An Etymological Dictionary of Astronomy and Astrophysics
English-French-Persian

The fraction of the Sun's area occulted by the Moon. It should not be confused with → eclipse magnitude, which is the fraction of the Sun's diameter occulted by the Moon. Eclipse obscuration may be expressed as either a percentage or a decimal fraction (e.g., 50% or 0.50) (F. Espenak, NASA).

→ eclipse; obscuration, verbal noun from → obscure.