Why Do Eclipses Travel WEST to EAST?

Eclipses move west to east because the Moon and Sun are both moving in that direction across the sky.

Imagine you're sitting on a merry-go-round that's spinning clockwise, like when you ride it at the park. You’re holding a big ball (the Sun) and another smaller one (the Moon). As the merry-go-round spins, the Moon passes in front of the Sun, creating an eclipse. But since everything is moving together, you wouldn’t see the eclipse go anywhere, it would just stay still.

Now picture the same scene, but this time you're not on the merry-go-round. The Moon and the Sun are both zooming across the sky like cars on a highway, both going from west to east. So when the Moon covers the Sun (like a shadow puppet), it looks like the eclipse is moving from west to east, even though it's actually just following the path of the Moon.

If you're used to watching cars go by on a road, you might think they move from left to right, that’s how we usually draw them. But in real life, the Moon and Sun are both moving like cars going from west to east, so their shadows also follow that path. It's like seeing two cars drive by side by side, both going in the same direction, so one doesn’t seem to overtake the other.