[Klathmon]

I really like the attention to detail where the shape of the "shadow of the sun" changes based on the distance from the equator.

[theoh]

Though it can be thought of as varying with latitude in this case, it's much more complicated than that for eclipses in general. So latitude can work as a pragmatic proxy variable in this case but not for all eclipses: e.g. http://www.hk-mcc.net/david/eclipse/image/se20080207.GIF

Moon's orbit is not on the equator (closer to the ecliptic), the Sun isn't fixed in the sky, etc.

[Klathmon]

That's cool, I didn't even think about that!

So in your opinion does the linked article (it feels wrong to call it that...) accurately depict this (or at least depict it accurately enough that it's not deceiving)? Or like you kind of hinted at, is it close enough during this particular eclipse to not really matter?

[dekhn]

it's really the shape of the projection of the shadow of the moon onto the irregular surface and doesn't really have to do with distance to the equator.