Total solar eclipse seen through clouds. Total solar eclipses occur when the Moon passes directly in front of the Sun. The shading of the disc of the Sun reveals its corona, the sun's atmosphere. This is normally not visible due to the brightness of the solar disc. Total solar eclipses usually occur less than once a year, and can only be seen from a small area of the Earth's surface. This total solar eclipse was observed from Ternate in Indonesia's Maluku Islands on 9 March 2016. Totality at this location occurred for around 2.5 minutes between 09:51:40 and 09:54:19 local time.