Total eclipse occurs in northwestern Egypt

Al-Salloum on the Egyptian-Libyan border witnessed a full eclipse of the sun at local time 12:40 pm (1040 GMT) on Wednesday, where thousands of astronomers and tourists gathered to watch the event, including Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.

Al-Salloum is in the path of the complete shadow of the total eclipse, the first one in years which will sweep northeast from Brazil to Mongolia.

During the unique and rare show, the day will turn to night in the eclipse's route and a corona which is the usually invisible extended atmosphere of the sun will glow around the edges of the moon as it comes between the earth and the sun.

The event was broadcast live on Egyptian Television and satellite channel.

Total eclipses are rare because they require the tilted orbits of the sun, moon and earth to line up exactly so that the moon obscures the sun completely. The next total eclipse will occur in 2008.

Source: Xinhua