‘Ring of Fire’ eclipse stuns stargazers in Africa

Stargazers in south and central Africa were treated to a spectacular solar eclipse last night with the Moon moving across the Sun to form a "ring of fire".

Thousands of people witnessed the rare astronomic event, known as the annual solar eclipse, at around 8pm (AEST).

The phenomenon was only fully visible to people in a narrow, 100-kilometre (62-mile) band stretching across central Africa, Madagascar and Reunion.

At just 2 minutes and 33 seconds, the eclipse was short-lived, but many captured the moment on camera and shared photographs on social media.

The annual solar eclipse occurs when there is a near-perfect alignment of the Earth, Moon and Sun.

“I wanted to see it because even my daughters will be too old to watch the next one in 200 years," joked Jeremy Grondin, who watched the event with his two young daughters in the south west of France's Indian Ocean Reunion Islands.

It was there that stargazers had the best view of the solar eclipse, described by Pascal Descamps of the Paris astronomical observatory as a "magical moment".

Spectators had to don special protective glasses to filter out the Sun's harmful ultraviolet and infra-red rays

Viewers could also use a pinhole camera, a box with a hole on one side for light to pass through, projecting an inverted image of the eclipse on the opposite side.

With AFP