You are correct that it is because the plane of the moon's orbit and
the plane of the earth's orbit around the sun differ. I recall that
the moon's orbital plane is inclined 5 or 6 degrees (not as
extreme as the inclination of the earth's poles, which is 23.5
degrees).
Here is a web site that describes itself
"Welcome to the Eclipse Home Page at the NASA/GSFC Sun-Earth
Connection Education Forum. This web site is continually
expanding and strives to be the ultimate resource for online
information about eclipses. Please contact me with
comments/corrections/suggestions or bad links!"
Fred Espenak
e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://sunearth.gsfc.nasa.gov/eclipse/eclipse.html
Jim
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