Charlie Crutchfield, age i3, of Haw River, N.C., for his question:

How often do we get a total solar eclipse?

There must be two solar eclipses every year, and there may be as many as five. However, most of them will.. Not show us the spectacular total eclipse of the sun's face by the moon. Some will be annular or ring shaped eclipses in which the sun is not all hidden. In a given year we may get from two to five annular eclipses and no total eclipse. In a lucky year We get three total solar eclipses, but no more.

The eclipses Of the sun and moon repeat a pattern every 18 Years. This eclipse period is called the Saros, and it was worked out by the stargazing Babylonians of the Mesopotamian desert thousands of years ago.