People in Asia are watching what will be the longest total solar eclipse this century, with swathes of India and China to be plunged into darkness.
Amateur stargazers and scientists have travelled far to see the eclipse, which will last for about five minutes.
The eclipse could first be seen early on Wednesday in eastern India, though in some regions there was thick cloud.
The eclipse is moving east across India, Nepal, Burma, Bangladesh, Bhutan, China and the Pacific.
The eclipse first became total over India at 0053GMT. It will cross some southern Japanese islands and will last be visible from land at Nikumaroro Island in the South Pacific nation of Kiribati. It will end at 0418GMT.
Elsewhere, a partial eclipse is visible across much of Asia.
Taking shelter
In India the village of Taregna, near Patna, has been swamped by researchers expecting a particularly clear view of the eclipse.
"We are hoping to make some valuable observations on the formation of asteroids around the sun," scientist Pankaj Bhama told the Associated Press news agency.
In eastern China, heavy cloud or rain was expected to make it virtually impossible to see the eclipse.
The previous total eclipse, in August 2008, lasted two minutes and 27 seconds.
This one will last six minutes and 39 seconds at its maximum point.
'Special opportunity'
Alphonse Sterling, a Nasa astrophysicist who will be following the eclipse from China, scientists are hoping data from the eclipse will help explain solar flares and other structures of the sun and why they erupt.
"We'll have to wait a few hundred years for another opportunity to observe a solar eclipse that lasts this long, so it's a very special opportunity," Shao Zhenyi, an astronomer at the Shanghai Astronomical Observatory in China told the Associated Press.
Solar scientist Lucie Green, from University College London, is aboard an American cruise ship heading for that point near the Japanese island of Iwo Jima, where the axis of the Moon's shadow will pass closest to Earth.
"The [Sun's] corona has a temperature of 2 million degrees but we don't know why it is so hot," she said.
"What we are going to look for are waves in the corona. ... The waves might be producing the energy that heats the corona. That would mean we understand another piece of the science of the Sun."
The next total solar eclipse will occur on 11 July next year. It will be visible in a narrow corridor over the southern hemisphere, from the southern Pacific Ocean to Argentina.
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