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Written by
F. Richard Stephenson
Emeritus Professor, Department of Physics, University of Durham, England. Author of Historical Eclipses and Earth's Rotation and others; coauthor of The Historical Supernovae and others.
F. Richard Stephenson,
Jack B. Zirker
Astronomer Emeritus, National Solar Observatory, Sunspot, New Mexico. Author of Total Eclipses of the Sun and Journey from the Center of the Sun.
Jack B. Zirker•All
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eclipse, in astronomy, complete or partial obscuring of a celestial body by another. An eclipse occurs when three celestial objects become aligned. From the perspective of a person on Earth, the Sun is eclipsed when the Moon comes between it and Earth, and the Moon is eclipsed when it moves into the shadow of Earth cast by the Sun. Eclipses of natural satellites (moons) or of spacecraft orbiting or flying past a planet occur as the bodies move into the planet’s shadow. The two component stars of an eclipsing binary star move around each other in such a way that ...(100 of 14359 words)

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