Fig. 27.—The sun and moon.
Fig. 28.—Partial eclipse
of the moon.
Fig. 29.—Total eclipse of
the moon.
Eclipses of the moon are divided into partial or total, the former occurring when the moon and the earth’s shadow only overlap partially (as in fig. 28), the latter when the moon’s disc is completely immersed in the shadow (fig. 29). In the same way an eclipse of the sun may be partial or total; but as the sun’s disc may be at times slightly larger than that of the moon, it sometimes happens also that the whole disc of the sun is hidden by the moon, except a narrow ring round the edge (as in fig. 30): such an eclipse is called annular. As the earth’s shadow at the distance of the moon is always larger than the moon’s disc, annular eclipses of the moon cannot occur.