²⁵ Depending on its distance from the earth, the moon sometimes covers the entire sun, while sometimes a small rim of the sun is visible around the moon. The latter is an annular eclipse. The reason why there are not eclipses every month is that the orbit of the moon is inclined at around 5 degrees to the plane of the earth’s orbit. The moon has to be in the same plane as the earth and sun as it passes in front of or behind the earth for an eclipse to occur.