shadow-cone-geometry ↗ Open standalone

This is the top-down companion to the 3D umbra-cone simulator: the same real shadow-cone geometry — Sun and Moon angular size, umbral half-angle, cone length, foreshortening by incidence angle, and Earth's own rotation — computed independently from scratch and rendered as a schematic map sweep instead of a rendered sphere. Drag the Moon's orbital distance past its real breakeven point and the umbra stops reaching the ground entirely, flipping the readout to an annular eclipse; change the crossing latitude or Sun elevation and watch the ground-track speed panel redraw as an actual vector subtraction — the umbra's own orbital ground speed minus the component of Earth's rotation carrying the ground the same direction — rather than a single scripted number.

⚙ Under the hood

Interactive 2D top-down eclipse-shadow simulator: compute the Moon's umbra-cone geometry from real Sun/Moon angular sizes, watch the footprint sweep across a schematic map, and see ground-track speed as a live vector subtraction of shadow motion and Earth's rotation — including the point where the eclipse flips from total to annular.

solar eclipseumbrashadow geometrypath of totalityastronomyorbital mechanics2D

2D · HTML5 Canvas 2D · 60 FPS target · runs fully client-side, no install

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