What is Solar Eclips?

Answer 1

When moon comes excately between earth and sun.

Answer 2

A solar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes between Earth and the Sun, thereby totally or partially obscuring Earth's view of the Sun. This configuration can only occur during a new moon, when the Sun and Moon are in conjunction as seen from the Earth. In ancient times, and in some cultures today, solar eclipses are attributed to mythical properties. Total solar eclipses can be frightening events for people unaware of their astronomical nature, as the Sun suddenly disappears in the middle of the day and the sky darkens in a matter of minutes. However, the spiritual attribution of solar eclipses is now largely disregarded.

The last solar eclipse happened on March 19, 2007, while the next total solar eclipse will occur on August 1, 2008.

Answer 3

PLEASE READ IT THOROUGHLY AND CAREFULLY !!!

It's not bound to occur at night or morning.
A solar eclipse occurs when the sun, moon and the earth stand straight in a line with the moon in between the sun and the earth, thereby totally or partially obscuring Earth's view of the Sun.
Total solar eclipses are very rare events for any given place on Earth because totality is only seen where the Moon's umbra touches the Earth's surface. A total solar eclipse is a spectacular natural phenomenon and many people consider travel to remote locations in order to observe one.
There are four types of solar eclipses:

A total eclipse occurs when the Sun is completely obscured by the Moon. The intensely bright disk of the Sun is replaced by the dark outline of the Moon, and the much fainter corona is visible (see image above). During any one eclipse, totality is visible only from at most a narrow track on the surface of the Earth.
An annular eclipse occurs when the Sun and Moon are exactly in line, but the apparent size of the Moon is smaller than that of the Sun. Hence the Sun appears as a very bright ring, or annulus, surrounding the outline of the Moon.
A hybrid eclipse is intermediate between a total and annular eclipse. At some points on the surface of the Earth it is visible as a total eclipse, whereas at others it is annular. Hybrid eclipses are rather rare.
A partial eclipse occurs when the Sun and Moon are not exactly in line, and the Moon only partially obscures the Sun. This phenomenon can usually be seen from a large part of the Earth outside of the track of an annular or total eclipse. However, some eclipses can only be seen as a partial eclipse, because the umbra never intersects the Earth's surface.

Answer 4

An eclipse is the partial or total obstruction of a view. A solar eclipse involves the eclipse of the sun by the moon coming in between us on the earth and the sun. Since the moon is closer to us, it is able to eclipse the sun which is far bigger in diameter but is much farther. On 19th March, a total/partial solar eclipse took place (depending upon where you are located).

Similarly a lunar eclipse takes place when the earth casts its shadow on the moon and thus the moonlight becomes much less. Again the sun, earth and moon must be in a line for this to happen.

Answer 5

A solar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes between Earth and the Sun, thereby totally or partially obscuring Earth's view of the Sun. This configuration can only occur during a new moon, when the Sun and Moon are in conjunction as seen from the Earth

Answer 6

When the Sun, Moon and Earth are in a straight line, then the Sun casts the Moon's shadow onto the Earth (which is saying the same thing as the other guy who said the Moon blocked the Sun's light.)

When the Moon, Earth, Sun are aligned, in that order, then you have a Lunar Eclipse, which is when the Earth's shadow is cast upon the Moon. The Moon gets a kind of browish color. It is one of the biggest "coincidences" in Science that the sizes of the Moon and the Sun, and their comparative distances are such that when the Moon passes in front of the Sun, the two orbs look almost the same size. I cannot think of another such "coincidence" in the wholw of empirical science.

Answer 7

A solar eclipse happens when the moon gets between the sun and the earth and blocks out the light of the sun.

Answer 8

Totality at any particular solar eclipse can only be seen from a relatively narrow belt on Earth. The various phases observable at atotal solar eclipse are illustrated in Figure 2A. “First contact” designates the moment when the disk of the Moon, invisible against the bright sky background, just touches the disk of the Sun. The partial phase of the eclipse then begins, as a small indentation in the western rim of the Sun becomes noticeable. The dark disk of the Moon now gradually moves across the Sun's disk, and the bright area of the Sun is reduced to a crescent. The sunlight, shining through gaps in foliage and other small openings, is then seen to form little crescents of light that are images of the light source, the Sun. Toward the beginning of totality, the direct light from the Sun diminishes very quickly and the colour changes. The sky becomes dark, but, along the horizon, the Earth's atmosphere still appears bright because the umbra of the Moon's shadow on the Earth extends over a rather narrow region. The scattered light coming in from a distance beyond this region produces weird effects. Men, birds, and other animals react with fear; birdsmay go to roost as they do at sunset.

As the tiny, narrow crescent of sunlight disappears, little bright specks remain where depressions in the Moon's edge, the limb, are last to obscure the Sun's limb. These specks are known as Baily's beads, after the 18th-century English astronomer Francis Baily, who first drew attention to them. The beads vanish at the moment of second contact, when totality sets in. This is the climax of the eclipse. The reddish prominences and chromosphere of the Sun, around the Moon's limb, can now be seen. The brighter planets and stars become visible in the sky. The white corona extends out from the Sun to a distance greater than the Sun's diameter, at which point it fades completely. The temperature in the path of totality falls by some degrees. The light of totality is much brighter than that of the Full Moon but is quite different.

The moment of third contact approaches, at which time many of the phenomena of second contact appear again in reverse order.Suddenly the first Baily's bead appears, now on the other side of the Moon. More beads of light follow, the Sun's crescent grows again, the corona disappears, daylight brightens, and the stars and planets fade from view. The thin crescent of the Sun gradually widens, and about one and a quarter hours later the eclipse ends with fourth contact, when the last encroachment made by the Moon on the Sun's rim disappears.

During the partial phase, both before and after totality, it is absolutely essential to protect the eyes against injury by the intense brilliance of the Sun. It should never be viewed directly except through strong filters, a dark smoked glass, or a heavily fogged photographic plate or film.

When totality is imminent and only a small crescent of the Sun remains, the so-called shadow bands can often be seen on plain light-coloured surfaces, such as open floors and walls. These are striations of light and shade, moving and undulating, several centimetres (or inches) wide. Their velocity and direction dependon air currents at various heights, as they are caused by refraction of sunlight by small inhomogeneities in the Earth's atmosphere. A similar phenomenon is the projection of water waves on the bottom of a sunlit swimming pool or bath.

Answer 9

solar eclipses happen when the moon is directly between the sun and the earth covering a small potion of the planet.

Answer 10

It happens when moon gets between earth and sun. Interestingly if you are on moon then you will observe a huge shadow on earth. I don't think I need to tell, why.