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Shadows

Two shadows: solar and lunar eclipses

A solar eclipse is the Moon’s shadow on Earth; a lunar eclipse is Earth’s shadow on the Moon. See why one is local and brief and the other is widely seen.

01 · Two shadows

A solar eclipse is the Moon’s shadow on Earth; a lunar eclipse is Earth’s shadow on the Moon.

The Sun is a large disc, not a point, so each body casts two shadows: a dark cone where the whole Sun is hidden, narrowing to a point, and a pale widening cone where only part of it is. Switch between the alignments and move the Moon off the line.

The shadows of the Moon and Earth, seen from the side The Sun at the left lights the Moon and Earth. Each casts a dark cone, the umbra, which narrows to a point, inside a pale widening cone, the penumbra. Total solar eclipse: The Moon’s dark cone reaches Earth. Inside its small spot the Sun is completely covered; around it, in the much wider pale shadow, people see a partial eclipse. Sun Earth Moon Dark shadow (umbra)Pale shadow (penumbra)
Total solar eclipseThe Moon’s dark cone reaches Earth. Inside its small spot the Sun is completely covered; around it, in the much wider pale shadow, people see a partial eclipse.
Sizes and distances are far from scale: the real Sun is about 400 times farther than the Moon. The next scene shows the true sizes of the shadows.

Moving the Moon off the line is what the tilt of its orbit does in most months, which is why most new and full Moons bring no eclipse. Why there is no eclipse every month follows that through a year.

02 · At true scale

Earth’s shadow swallows the Moon; the Moon’s shadow barely reaches Earth.

Earth is nearly four times wider than the Moon, so its dark shadow at the Moon’s distance is wide enough to hold the whole Moon. The Moon’s dark shadow only just reaches Earth, as a spot a hundred or so kilometres across.

The two shadows at true scale Left: Earth’s shadow where the Moon crosses it, at the total lunar eclipse of 3 March 2026. The dark shadow is 9,368 kilometres across, wide enough to hold the whole Moon with room to spare. Right: Earth seen from the Sun at the total solar eclipse of 12 August 2026. The Moon’s pale shadow covers part of the day side, about 6900 kilometres across, and its dark shadow is a dot about 108 kilometres across. EARTH’S SHADOW AT THE MOON3 March 2026 Moon Dark shadow Pale shadow THE MOON’S SHADOW AT EARTH12 August 2026 Dark shadow, 108 km Pale shadow Earth, day side 1,000 km
Both drawn at the same scale from the site’s ephemeris, at greatest eclipse. The right panel shows Earth as seen from the Sun, so it is all day side.

03 · Total or annular

The Moon is sometimes just too small.

The Moon’s orbit is an ellipse, so its distance from Earth changes through each month, and so does how large it looks. Near perigee, its closest point, it can look larger than the Sun: its dark cone reaches Earth and the eclipse is total. Near apogee, its farthest point, it looks smaller: the cone ends in space and a ring of Sun is left.

How large the Sun and Moon look Between 2026 and 2036 the Moon appears between 29.4 and 33.5 arcminutes across and the Sun between 31.4 and 32.5. The ranges overlap, so at some eclipses the Moon is large enough to cover the Sun completely and at others it is too small and leaves a ring. APPARENT DIAMETER, 2026 TO 2036 Moon Sun 29′30′31′32′33′34′ Moon smaller: annular Moon larger: total
Apparent diameters seen from Earth’s centre, from the site’s ephemeris.

04 · From the ground

Which shadow you stand in decides what you see.

One solar eclipse looks different from place to place. Inside the dark cone the Sun disappears; beyond the cone’s tip, in the antumbra, the Moon leaves a bright ring, often called a ring of fire; in the pale shadow only a bite is taken out. Earth’s curve can even give one eclipse both kinds.

What the Sun looks like from each part of the Moon’s shadow Four views of the Sun. From inside the umbra the Moon covers it completely and the faint outer atmosphere, the corona, shows around it: a total eclipse. From inside the antumbra the Moon is smaller than the Sun and leaves a bright ring: an annular eclipse, often called a ring of fire. From the penumbra only part of the Sun is covered: a partial eclipse. Outside the shadow nothing is covered. Below, a hybrid eclipse: Earth’s surface curves, so the dark cone’s tip reaches the ground in the middle of the path, where the eclipse is total, and falls short near the ends, where it is annular. THE SUN SEEN FROM EACH SHADOW Totalinside the umbra Annularinside the antumbra Partialin the penumbra Noneoutside the shadow A HYBRID ECLIPSE, SIDE VIEW · NOT TO SCALE AnnularTotalAnnular The same dark cone at three moments along the path
Disc sizes in the top row follow apparent diameters within the 2026 to 2036 ranges. The faint glow in the total view is the corona, the Sun’s outer atmosphere, visible only when the bright disc is fully covered. The side view below is not to scale.

The next hybrid eclipse is on 14 November 2031. Never look at a partial or annular eclipse without a proper solar filter.

Two shadows, two eclipses

Every eclipse is a shadow. In a solar eclipse, Surya Grahan (सूर्य ग्रहण), the new Moon passes between the Sun and Earth and its shadow falls on part of Earth. In a lunar eclipse, Chandra Grahan (चन्द्र ग्रहण), the full Moon passes through Earth’s shadow. Both need the Sun, Earth and Moon nearly in line, which happens only in the eclipse seasons when a new or full Moon falls close to one of the Moon’s nodes.

Because the Sun is a wide disc, not a point, each shadow has two parts. The umbra is a dark cone where the whole Sun is hidden; it narrows to a point behind the body that casts it. The penumbra is a pale cone around it, widening with distance, where only part of the Sun is hidden.

The Moon’s shadow on Earth

The Moon is small, and its dark cone only just reaches Earth. At the total solar eclipse of 12 August 2026, the umbra was about 110 km across where it met Earth’s distance, and its track across the curved ground was about 290 km wide at greatest eclipse. Only inside that narrow path is the Sun completely covered, for at most a couple of minutes at any one place on that date. The pale shadow was nearly 7,000 km across, so a much wider region saw a partial eclipse.

Whether a central eclipse is total or annular depends on the Moon’s distance. The Sun is about 400 times wider than the Moon and also about 400 times farther away, so the two look nearly the same size. The Moon’s orbit is an ellipse. Each month it passes through its nearest point to Earth, called perigee, and its farthest, called apogee. Between 2026 and 2036 the Moon comes as close as about 357,000 km at perigee and goes as far as about 406,000 km at apogee. Earth’s orbit around the Sun is slightly elliptical too. The Moon therefore appears between 29.4′ and 33.5′ across, and the Sun between 31.4′ and 32.5′.

When the Moon looks larger than the Sun, its dark cone reaches Earth and the eclipse is total; this is likelier when the Moon is near perigee. When it looks smaller, near apogee, the cone closes before it reaches Earth. Past that point its edges cross and open out again into a third region, the antumbra. From inside it the Moon appears smaller than the Sun and sits within its disc, leaving a bright ring: an annular eclipse, often called a ring of fire, such as that of 17 February 2026.

Because Earth is curved, the dark cone can reach the ground in the middle of an eclipse’s path, where the surface is nearest the Moon, and fall short near the ends. Such a hybrid eclipse is total along part of its path and annular along the rest. The next one is on 14 November 2031.

Looking at the Sun during a partial or annular eclipse can damage the eyes. It needs a proper solar filter or an indirect method such as a pinhole projection.

Earth’s shadow on the Moon

Earth is nearly four times wider than the Moon, and its dark shadow at the Moon’s distance is far wider than the Moon itself. At the total lunar eclipse of 3 March 2026 it was about 9,400 km across, enough to hold the Moon with room to spare. When the whole Moon is inside it the eclipse is total; when only part is, the eclipse is partial, as on 28 August 2026. A penumbral eclipse, when the Moon passes only through the pale outer shadow, dims it so slightly that it is often not noticed.

A totally eclipsed Moon rarely disappears. Sunlight passing through Earth’s atmosphere is bent into the shadow, and the atmosphere scatters away more blue light than red, so the Moon usually turns a dull copper or red.

Who can see each one

A lunar eclipse happens to the Moon itself, so everyone on Earth who has the Moon above the horizon sees the same eclipse at the same moment, only at different local clock times. That is roughly half of Earth at once, and the eclipse lasts hours from start to finish.

A solar eclipse is seen only where the Moon’s shadow falls. The partial phase covers a region a few thousand kilometres across, and the total or annular phase a path a few hundred kilometres wide or less. An eclipse is named after the best view anywhere on Earth: during a total or annular eclipse, everyone in the pale shadow outside that narrow path sees only a partial one. A given place can go centuries between total solar eclipses, even though, worldwide, solar and lunar eclipses are about equally common: 25 of each between 2026 and 2036.

In the Panchang

Solar eclipses fall at the new Moon that ends Amavasya, and lunar eclipses at the full Moon that ends Purnima, the new and full Moon tithis. A lunar eclipse happens at one moment for everyone who can see it; a solar eclipse’s timing and visibility depend on the place.

See the year’s Purnima dates and Amavasya dates, or explore another topic in Learn.