Timelapse footage of the total solar eclipse of 1st August 2008. A total solar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes in front of the Sun as seen from Earth, completely blocking its face. The similarity in the apparent sizes of the bodies is a coincidence - the Sun is some 400 times wider, but is some 400 times further away. During a total eclipse the Sun's atmosphere, the corona, can be seen as a tenuous white halo. Its light is usually hidden by the glare of the Sun's surface. Totality lasted two minutes during this eclipse. Filmed from southern Siberia, in Russia.