Long time ago, the Sun, Moon and the Earth decided to play hide and seek. Little did they know that there was nowhere to hide. But they still wanted to play the game.

So the Moon thought that it will hide behind the Earth when the Sun had to catch him. As soon as it hid behind the Earth a strange thing happened on Earth. The Moon disappeared for the people living on the Earth. Our ancestors were scared as to who swallowed the moon. Pretty soon, the Moon was tired and came out of its hiding. And everything was back to normal. Now it was the Moon’s turn to find the Sun. The Sun tried to hide behind the Moon, but sadly it could not hide fully. Funny how the Sun even tried, the Moon being so small. However, the people on Earth panicked as the day suddenly plunged into darkness at mid-morning. They thought the Gods were upset and that they were punishing them.

Things got back to normal though as the game ended soon.

A cute story that explains a phenomenon called eclipse. Let us learn what is an eclipse?

As the Moon goes around the Sun, the Earth goes around the Sun. An eclipse of the Sun or Solar Eclipse happens when the Moon comes between the Earth and the Sun. The Moon blocks-out the sunlight and to the people on the Earth it seems like a certain part of the Sun has disappeared. The duration of the eclipse depends on the positions of all three and the distance of the Moon from the Earth. Most of the times the eclipse is partial, a total eclipse (like the one shown in the picture) happens very rarely and is not visible from all parts of the Earth.

When the Earth comes between the Moon and the Sun, usually happens on a Full Moon Day, a Lunar Eclipse occurs. While a solar eclipse can be seen from a small area of the world, a lunar eclipse may be viewed from anywhere where there is night.

While the Solar eclipse turns a lot of heads, the lunar eclipse is not very impressive.

The number of Eclipses varies from a minimum of two to four and a maximum of seven in a year.

Image Credit: Featured Image by Openclips from Pixabay