Solar eclipse

:Solar Eclipse is also an alien friend of the rubber doll Betty Spaghetty.

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A solar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes in front of the Sun and obscures it totally or partially. This configuration can only exist at New Moon, when Sun, Moon and Earth are on a single line with the Moon in the middle.

Related Topics:
Moon - Sun - New Moon - Earth

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There are four types of solar eclipses:

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• A partial solar eclipse occurs when the Sun is only partially overlapped by the Moon. This is similar to a (lunar) penumbral eclipse, and the part of the Earth experiencing the total eclipse is in the moon's penumbra.
• A total solar eclipse occurs when the Moon completely obscures the Sun. This happens when the Moon is near perigee and its angular diameter as seen from Earth is identical to or slightly larger than that of the Sun. The part of the Earth experiencing the total eclipse is in the moon's umbra. A total solar eclipse is the only opportunity to observe the Sun's corona without specialised equipment.
• An annular (ring-formed) eclipse occurs when the Moon's center passes in front of Sun's center while the Moon is near apogee. The Moon's angular diameter is then smaller than that of the Sun so that a ring of the Sun can still be seen around the Moon. The part of the Earth experiencing the total eclipse is in the moon's antumbra.
• A hybrid eclipse occurs when the curvature of Earth's surface causes a single solar eclipse to be observed as annular from some locations but total from other locations. A total eclipse is seen from places on the Earth's surface that lie along the path of the eclipse and are physically closer to the Moon, and so intersect the Moon's umbra; other locations, further from the Moon, fall in the Moon's antumbra and the eclipse is annular.

The term "solar eclipse" is a misnomer: the phenomenon is actually an occultation. An "eclipse" occurs when one celestial object passes into the shadow cast by another (as with an eclipse of the Moon). An "occultation' occurs when one body passes in front of another. When at its new phase the Moon passes in front of, or occults, the Sun, as seen from Earth, the Moon also casts a small shadow on Earth. An "occultation" of the Sun is therefore also a partial "eclipse" of Earth.

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Solar eclipse: Observing a solar eclipse ►