Solar Eclipse.

A solar eclipse is caused by the moon crossing the face of the sun, there are three different types of solar eclipse.

Total: This is where the moon totally covers the face of the sun.

Annular: The moon is slightly too far away - and therefore too small to completely cover the sun. This creates a view like looking at a ring.

Partial: Just like the pictures below, the moon only covers part of the sun. The first set of pictures and the animation were taken October 3rd 2005. Below that is a set of rather poor quality images of an eclipse taken in June 2004 I think. I lost all the original pictures when my laptop was stolen (it's funny how many images I have actually lost now that I'm writing this site)..