Total solar eclipses are visible from the Earth surface but rather short, with a totality lasting anywhere between a few seconds and a maximum of around seven-and-a-half minutes. This is a function of the Earth’s distance from the sun and the moon’s distance from the Earth at the time of totality.

Currently, the moon’s apparent size in the sky is roughly the same as the sun’s apparent size, with the moon being approximately 400 times smaller than the sun but also around 400 times closer to Earth.

The moon is, however, also slowly getting further away from the Earth, with the average distance increasing by 3.8cm with each passing year. When worked out, this means that the moon will move sufficiently away from the Earth to never cover the sun completely again in around 1.2 billion years, with total eclipses becoming something of a rarity in around 620 million years. Only annular solar eclipses would then be possible!