Why do we have eclipses, and why do we rarely get to see a solar eclipse? The relative positions between the Earth, Moon and Sun are always changing, but in a predictable way. As the Moon orbits the Earth, around every 28 days, varying amounts of the Moon’s sunlit side are visible to us. These changes in the Moon’s appearance are the phases of the Moon. New Moon phase is when the Moon is aligned between Earth and the Sun. As the orbit of the Moon is slanted by 5 degrees relative to Earth’s orbit around the Sun, usually the lineup is not exact enough for the Moon to cover our view of the Sun, but sometimes it is. When that happens the much smaller, but much closer, Moon can totally or partially block the Sun resulting in a full or partial solar eclipse. The Moon’s shadow moves across our planet as the Moon continues in its orbit in a narrow approximately 50-mile wide swath. Only people in the shadow area will see a full solar eclipse. Solar eclipses are not as…