During the year as the Earth rotates around the Sun there are occasions when the Moon moves in direct alignment between the planet and the Sun. When this occurs there can be two basic eclipses, lunar or solar. The more common to witness, the lunar eclipse, is seen when the full Moon passes through the shadow of the Earth. This places the Sun and the Moon on opposite sides of the Earth. Seen only at night during certain full Moons the bright lunar disk turns dark, sometimes almost a coppery red for up to an hour or longer. These lunar eclipses are beautiful to watch but do not inspire as much awe as the total solar eclipse. For a total eclipse to occur the new Moon must pass directly between the Sun and the Earth. There is only a narrow path where the eclipse is seen as total called the umbra. It is at this time day turns into night in an eerie few minutes. The wispy halo of the Sun, called the corona is seen as the Moon for a few moments blocks out the brilliance of the Sun. Outside of umbra is the penumbra where some portion of the Sun remains visible.
Although there are partial eclipses where the path, (the umbra) misses the Earth passing just above the North Pole or just below the South Pole, and the eclipse is not total. There is also a third type of solar eclipse called an annular eclipse. Annular from the Latin word for "ring", because the Sun is not completely covered by the Moon. In this case the Moon is father away in its orbit around the planet and appears smaller and therefore not large enough to fully cover the Sun. It is only during the total eclipse that the darkness is experienced with a view of the corona.
It is a rare event when the Sun, Moon and Earth are so perfectly aligned for this phenomenon to occur when a total eclipse can be seen. There are not eclipses every month during the new Moon or a full Moon because the Moon's orbit is tilted approximately five degrees with respect to the Earth's orbit. This results in the Moon passing slightly above or below the between the Sun and the Earth. Yet about every six months the conditions are right for lunar or solar eclipses. Even though this is a relatively frequent situation it is far more common for a lunar eclipse to be seen than a solar eclipse. The reason for this is the darkened full Moon can be seen from anywhere on the nighttime half of the Earth during the eclipse. The total solar eclipse will only be seen from the umbra, the path of totality. The path is sometimes two hundred miles wide, which results in approximately one-half of one percent of the Earth's surface. To add to the rareness of the event being viewed it often passes over open seas or remote regions of the planet. With less than seventy total eclipses per century the opportunity to view one is considered a once-in-a-lifetime event. Today people may travel to see this event and yet others like myself because of relocation across the country may have been fortunate to see more than one. It is an event that is unforgettable and events in history as well as in the life of the individual are marked and remembered by these eclipses. It becomes almost a spectral illusion as the Sun, which is about four hundred times the diameter of the Moon appears to be blocked as the Moon passes. The Sun which is so much greater in size than the Moon is also about four hundred times further away from the Earth allowing the Moon and Sun to appear nearly the same in size. If the Moon's diameter of (2,160 miles) were 140 miles less it would not be large enough to fully block the sun on these rare occasions and a total eclipse would not be possible from anywhere on Earth.
If you are fortunate to view an eclipse it appears slowly at first almost unnoticeable as only a small portion of the Sun is blocked. Gradually more and more of the face of the Sun is hidden. The phase can take up to an hour and until the last few minutes there is little indication that within a few minutes that the daylight will be replaced by darkness.
As the crescent of the Sun narrows and begins to disappear, tiny beads around the dark dis