Update 2: This is what people in Africa, the Maldives and India saw on Friday as they looked skyward.

Update 3: NASA Earth Observatory posted this photo of India and the Bay or Bengal from space.  The shot was taken at 07:15 GMT by Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) aboard NASA’s Aqua satellite. The shadow spans a north-south distance of about 300 kilometers on the surface, with the darkest part near the mid-point of the span.

The Moon's shadow falling on India and the Bay of Bengal during the January 15 annular solar eclipse - Credit: NASA/Aqua - Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Rapid Response Team, Goddard Space Flight Center

After the longest total solar eclipse of the 21st century on July 22 last year (the longest until Jun 13, 2132), today’s annular solar eclipse is another record holder. Its duration will be unmatched until December 23, 3043. 

The eclipse was visible from within a 300-km-wide track that traversed half of Earth. The path of the Moon’s antumbral shadow began in Africa and passed through Chad, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Uganda, Kenya, and Somalia. After leaving Africa, the path crossed the Indian Ocean where the maximum duration of annularity reached 11 min 07.8 s.. The central path then continued into Asia through Bangladesh, India, Burma (Myanmar), and China. A partial eclipse was seen within the much broader path of the Moon’s penumbral shadow, which includes eastern Europe, most of Africa, Asia, and Indonesia.

The narrow stretch of 300 km width across Central Africa, Maldives, South Kerala (India), South Tamil Nadu (India), North Sri Lanka, parts of Burma and parts of China from which an annular solar eclipse was observed - Credit: NASA/GSFC - F. Espenak

One of many expeditions that traveled around the world to observed the first annular eclipse of this decade chose a coastal city of Varkala in India as the observation site. Below are a few selected shots from a larger collection of some truly amazing photos.

Annular Eclipse from a coastal town of Varkala, India. Baily's Beads prior to 2nd contact - Credit: W. van Kerkhoff

Annular Eclipse from a coastal town of Varkala, India. Baily's Beads at high resolution, just before 2nd contact - Credit: T. Kampschulte

The Ring of Fire is closed, but just barely; it measures a few arc seconds only in places in this super-sharp telescopic image - Credit: T. Kampschulte

Many amateurs took beautiful photos with a great variety of equipment ranging from a simple cell phone 2-3 MP to professional cameras. The next image is a mosaic of 36 photos taken during a period of three hours by Surajram Kumaravel.

A series of 36 photos shot from Chennai during the January 15th 2009 Annular Solar Eclipse. Canon Powershot S3 IS, ISO 60, 72mm, f/7.8, 1/15 sec. Shot in Raw and converted to B&W using Adobe Photoshop Lightroom, and stitched together using Adobe Photoshop - Credit: Surajram Kumaravel

Partial Eclipse at sunset - Credit: @dragonsfanatic

The photo above depicts a partially eclipsed sun touching the horizon during a sunset from Chatan, Okinawa, Japan. See this flickr photostream for the entire sunset sequence.

This composition of 26 photos displays the path of the Sun and the Moon on the sky during the annular eclipse - Credit: Sriram Ramani

Photo of partial solar eclipse also showing the Sunspot 1040 - Credit: a.M.m.a.d.z

For more photos visit the Solarwatch gallery.

Solarwatch Gallery

• Amateur – Wide-Field, Deep Sky and Solar System Objects
• Semi-Professional
• Junior (16 or under)
• Open – “Twilight”
• The David Malin Innovation Prize

Below are the best entries:

Large Magellanic Cloud by Gary Hill (Amateur Widefield) - Photo Source: http://www.mikesalway.com.au

"Eclipse over the Great Wall" by Terry Cuttle (Open "Twilight") - Photo Source: http://www.mikesalway.com.au

"The Southern Cross and Coalsack" by Eddie Trimarchi (Semi-Professional) - Photo Source: http://www.mikesalway.com.au

More images are available at Mike Salway’s blog and the full results are at CWAS’ webpage.