Hobbies And Interests
Lunar Eclipses
A lunar eclipse happens when a planet moves between the Sun and one of its moons. From Earth, the visual effect is much the same as a solar eclipse, only with the moon at night. Lunar eclipses last longer than solar eclipses, because planets are always larger than their moons. They are also much easier to see; solar eclipses can be viewed only by people living within the shadow the moon casts, while lunar eclipses may be viewed by everyone living on that side of the planet.
Size of Moons
Of the planets in Earth's solar system, only Mercury and Venus have no moons and therefore cannot experience eclipses. Mars has only small moons which can't effectively block out the Sun, so it has only partial eclipses. If you lived on one of Mars' moons, you would see lunar eclipses frequently, provided you lived on the right side. All moons orbit with only one side facing their planets; if you lived on the other side you would never know there was a planet there.
Distance from the Sun
The farther away a planet is from the Sun, the smaller it appears in the sky. It can therefore be blotted out more easily and for a longer space of time. Pluto has the smallest sun, along with a large moon called Charon. At the right point in Pluto's orbit it experiences a long eclipse every other day (every 6.4 days on Earth) for about two years, before departing on a 120-year circular trek without any eclipses at all.
Orbit of Moons
Just as the long orbit of Pluto determines how often it can experience eclipses, the orbit and track of individual moons also affect how often they cross paths with the Sun. Jupiter has the most eclipses of any planet in the solar system because its moons orbit in the same plane as the Sun. They eclipse every time they come around and since Jupiter has 63 known moonsl, four of them large, that equals a lot of eclipses.