Total solar: the line through the Sun and Moon hits Earth and the Moon is close enough to look bigger than the Sun, so its dark shadow reaches the ground. Annular: lined up just as well, but the Moon is farther away and looks smaller, so its dark shadow ends before the ground and a ring of Sun shows. Hybrid: borderline. Earth's curve brings the middle of the track about 6,000 km closer to the Moon, so it's total there and annular at the ends. Partial solar: the line misses Earth, and only the Moon's faint outer shadow touches it.
Total lunar: the whole Moon fits inside Earth's dark shadow, which is about 2½ Moons wide out there. It turns red from sunlight bent through Earth's air. Partial lunar: only part of the Moon enters the dark shadow. Penumbral: the Moon only crosses the faint outer shadow and dims slightly. A lunar eclipse can't be annular, because from the Moon, Earth always looks far bigger than the Sun.
Why sizes matter: the Moon is 400 times smaller than the Sun but about 400 times closer, so they look nearly the same size. Its distance changes between about 357,000 and 406,000 km, which tips the balance between total and annular.
The Moon's orbit is tilted about 5° to Earth's orbit around the Sun. At most new and full moons the Moon passes a little above or below the Sun–Earth line, so the shadow misses: the Moon's shadow misses Earth, or Earth's shadow misses the Moon.
The tilted orbit crosses Earth's orbital plane at two points called nodes. An eclipse happens only when a new or full moon falls close to a node. That's only possible while the Sun lines up with the node line, which happens twice a year. These eclipse seasons are about 173 days apart. The nodes slowly drift backwards, making a full circle every 18.6 years, so the seasons come a little earlier each year.
Earth and the Moon are shrunk to their true size compared with the Moon's orbit, and dots mark where they are. Blue disc: Earth's orbital plane. Moon's orbit: solid above that plane, dashed below. Green: the node line. Gold: toward the Sun. Red: toward Earth's shadow. Press Play: an eclipse happens when the gold or red line lines up with the green line at a new or full moon.
Times are the moment of greatest eclipse in UTC, computed with Meeus's method (good to a few minutes). The jump pauses time and centres on Earth and the Moon. Where on Earth each eclipse is visible isn't shown.
Every body now pulls on every other, starting from where they really are. Change something, then press Play: the change spreads through the whole system.
Distance is from whatever it orbits. Its moons come along, and its speed adjusts so the orbit keeps its shape (the Speed slider changes the shape). You can also drag a planet in the 3D view. Coloured lines: the new paths. Hollow dots and faint rings: where the planets really are.
Time, place, speed and energy come from the simulation. The flash, plume, shockwave and debris are illustrations scaled to that energy, not a simulation of the blast itself. Crater sizes use standard impact scaling (Collins, Melosh & Marcus 2005), so they're rough.
Comets are mostly ice and dust. Near the Sun the ice turns to gas, which makes the glowing coma and two tails pointing away from the Sun: a straight blue ion tail and a curved, yellowish dust tail. The first three below came from other stars and pass through only once.
Orbits are from NASA JPL Horizons, taken at each comet's closest pass to the Sun, so positions are best around then and drift slowly away from it (planets tug on comets). Tails are drawn to show their direction and roughly how they grow, not their exact length.
We're flying round the Milky Way at about 246 km/s. The dust streaming past shows the motion, and each fading line is a planet's real spiral path through space.
The Sun carries the planets along, so instead of closed loops they trace stretched spirals. True speed is to scale, and the spirals are so stretched they look almost straight. The slowed options shrink the Sun's drift so the spiral shape shows. Gold arrow: toward the galactic centre. White arrow: our direction of travel. Use + and − to change how fast time runs.
The map is a schematic: the spiral arms are drawn in roughly the right places, not traced from data. The speed is a 233 km/s circular speed plus the Sun's own drift (Schönrich et al. 2010). Published estimates differ by about ±5%.