What is coming

Solar and lunar are not the same event

A solar eclipse happens at new moon, when the Moon passes between the Earth and the Sun and its shadow falls on a narrow strip of the Earth's surface. Only people standing in that strip see it, which is why totality is rare for any given place — a few minutes, once in several centuries.

A lunar eclipse happens at full moon, when the Earth passes between the Sun and the Moon. The Earth's shadow is far larger than the Moon, so the eclipse is visible from the entire night side of the planet at once, and lasts hours rather than minutes.

The types

Total — the disc is fully covered. For the Moon this produces the red colouring people call a blood moon. Partial — only part of the disc is covered. Annular (solar only) — the Moon is near the far point of its orbit and appears too small to cover the Sun, leaving a bright ring. Hybrid — rare; the same eclipse is annular along part of its track and total along another. Penumbral (lunar only) — the Moon passes through the faint outer shadow and merely dims, often imperceptibly.

Why they do not happen every month

The Moon's orbit is tilted about 5° to the Earth's orbit around the Sun. Most months the Moon passes above or below the line, and no shadow falls anywhere. Only when a new or full moon happens near one of the two points where the orbits cross — the nodes — does an eclipse occur. That alignment recurs roughly twice a year, which is why eclipses arrive in seasons rather than monthly.

Where these times come from

Computed with the Swiss Ephemeris, which solves the actual geometry of the three bodies. The type reported here comes from that solution, not from a stored list.