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eclipse

by Nick Greene
for About.com

Definition: eclipse: The passage of one celestial body in front of another, cutting off the light from the second body (e.g. an eclipse of the sun by the moon, or an eclipse of one star in a binary system by the other). It may also be the passage of all or part of one body through the shadow of another (e.g. a lunar eclipse in which the moon passes through the Earth's shadow).

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