there are really two different types of solar eclipses um and and what's happening in a solar eclipse here we are on earth we're looking at the sun and from our point of view the moon is going to pass in front of the Sun and it's going to block out the Sun's light the Moon is much smaller than the Sun but it's also a lot closer and it's really just an accident that the Moon is just the right size and just the right distance that it appears almost exactly the same size on our sky as the sun sometimes the moons a little bit closer to us so it appears bigger on the sky so when the moon appears biggest it can completely block out the Sun's light and this is a total solar eclipse now on the other hand sometimes the Moon is a little bit further away from Earth so it looks a little bit smaller and so if if you have an eclipse that happens when the moon's a little bit further away from Earth it can't block the entire sun when the moon is exactly lined up with the Sun from our point of view you see a little ring of sunlight around the edge so it's not blocking the entire sun and so that we call an anular right an an annulus is another word for a ring so an annular solar eclipse is when the moon is a little bit smaller on our sky and a total solar eclipse happens when the moon appears a little bit larger on our sky