Are total eclipses restricted in latitude?

Factual Questions
21

In reference to the OP, I would assume that the poles can experience solar eclipses. Picture this: The Earth’s axis is tilted at 23.5 degrees (I think that’s the right figure). During the Antarctic summer the south pole is pointed slightly toward the sun. Because the moon’s shadow is usually off the earth completely, it can come onto the Earth’s surface anywhere as long as it’s on the daylight side, and this would include the poles in their respective summers.

I’m pretty good with astronomy, but we need a professional to put it in better words. Quick! Someone alert The Bad Astronomer!

22

The distance between the center of the Moon and the center of the Earth varies between 221,500 and 252,700 miles, with an average of 238,800 miles. The Earth has a radius of 4,000 miles.

Suppose the Moon is at its average distance. The spot on Earth where the Moon is directly overhead is 234,800 miles from the center of the Moon. Where the Moon is on the horizon, it is 238,800 miles distant. And where it is directly underneath one’s feet (and thus obviously invisible), it is 242,800 miles away.

The Moon’s umbra extends for an average distance of about 234,000 miles (with variation due to variation in the distance between the Moon and the Sun). To see a total eclipse, therefore, one must get (on average) within 234,000 miles of the center of the Moon.

When the Moon is at perigee (closest to Earth), the entire Earth is within this distance. Anyone on the side of Earth facing the Sun and Moon, and for whom the two are in perfect alignment, will see a total eclipse.

When the Moon is at apogee, total eclipses are impossible anywhere on Earth. The best one can do, even given perfect alignment with the Sun and Moon directly overhead, is an annular eclipse where a ring of Sun shows around the Moon.

For distances in between, matters can vary. A small percentage of eclipses are total where the Moon is nearly overhead but annular where the Moon is nearer the horizon.

At the poles, the Sun and Moon are always near the horizon. The Sun, of course, is never more than 23.5 degrees high, and the Moon’s maximum varies between 18 degrees and 29 degrees. The poles thus experience slightly fewer total eclipses than lower latitudes. But eclipses are possible at the poles, as indeed they are possible anywhere on Earth.