Solar Eclipse on February 26

The year's only total solar eclipse on February 26 will miss the United States, instead favoring parts of the Caribbean, Colombia, and Venezuela.

Times of Totality

City	Time of Maximum (Local Time)	Duration (Min:Sec)
1. St. John's, Antigua	2:32 p.m.	2:05
2. Pointe-à-Pitre, Guadeloupe	2:32 p.m.	2:12
3. Willemstad, Curaçao	2:13 p.m.	1:58
4. Punto Fijo, Venezuela	2:10 p.m.	3:27
5. Maracaibo, Venezuela	2:05 p.m.	2:50
6. Monteria, Colombia	2:52 p.m.	3:58

The next total solar eclipse will be visible from India, the Middle East, and Europe on August 11, 1999. The next total solar eclipse visible from the United States will be in 2012.

From our perspective on Earth, two types of eclipses occur: lunar, the blocking of the Moon by Earth's shadow, and solar, the obstruction of the Sun by the Moon.

When the Moon passes between Sun and Earth, the lunar shadow is seen as a solar eclipse on Earth. When Earth passes directly between Sun and Moon, its shadow creates a lunar eclipse.

Lunar eclipses can only happen when the Moon is opposite the Sun in the sky, a monthly occurrence we know as a full Moon. But lunar eclipses do not occur every month because the Moon's orbit is tilted five degrees from Earth's orbit around the Sun. Without the tilt, lunar eclipses would occur every month.

Lunar and solar eclipses occur with about equal frequency. Lunar eclipses are more widely visible because Earth casts a much larger shadow on the Moon during a lunar eclipse than the Moon casts on Earth during a solar eclipse. As a result, you are more likely to see a lunar eclipse than a solar eclipse.

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