If you are within the antumbral shadow, you will see a solar eclipse where a thin ring or annulus of bright sunlight surrounds the Moon. What reaches Earth is the antumbral or 'negative' shadow. If an eclipse happens during this situation, the Moon will appear visually smaller than the Sun and its shadow cast will not be long enough to reach Earth.

It is also very short-lived as the Moon is moving quickly away from its perfect location of being situated between the Sun and Earth.Īn Annular solar eclipse is different than Totality in that it occurs when the Moon is closer to its maximum distance from Earth in its orbit. Therefore the path of totality on Earth is narrow. One important element to remember though is that the Moon's shadow will obviously become narrower as it is cast from the Moon to Earth (in a shape of a cone with the wide end being at the Moon and the narrow end on Earth). If an eclipse occurs during this time, it will be a Total solar eclipse because the Moon has totally obscured the Sun's disk, producing the beautiful solar corona ejecting outward from the Sun. When the Moon's orbit is toward its minimum distance from Earth, the Moon will appear visually as a larger disk than the Sun. Therefore the Moon's apparent size in our sky will vary by 13%. In fact, the Moon's distance from Earth varies from a minimum of 221,000 to a maximum of 252,000 miles. To understand the difference between a Total and Annular eclipse of the Sun, it must be understood that the Moon has an elliptical orbit around Earth. Therefore a solar eclipse is a relatively rare phenomena and a Total or Annular eclipse even more rare, with the Hybrid eclipse the rarest of all. The Moon's orbit is titled 5 degrees to Earth's orbit around the Sun.

A solar eclipse can only happen during a New Moon. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA):Ī solar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes between the Sun and Earth, casting the Moon's shadow on Earth. We recommend for facts about solar and lunar eclipses you check out the following pages provided by the U.S. Editor's Notice: The content found on this page has been found outdated and we will be modifying this page soon.

Lunar moon