Crowds across Asia were witnessing stunning views of a total solar eclipse on Wednesday morning.
Those in Indonesia had the best vantage point. The moon blacked out the sun in totality over Indonesia’s main western island of Sumatra, before moving across Sulawesi and Borneo, and then over to the Maluku Islands.
The eclipse was also partially visible in Kuala Lumpur, Singapore, Hawaii and northern Australia, NASA said.
The phenomenon, which occurs when the moon moves directly between the earth and sun, began at 6:20 AM Wednesday, March 9 local time (5:20 p.m. ET Tuesday, March 8).
By dawn, a few thousand residents of Jakarta had flocked to the city’s planetarium on Wednesday to view the total solar eclipse.
The next total solar eclipse is on August 21, 2017, and will be visible from a narrow corridor across the United States.
