I just mean the moon moves from east to west in the sky but the eclipse went from west to east.
There are lots of videos and article with explanations but none of them clicked for me.
There are lots of videos and article with explanations but none of them clicked for me.
The moon actually moves much faster than the Earth spins -- it just seems to move westward to humans on the ground because it's so far away from Earth (takes 28 days to go around Earth). During a solar eclipse though, we see the effect of its true blisteringly fast orbital speed.
"Because the Moon moves to the east in its orbit at about 3,400 km/hour. Earth rotates to the east at 1,670 km/hr at the equator, so the lunar shadow moves to the east at 3,400 – 1,670 = 1,730 km/hr near the equator. You cannot keep up with the shadow of the eclipse unless you traveled at Mach 1.5."
Stars in general appear to move across the sky (east -> west) faster than the moon does. Does this mean the stars are actually moving faster than the moon? Of course not. The sky is just a stationary backdrop, and the moon is moving along the same direction as Earth's rotation.
The apparent relative motion with respect to the Sun is what matters. Of course, both bodies are rising in the East and setting in the West. But at the moment of the eclipse, the Moon is a little slower.