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Solar eclipse

A new moon that happens near a lunar node, so the Moon covers the Sun.

There's a new moon every month, but usually the Moon passes above or below the Sun and blocks nothing. Only when the new moon falls near a node — where the Moon's orbit crosses the ecliptic — does it actually cover. Hence two to five solar eclipses a year.

Why this site doesn't say whether one is total or annular. That depends on the apparent diameters that day: a Moon near perigee covers the disc completely, one further out leaves a ring of light. This ephemeris data doesn't carry apparent diameter, so it can't be computed, so it isn't claimed. What can be computed is stated; what can't is left alone.

Eclipses are often read as amplified new moons — the same quality of beginning, over a longer stretch.

On this siteevery eclipse, grouped by season