A solar eclipse occurs when the Moon briefly blocks our view of the Sun. A lunar eclipse occurs when the Earth temporarily blocks the Sun from shining on the Moon. Our planet Earth orbits the Sun once a year and our Moon orbits around the Earth once a month. If the Sun, Earth and Moon all moved in one plane (as if they were marbles rolling on a flat table), we would have one solar eclipse and one lunar eclipse each month. In reality, the orbits are not in the same plane. This tipping of the orbits means that there are only a few eclipses per year. For a given solar eclipse the path of total darkness falls in a very narrow band across the Earth, making total solar eclipses a “once in a lifetime” event at any given location on the Earth.
