Concept in Definition ABC

An eclipse is one of the phenomena that occur in the universe better known to humans but rarely explained or understood correctly. It is also a very striking natural phenomenon since it becomes visible through the change in color of the moon, the possibility of look directly to the sun or the training from figures strange as are colored hoops, etc. The word eclipse comes from the Greek language in which ekleipsis means 'disappearance' and is used then because for moments, from the blocking of one of the three celestial bodies, the disappearance of the one that remains behind another takes place.

The eclipse is generated when the celestial bodies called planet Earth, Moon and Sun are aligned in the same row and they overlap, generating an alteration that the inhabitants of this planet have on what we see in the sky. Eclipses can be of two types: lunar or solar and this depends on which celestial body is that intervenes before which other. While lunar eclipses are those in which, by aligning the three celestial bodies in a row, the Earth gets in the way between the Sun and the Moon, solar eclipses are those in which the Sun is covered by the Moon that gets between the Sun and the Land. The name of each type of eclipse is applied in relation to the body that is eclipsed and not in relation to the eclipsing body.

Eclipses are only possible when the Moon is in its phases of full moon (when it is completely visible) or the new moon (when it is not seen) since otherwise the eclipse does not form when the whole of the moon. Some eclipses, however, can be partial or annular. Typically, the eclipses that most attention called are the totals since a much more attractive phenomenon is generated there. Partials are those that occur when only a part of the eclipsed element is covered. Finally, annular eclipses are the time when the Moon, due to having less diameter that the Sun is interposed between it and the Earth and only a ring of light is visible that is not covered and that comes from the Sun.