what really happens during an eclipse??
470601
What happens is that nothing particularly special happens; one object is obscured by another one passing between it and the viewer; this occurs all the time everywhere; your brother's head in front of the TV, or an insect crawling across the lens of your sunglasses.\nWe can only see objects because of the light they either emit or reflect and since Light (generally) travels in straight lines, anything opaque that gets between you and something else prevents you from seeing the something else.  An eclipse is nothing more than an extreme case of the same thing.
88690
In order for an eclipse to occur, there has to be a very specific line up of the Sun, Moon, and Earth.  It's pretty hard to get that line-up to happen.  You see, the moon's orbit is tilted to the earth's orbital plane by about 5 degrees.  That may not seem like a lot, but its enough for the moon's shadow to miss the earth almost all of the time.
189228
When the objects (Sun, Moon, Earth) are in a same line. Let's explain it for the following types:-\n1)Solar Eclipse - In this condition, the order is -Sun, Moon, Earth in an exactly straight line. It always takes place on the day of New Moon \n2)Lunar Eclipse- In this condition, the order is Sun, Earth, Moon in a straight line. It always takes place on the day of Full Moon
133230
You can't even call total lunar eclipses "total", as you can still see the sun's halo in a total lunar eclipse. A more accurate definition for a total solar eclipse would be when the planet is completely inside the sphere of the other...\n\nSo yes, being twice away the moon would appear smaller by a noticeable amount, but I think an eclipse that would cause the moon to appear directly in front of the sun would still be called a total eclipse.
586258
Greetings,\n\nOn the Greek island of Kastellorizo just off the Turkish coast totality lasted 3 minutes.\n\nFor a great article regarding the eclipse, including video clips from NASA and the Discovery Channel check out this link to Sky and Telescope: http://skyandtelescope.com/observing/objects/eclipses/article_1706_1.asp\n\n-matt
499567
no it's not cos of the earth's shadow on the moon. its cos of the position of the sun and the angle at which the sun's rays hit the moon. the moon moves around the earth. if it moves further from the sun, less light will be reflected and you see a half-moon or quarter-moon.\n\nas u know, the light hte moon 'projects' is actually the reflection of light. the moon isnt a source of light. \n\nwhen the sun is directly behind the moon, and it shines on the 'back' of the moon, this causes an eclipse cos ppl on earth can only see a dark circle (the moon - as it does not reflect light in this case) and a whitish circle around the moon (the sun's rays)\n\nhope this helps!! :D
222507
http://www.exploratorium.edu/eclipse/2006/index.html\nget ready to watch
285687
The "ring of fire" that surrounds the eclipse is called the corona.\n\nThe moon is not quite big enough to completely cover the sun and the corona shows around it.
223736
No. an eclipse is just a light phenomanon, the position of the sun and moon are not changed enough to cause their gravity to shake us up.
86687
Nothing. A slight change in temperature if that. Kind of like a cloud going over the sun. All it is after all is a shadow passing across the sun.
1080564
ok...this is a little complicated. when there is a solar eclipse, only a certain section of the earth can see it because of the angle of light from the sun going around the moon. i cant remember the terminology, but if you look it up on the internet, you could probably find it.
837745
You know that when it's daytime for you, someone on the other side of Earth is experiencing night time - the Sun lights up half of the earth at any given time.  The same is true for the Moon - it is always half lit up by the Sun and half dark.  But we don't always see the lit up side.  Sometimes we do, like tonight (a Full Moon).  But other times we "see" the dark half (a New Moon) (you can't really see the dark half because it's dark!), and sometimes we see a little bit of both (First Quarter Moon, for example).  \n\nWe see different parts of the lit up side and the dark side because the Moon orbits Earth about once every month.  Right now, if you were to see the Sun, Earth, and Moon from high above Earth's north pole, the three would be almost lined up: Sun, then Earth, then Moon.  If they were *perfectly* lined up then there would be a lunar eclipse, but that only happens a couple times a year, if that.  Next week, as the Moon goes around Earth, the Sun, Earth, and Moon will make a right angle and not a straight line.  That's when we see a Third Quarter Moon - only the left half of the Moon will be visible as seen from Earth.  Another week and the Moon will be almost between the Sun and Earth, so the dark side of the Moon will be facing Earth - what we call New Moon.  (If the Moon came exactly between the Sun and Earth we would have a solar eclipse, but just like lunar eclipses they are very rare).\n\nThere is a huge difference between a lunar eclipse and a new moon - apparently several of the people who answered above me don't know that!
160910
Technically, 3 (I think).\n\nAn eclipse happens when the Moon's orbit intersects the Earth's plane of orbit around the Sun AND the Moon and Sun are in the right place.  The first condition happens once each Lunar cycle, while the second condition happens twice in Earht's orbit around the Sun.  But since these cycles don't correspond exactly to 1 month or 1 year, it can technically happen 3 times (I am thinking) - at the start, mid and end of the year.
154230
if you mean like a new moon (solar eclipse) <every new moon, and a full mooon (lunar eclipse) <every full moon:\n\nbecause the earth and moon are not on the same plane, and the moon is in a higher altitude than earth, and the moon only crosses sometimes into the earth's plane with the sun.
968337
the answer is actually no, i say this as i assumen you a refering to a total eclipse. this is when the moon covers the sun and makes everything go blck. there are however partial eclipses(eclipse) on all planets as this is when some object(moon or planet) blocks some of the sunlight from the planet or moon. \n\nwe have an odd situatin when the distance from the sun and the moon to earch exactly match the size of the rays hit by the earth from the sun. that means that the moon as big as it is is just the correct disstance to cover the suns exactly in a total eclipse.\n\nthe same thigs happen with other planets such as venus. when you see it infront of the sun its causeing and eclipse, its blocking some light from the sun, however its so small and so faraway that you cant notice it.\n\nand if you mean do all the planets align with each other the answer is yes. it dont happen very often and i cant tell you when ti happened last or when it will happen, but if you think of it like marbles in a row, and you have your head behind the furthiest you cant see the first or anyothers sept the one your behind. the palants do that.
1122015
A solar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes between the Earth and the Sun, thereby totally or partially obscuring Earth's view of the Sun. If the same thing happens where the moon passes through the earth's shadow, that's called a lunar eclipse.
376512
The width of the track of a central eclipse varies according to the relative apparent diameters of the Sun and Moon. In the most favourable circumstances, when a total eclipse occurs very close to perigee, the track can be over 250 km wide and the duration of totality may be over 7 minutes. Outside of the central track, a partial eclipse can usually be seen over a much larger area of the Earth.  Have a look at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_eclipse for a good explanation and diagram