The relationship between the moon, the earth and the sun
Motion of The Moon
http://www.solarviews.com/cap/moon/vmoon1.htm

The Ecliptic
    Our solar system is almost flat,
        forming a plane called the ecliptic
    Earth's and most of the other planets orbit about the Sun.
    In the course of a year, the sun appears to trace a path in the sky along the ecliptic.
        This information will come in handy to explain why we don’t have solar eclipses every month
Inclination
    angle between the plane of an orbit ---  plane of the ecliptic.
    Orbital inclination is abbreviated as i.
            ecliptic is inclined at a 7° angle
                from the plane of the Sun's equator.
    The Earth's axis is tilted at a 23.5° angle from the ecliptic (which causes the seasons).
Explanation: The Plane of the Ecliptic is illustrated
    Clementine star tracker camera image
    Moon lit by Earthshine,
     the Sun's corona rising over the Moon's dark limb, and
        the planets Saturn, Mars, and Mercury.
    The ecliptic plane is defined as the imaginary plane containing the Earth's orbit around the Sun.
    In the course of a year, the Sun's apparent path through the sky lies in this plane.
 
Cause
cycle
http://aa.usno.navy.mil/graphics/Moon_movie.gif

Phases
    moon circles the Earth
    shape of the moon appears to change
     different amounts of the illuminated part of the moon are facing us.
    shape varies from a full moon
    Earth is between the sun and the moon
            to a new moon
    moon is between the sun and the Earth
            Blue Moon
                two full moons in one month
            New Moon
                when the moon is not visible from Earth
                side of the moon that is facing us is not being lit by the sun.

Crescent Moon
    part way between a half moon and new moon, or
    between a new moon and a half moon.

Half Moon
    A looks like half a circle.
        sometimes called a quarter moon
Gibbous Moon
    between a full moon and a half moon, or
    between a half moon and a full moon.

Full Moon
    Earth is between the sun and the moon
    Where’s the sun
        lighted part always points towards the sun.
        lighted on the right
        the sun is ahead of the moon.
        the left portion of the moon is lighted,
        the moon is ahead of the sun.

Moonrise from Earth
     rises and sets every day
    appearing on the horizon just like the sun.
    The time depends on the phase of the moon.
        It rises about 30 to 70 minutes later each day than the previous day,
        so the moon is out during daytime as often is it's out at night. the moon rises at about the same time the sun rises, and it sets
        at about the same time the sun sets.

New Moon
the moon rises at about the same time the sun rises, and it sets at about the same time the sun sets.

Moon waxes to
    become a crescent moon, a half moon, and a gibbous moon, on the way to a full moon
        the moon rises during daytime (after the sun rises),
    rising later each day, and it sets at nighttime,
    setting later and later each night.

 full moon,
     rises about the same time the sun sets, and the moon sets at about the same time the sun rises.
     moon wanes (becoming a half moon and a crescent moon, on the way to a new moon),
    the moon rises during the night, after sunset, rising later each night. It then sets in the daytime, after the sun rises.
    Eventually, the moon rises so late at night that it's actually rising around sunrise, and it's setting around sunset.
    That's when it's a new moon once again.

Lunar Eclipse
    when the Earth's shadow falls on the moon.
     occur, on average, about every 6 months.

Total Eclipse -
    entire moon enters the Earth's umbra
    the darkest part of its shadow

Partial Eclipse
    only part of the moon enters the Earth's umbra
    Duration of Lunar Eclipses
        totality
        average total lunar eclipse, the
        moon is within the Earth's umbra for about an hour

    Frequency of Lunar Eclipse
        plane of the moon's orbit is inclined about 5 degrees from the plane of the Earth's orbit
        relatively infrequent.

        about two lunar eclipses each year (visible somewhere on Earth).

Tides
Causes
The Tide Cycle
High Tide
Spring and Neap Tides
Local Tide Effects
Tides
    periodic rises and falls of large bodies of water.
    caused by the gravitational interaction between the Earth and the Moon.
    gravitational attraction of the moon causes the oceans to bulge out in the direction of the moon.
        Another bulge occurs on the opposite side, since the Earth is also being pulled toward the moon (and away from the water on the far side).
   Since the earth is rotating while this is happening, two tides occur each day.
        The Sun's Interaction with the Tides
        Spring tides
            especially strong tides
                    (they do not have anything to do with the season Spring). 
                    occur when the Earth, the Sun, and the Moon are in a line

The gravitational forces of the Moon and the Sun both contribute to the tides.

Spring tides
occur during
full moon
new moon.
Proxigean Spring Tide
rare, unusually high tide
occurs when the moon is both unusually close to the Earth
closest perigee, called the proxigee
 in the New Moon phase
Moon is between the Sun and the Earth
The proxigean spring tide occurs at most once every 1.5 years.
Neap tides
especially weak tides.
occur when the gravitational forces of the Moon and the Sun are perpendicular to one another
with respect to the Earth
Neap tides occur during quarter moons.

solar eclipse
when the moon blocks our view of the sun.
Moon is exactly between the Sun and the Earth.

The longest solar eclipses
occur the Earth is at aphelion
farthest from the Sun, making the solar disc smaller
Moon is at perigee
closest to the Earth, making the Moons apparent diameter larger
 

TOTALITY
the short part of an eclipse
 the moon entirely blocks the Sun.
usually lasts for just a few minutes
no more than 8 minutes in any one location on Earth

Seeing the Corona
parts of the Sun that we normally can't see become visible,
the corona
the outermost layer of the sun's atmosphere).
mostly X-ray emissions
light from the photosphere is scattered by the loose electrons
 K-Corona

In the few minutes of totality, we can see the coronal streamers, polar plumes, and prominences.
Types of Solar Eclipses

Partial Solar Eclipse - A partial solar eclipse is
when the Moon only covers part of the solar disc.

Total Solar Eclipse
- the Moon appears to cover the entire solar disc
only visible from a very small area on Earth
a narrow track that moves across the Earth's surface (as the Earth rotates)
 lasts about an hour.
lasts no more than 8 minutes.

Annular Eclipse
sun looks like an "annulus" or ring. The
ring is visible when the Moon does not entirely cover the disk of the Sun
 happens when the Sun is at perihelion
(closest to the Earth, making the solar disc appear larger) and the
Moon is at apogee
(farthest from the Earth, making it look smaller).
Reference
http://tycho.usno.navy.mil/vphase.html
http://www.astro.uiuc.edu/projects/data/MoonPhases/index.html
http://www.astro.wisc.edu/~dolan/java/MoonPhase.html