A solar eclipse occurs when the sun, moon and earth are aligned and the disk of the moon masks the disk of the sun. When the moon is close to earth it is large enough to completely hide the sun. The observer in the shadow zone would see a total eclipse. When the moon is farther away it leaves a ring and is called an annular eclipse. A lunar eclipse occurs when the earth passes between the sun and the moon. The moon appears dark red due to the deviation of the sun's rays around earth's atmosphere. These occur more often and last longer.

Originally released by QA International, 2005. Streaming video file encoded with permission for digital streaming by Infobase on May 06, 2015.

Eclipses (1:00); .