Solar Eclipse

Remember the first time you saw an eclipse of the sun or moon? Probably not, because unless you're real young, it was quite a while ago.

From time to time these eclipses capture media attention almost always when the eclipse is "total". Besides the obvious world of the five senses, there's a pretty good case to be made that eclipses also effect people in other ways, because there are most likely some very powerful unseen energies running between these huge celestial bodies (Sun, Earth, Moon).

It's been said that big changes happen for the humans on Earth during times of eclipses - There certainly is some correlation between eclipse events and historical events, but that's another article. We're just dealing with the timing of eclipses during the Eclipse Year.

Lunar Eclipse

But, it must be a Full or New Moon when the nodes line up to have an eclipse. This happens only very rarely.

From a given location on the Earth you see a Total Lunar Eclipse every 3 years (or so), and a Total Solar Eclipse every 360 years.

In most cases, when one eclipse happens a second eclipse will happen in about two weeks. Sometimes there is a third eclipse two weeks after that. Sometimes there are two solar eclipses in a row, sometimes there are two lunar eclipses in a row, except they are months apart.

It might be interesting to observe the world around you with a different eye during eclipses. You might notice a bunch of subtle and not-so-subtle changes happening in your world. A lot of them just might be the effect of eclipses.

If you'd like more about this, click the links below:
Astronomy 161: An Introduction to Solar System Astronomy - Prof. Richard Pogge,
BBC: Why Eclipses Happen - Animation
Red Orbit
NASA's Eclipse Page
eclipse.org.uk
US Naval Observatory