Solar and Lunar Eclipse

An eclipse is an astronomical event that occurs when an astronomical object, such as the Sun or Moon, is temporarily obscured by either passing into the shadow of another body or having another body pass between it and the observer. From Earth, we can observe eclipses involving the Sun, Earth, and Moon. These events only occur when the three objects align nearly in a straight line, allowing one to be hidden behind another as viewed from the third. Because the Moon's orbital plane is tilted relative to Earth's orbital plane, eclipses can only happen when the Moon is near the intersection of these two planes, known as nodes. The Sun, Earth and nodes align twice a year during what is called an eclipse season, with eclipses possible during a roughly two-month period around these alignments. A lunar eclipse occurs when the Earth passes between the Moon and the Sun, causing the Earth's shadow to obscure all or part of the Moon. A solar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes between the Earth and the Sun, blocking all or a portion of the Sun. Eclipses can be classified as total, partial or annular. One of the most famous total solar eclipses took place on May 29, 1919, between South America and Africa. This event provided the first successful test of Albert Einstein’s general theory of relativity. One of the theory's predictions was that light does not travel in a straight line. As light passes through spacetime and nears the gravitational field of a massive object, such as the Sun, it should bend. During the eclipse, the Sun crossed the bright Hyades star cluster, and the light from the stars had to pass through the Sun’s gravitational field before reaching Earth. The eclipse’s darkness allowed for precise measurements of the stars' positions, which confirmed Einstein's prediction. The successful experiment made Einstein an overnight celebrity and marked a significant triumph of general relativity over classical Newtonian physics.