GHANA: Clapping, dancing, praising God or raising telescopes, crowds from west Africa to central Asia gazed skywards as a total solar eclipse cast a shadow across a vast band of the planet yesterday.
"This shows the greatness of God. This shows the greatness of nature. It is very, very beautiful," said Ghanaian Nana Appah on Cape Coast beach, the first spot to see the eclipse easily.
One financial astrologer said its effects could yet be felt in falling share markets.
Henry Weingarten, managing director of the Astrologers Fund in New York, said he saw a correction of at least 10 per cent in the Dow Jones Industrial average over the next 90 days following the eclipse, which came a day after a widely expected US interest rate rise.
The complete track of the eclipse stretched from eastern Brazil across the Atlantic to north Africa, then on to the Middle East, central Asia, west China and Mongolia.
The longest view - four minutes and seven seconds - was at Libya's Wao Namus settlement near the Chadian border 2,000km (1,250 miles) south of Tripoli.
Crowds gathered on the Greek island of Kastellorizo, the only spot in Europe where the total eclipse was visible. Birds fell silent on the island, which in ancient times worshipped the sun god Apollo.
Partial solar eclipses are fairly common, but total eclipses are rarer. They involve the moon totally obscuring the sun within a specific corridor more than 100km (62 miles) wide.
In northern India the eclipse was only partial, but the scale of the response bigger than anywhere else.
Hundreds of thousands of Hindus dipped in holy rivers and ponds to rid themselves of sin and ward off what they believe are the ill-effects of the phenomenon.
At Kazakhstan's Baikonur cosmodrome, American and Russian astronauts waiting to be launched into space today offered reporters contrasting comments on the phenomenon.
US astronaut Jeffrey Williams called it "an example of what has fascinated people throughout history and has inspired people for discovery and exploration, to understand why things like that happen".
Russian cosmonaut Pavel Vinogradov seemed less impressed.
"I certainly don't have either bad or good feelings about it," he said.
"Maybe it meant something to ancient Egyptians, but we now understand that it's just the moon passing between the Earth and the sun. It's nothing terrible."