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There are two major types of eclipses namely solar and lunar.

Solar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes between the Sun and Earth, causing the Sun to be covered by the Moon’s shadow cast on Earth. Lunar eclipse occurs when the Earth passes between the Sun and the Moon causing the Moon to be covered by the shadow of Earth.

>About Lunar Eclipses

A lunar eclipse occurs when the Moon moves into the Earth's shadow. This can occur only when the Sun, Earth, and Moon are exactly or very closely aligned with Earth between the other two, which can happen only on the night of a full moon when the moon is near either lunar node.

Total Lunar Eclipse:

Total lunar eclipse occurs due to the Moon passing through the umbra region (area of full shadow) created by Earth on the Moon. The Moon goes red rather than dark in colour as the Sunlight that penetrates Earth’s atmosphere is refracted into the umbra and hits the Moon making the star appear red. The latest lunar eclipse we are seeing also comes in the category of Total Lunar Eclipse.

Partial Lunar Eclipse:

Partial lunar eclipse occurs when the Sun, Earth and Moon are not aligned in a straight line. Some part of the moon is covered by the dark shadow cast on it by the central part of Earth’s shadow which is called the umbra and the rest of the Moon is covered by the penumbra, the outer part of Earth’s shadow. Lunar Eclipse is never annular as the Earth is too big to leave a ring of Moon to be visible.

>About Solar Eclipses

A solar eclipse occurs when the moon gets between Earth and the sun, and the moon casts a shadow over Earth. A solar eclipse can only take place at the phase of new moon, when the moon passes directly between the sun and Earth and its shadows fall upon Earth’s surface.

The fact that an eclipse can occur at all is a fluke of celestial mechanics and time. Since the moon formed about 4.5 billion years ago, it has been gradually moving away from Earth (by about 1.6 inches, or 4 centimeters per year). Right now the moon is at the perfect distance to appear in our sky exactly the same size as the sun, and therefore block it out. But this is not always true.

Total Solar Eclipse:

Total solar eclipses are a happy accident of nature. The sun's 864,000-mile diameter is fully 400 times greater than that of our puny moon, which measures just about 2,160 miles. But the moon also happens to be about 400 times closer to Earth than the sun (the ratio varies as both orbits are elliptical), and as a result, when the orbital planes intersect and the distances align favorably, the new moon can appear to completely blot out the disk of the sun. On the average a total eclipse occurs somewhere on Earth about every 18 months.

There are actually two types of shadows: the umbra is that part of the shadow where all sunlight is blocked out. The umbra takes the shape of a dark, slender cone. It is surrounded by the penumbra, a lighter, funnel-shaped shadow from which sunlight is partially obscured.

During a total solar eclipse, the moon casts its umbra upon Earth's surface; that shadow can sweep a third of the way around the planet in just a few hours. During the brief period of totality, when the sun is completely covered, the beautiful corona — the tenuous outer atmosphere of the sun — is revealed.

Partial Solar Eclipse:

A partial solar eclipse occurs when only the penumbra (the partial shadow) passes over you. In these cases, a part of the sun always remains in view during the eclipse. How much of the sun remains in view depends on the specific circumstances.

Usually the penumbra gives just a glancing blow to our planet over the polar regions; in such cases, places far away from the poles but still within the zone of the penumbra might not see much more than a small scallop of the sun hidden by the moon. In a different scenario, those who are positioned within a couple of thousand miles of the path of a total eclipse will see a partial eclipse.

The closer you are to the path of totality, the greater the solar obscuration. If, for instance, you are positioned just outside of the path of the total eclipse, you will see the sun wane to a narrow crescent, then thicken up again as the shadow passes by.

Annular Solar Eclipses:

An annular eclipse, though a rare and amazing sight, is far different from a total one. The sky will darken ... somewhat; a sort of weird "counterfeit twilight" since so much of the sun still shows. The annular eclipse is a subspecies of a partial eclipse, not total. The maximum duration for an annular eclipse is 12 minutes 30 seconds.

However, an annular solar eclipse is similar to a total eclipse in that the moon appears to pass centrally across the sun. The difference is, the moon is too small to cover the disk of the sun completely. Because the moon circles Earth in an elliptical orbit, its distance from Earth can vary from 221,457 miles to 252,712 miles.

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