While Lunar Eclipse occurs when earth comes in the way of moon to bar solar rays coming to moon, the solar eclipse occurs when moon plays the same by coming in the way of sun and the earth. Doesn’t look like a childish game of hide and seek?
Both solar and lunar eclipse had been considered a supernatural phenomenon and even today people ignorant of astronomical movements are tend to fear from this natural phenomenon.
Speaking of solar eclipses, each year two to five solar eclipses occur but there can be no more than two total solar eclipses in a year. Total solar eclipses are rather a rare phenomenon. The last total solar eclipse was of 22 July 2009 and next will be of 11th July, 2010 around two weeks from now.
In ancient times people were tend to attribute these total solar eclipses to supernatural causes and they still are considered bad omens in few cultures and it could be frightening if you have little knowledge of the astronomical explanations of the solar eclipse when you witness the sun disappearing in the middle of the day.
We have four types of solar eclipses (now five with Twilight saga; The Eclipse);
Total Eclipse; It occurs when sun is completely obscured by the moon and is turned into a dark silhouette of moon instead of a bright disk.
Annular Eclipse: It occurs when sun and moon comes exactly in line of each other seeing from the earth. As moon is quite smaller than sun hence we observe sun as a very bright ring or annulus.
Hybrid Eclipse; It is a transition between total solar eclipse and annular eclipse. It is observed as a total eclipse at some places on earth and annular at others. Hybrid eclipses are also rare.
Partial Eclipse; when sun and moon do not come exactly in line then moon obscures the sun partially to create a partial eclipse. These partial eclipses are seen by a larger part of the world on earth.
Solar Eclipse