A partial annular solar eclipse on Monday enchanted space lovers in India, but the country missed the event in its full glory, "a ring of fire", visible in some other parts of the world.
The eclipse was visible only partially all over India with only a very small part of the Sun being covered by the moon's disk.
Less than 20 per cent of the sun was hidden behind the moon's disk in northern parts of the country. For Delhi, eclipse was only 10 per cent.
In a total solar eclipse, moon covers the entire disk of the Sun but in an annular eclipse, moon's disk is not able to cover the entire sun, so that the sun is visible as a spectacular "ring of fire," Nehru Planetarium Director N Rathnasree said.
"The difference arises from the elliptical orbit of the moon around the earth - so that sometimes the moon is a little further from the earth. The apparent disk of the moon at such times appears to be a little smaller than of the sun," she said.
Spain and Portugal were among the first to see the ringed sun. The eclipse's narrow corridor also travelled across Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Chad, Sudan, Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia.
Photograph: Arun Patil
