Question

I will fan whoever helps:
Can you explain how the motion and relative positions of the Earth, the Moon, and the Sun affect eclipses?

Answer 1

The earth is 93 million miles from the sun. The moon is only about 250,000 miles. The moon revolves around the earth. When the moon is between the sun and the earth, you get an eclipse of the sun, because the moon blocks the light from the sun hitting the earth.

When the earth is between the sun and the moon, the earth blocks the sun from hitting the moon , so it looks dark and that is the eclipse of the moon

Answer 2

Eclipses could happen for every two weeks, alternating solar and lunar, but they don't because the moon's orbit is inclined to the Earth's orbit around the sun, so most of the time, the moon is too "high" or "low" for the eclipse to occur. About every six months, the moon is at the level of Earth's orbit and eclipses most likely occur. A dead-on alignment will produce a total solar or lunar eclipse, while a near miss will produce a partial one.