• An eclipse happens when the moon while orbiting the Earth, comes in between the sun and the Earth, due to which the moon blocks the sun’s light from reaching the Earth, causing an eclipse of the sun or a solar eclipse.

There are Four types of eclipses:

• Total solar eclipse, which is visible only from a small area on Earth. According to NASA, people who are able to view the total solar eclipse are in the centre of the moon’s shadow as and when it hits the Earth. A total solar eclipse happens when the sun, moon and Earth are in a direct line.
• The second type of a solar eclipse is a partial solar, in which the shadow of the moon appears on a small part of the sun.
• The third kind is an annular solar eclipse, which happens when the moon is farthest from the Earth, which is why it seems smaller. In this type of an eclipse, the moon does not block the sun completely, but looks like a “dark disk on top of a larger sun-colored disk” forming a “ring of fire”.
• Hybrid Solar Eclipses, also known as annular-total eclipses, are the rarest type. They occur when the same eclipse changes from an annular to a total solar eclipse, and/or vice versa, along the eclipse's path.

• Furthermore, during a solar eclipse the moon casts two shadows on the Earth,

• The first one is called the umbra, which gets smaller as it reaches the Earth.
• The second one is called the penumbra, which gets larger as it reaches the Earth.
• According to NASA, people standing in the umbra see a total eclipse and those standing in the penumbra see a partial eclipse.
• One of the reasons that NASA studies solar eclipses is to study the top layer of the sun called the corona. During an annular eclipse, NASA uses ground and space instruments to view this top layer when the sun’s glare is blocked by the moon.

Solar Eclipses Mainly Look Partial

• Solar eclipses are only visible from within the area on Earth where the Moon's shadow falls, and the closer you are to the center of the shadow's path, the bigger the eclipse looks.
• Solar eclipses are usually named for their darkest, or maximum, point. The exception is the hybrid eclipse.
• The darkest point of solar eclipses is only visible from a small area. In most places and for most of the duration, total, annular, and hybrid eclipses look like a partial solar eclipse.

Only around New Moon

• For a solar eclipse to take place, the Sun, the Moon, and Earth must be aligned in a perfect or near perfect straight line–an alignment astronomers call syzygy. This happens around New Moon every lunar month.

• So, why isn't there a solar eclipse every New Moon night?