 Oh, I didn't see you there! We were just practicing for the solar eclipse, you know? Trying to scare away the demons devouring the sun. 4,000 years ago, ancient Chinese scientists were already predicting eclipses and believed that during a solar eclipse, a dragon would come out and eat the sun. To scare the dragon away, they would bang on drums and pots until the sun returned to normal. These days, we know that a solar eclipse doesn't spell doom, but it's actually an extremely rare opportunity to see the sun in a whole new light. So what exactly is a solar eclipse then? Let's say this light is the sun. It's at the center of our solar system. The earth orbits the sun once every 365 days and also turns on its own axis once every 24 hours. The moon also orbits the earth once every 27 days. Every once in a while, the moon travels directly between the earth and the sun and lines up just right for a solar eclipse. Here on earth, if we're in just the right place at just the right time, we see the moon slowly block out the sun. So if the moon passes between the sun and earth every 27 days, why don't we see eclipses all the time? The reason is that the earth's orbit around the earth is slightly tilted by about 5 degrees. This means that most of the time when the moon passes through, it's either too high or too low to create an eclipse. Sometimes it'll come pretty close, but doesn't cover the full sun, and this is called a partial eclipse. We know that the sun is actually about 400 times bigger than the moon, so how is it able to cover up the whole sun? It's because by coincidence, the moon is also about 400 times closer to the earth, so from our perspective, it looks the same size as the sun in the sky. We see a total eclipse when the sun's light is completely blocked by the moon, and for a few minutes, it seems as though the day has turned into night. Sometimes the earth's orbit takes it a bit further away from the earth, which makes it appear slightly smaller to us, creating an annular eclipse with the ring of light around the sun. Though solar eclipses can be beautiful, the sun can be extremely dangerous to look at without proper safety wear. Looking directly at the sun can cause eye damage or even blindness, so you need to take the right safety precautions. You can't rely on your usual sunglasses to look at the sun, but you can get special eclipse glasses made to keep your eyes safe. Another easy and inexpensive way to do this is to make a pinhole projector. To view the sun, all you need is a few simple materials lying around the house. Here's what you'll need. A cardboard box with a lid, like this shoe box, a white piece of paper, aluminum foil, tape, scissors or an exacto knife, and a pin or a needle. Use your scissors to cut a hole about 3 cm x 3 cm into the wall at the long end of the cardboard box. Cut a piece of aluminum foil a bit larger than the hole in your box and tape it tightly into place over the hole. Carefully poke a pinhole through the center of your aluminum foil. Next, cut a side-doing hole into the cardboard. This will be where you look into the box to view the image, so be sure it's big enough for you to see in. Tape the white piece of paper in place on the opposite side of the pinhole. This is the screen where the image will appear. Now head out on a sunny day, point the pinhole end of the box towards the sun, and align the box until you see the white disc of the sun appear on the screen inside the box. The longer your box, the larger the image of the sun will appear. If you're interested in seeing a more up-close view, you can use binoculars or a telescope to project an even bigger image. Special solar filters and telescopes can also be purchased that will allow you to fully appreciate the beauty of the sun. So next time you hear those solar eclipse will be seen in your area on Earth, or even if you just feel like checking out some sunspots on a sunny day, grab your safety viewing equipment and head outside.