Given the following, why will more lunar eclipses than solar eclipses be visible from North America in this decade?

Question

A person living in North America will be able to see 15 lunar eclipses in the 2010–2020 decade. In the same time period, only two solar eclipses can be observed in North America.

Emilia Acosta · Accepted Answer

Lunar eclipses are visible from much greater areas of the Earth's surface.

Since the Earth is much larger than the Moon, during a lunar eclipse, the Earth's shadow covers the entire face of the Moon when the Sun, Earth, and Moon are all in alignment. The eclipse can also be seen from a whole hemisphere of the Earth. The Moon and the Sun have roughly the same angular diameter when viewed from Earth; however, during a solar eclipse, the Moon's disc is slightly larger than the Sun's. To witness a total solar eclipse, one must be in the path of the Moon's shadow, which is a band that crosses the Earth's surface and is usually between 100 and 200 km wide. There is a very slim chance that the Moon shadow will cross a major city because most of the Earth's surface is covered in water or is very sparsely populated. A solar eclipse is an incredible sight, and the best place to see one is usually from a ship, which can sail to the eclipse's centerline and potentially avoid cloud cover.

Cooper Ann · Answer

undefined Because the Moon orbits the Earth on a slightly inclined plane relative to the Earth's orbit around the Sun, more lunar eclipses than solar eclipses will be visible from North America this decade. This is because the Earth passes through the shadow of the Moon more often than the Moon does, which means that more lunar eclipses will be visible from North America than solar eclipses.