The passage of the Moon across the Sun’s disk. Solar eclipses occur only at new Moon when the Moon lies close to the node of its orbit around the Earth. They do not occur each month because the new Moon is usually either north or south of the node, due to the inclination of the Moon’s orbit. Total solar eclipses are rare at any particular place on Earth, since the Moon’s shadow falls on only a limited area. The theoretical maximum duration of totality is 7 m 32 s, but is usually no longer than 3–4 min. Around totality, a number of interesting phenomena occur, including shadow bands and Baily’s beads. During totality, solar prominences and the corona can be seen. Solar eclipses around lunar apogee may be annular eclipses. Either side of the ground track of a total or annular eclipse, a partial eclipse is visible. Partial eclipses produce little obvious diminution in the level of sunlight unless their magnitude exceeds about 0.7 (70%) (see magnitude of an eclipse).

http://www.mreclipse.com/Special/SEprimer.html Solar eclipse predictions, reports, and information.