Solar Eclipses

Our sun's name is Sol. A solar eclipse occurs when the New Moon comes between the Earth and the sun.The term New Moon refers to one of the Moon's phases. When you have a Full Moon, we can see the entire face of the Moon, because Earth is positioned in such a way that we can see the entire face of the Moon because of reflected sunlight hitting the Moon. A New Moon is a Full Moon that isn't lighted by either sunlight or reflected light from Earth, because it is between us and the sun, and the sun is lighting the Moon's "backside" from our point of view.
The solar eclipse of December 25, 2000 was a partial solar eclipse, with only about 1/3 of the sun covered by the New Moon.
There are several different types of solar eclipse.
The most common kind of solar eclipse is the Partial Eclipse. During a Partial Eclipse, the Moon is not positioned close enough to the Earth, or directly on the Earth's equatorial plane, so that it would completely block out the sun. It only blocks an edge of the sun.
A Total Solar Eclipse occurs when the New Moon is placed just right that it completely covers the face of the sun, as we see it from Earth.
The most rare solar eclipses are the annular eclipses. Annular Eclipses are so named because the New Moon almost covers the entire face of the sun, but...not quite. A thin ring (annulus) remains. Of the Annular Eclipses, the most rare is a Broken Annularity.
Here is an example of a Broken Annularity. The Moon was so close to the Earth that it almost completely blocked out the sun. The ring is "broken" by mountains on the Moon, and the Lunar Maria (seas) dip in enough that more sunlight can get past, and you see a few gold areas where the sunlight is trying to escape.