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Darkness fell across parts of China and India this morning as a total solar eclipse passed across the world’s most populous countries, bringing throngs of people outside to watch the phenomenon.

Total eclipses occur about twice a year as the moon passes between the Earth and the sun on the same plane as Earth’s orbit. Today’s event will be the longest of the 21st century, with astronomers predicting it will last more than six minutes.

I was in the band running through parts of the Pacific Ocean, China and India and I was lucky enough to get the full view of the eclipse.

The Chinese city of Shanghai was being touted as one of the best spots to watch the eclipse, with tourists coming from across the globe to view the phenomenon, during which the sun’s corona — the sun’s outer atmosphere — becomes visible. Unfortunately heavy cloud coverage meant that people in Shanghai only experienced darkness and could not see the actual phenomenon.

I had decided to come to Hangzhou where there was also cloud coverage, although as you can see from this image, the solar eclipse was visual. The experience itself was amazing, just before the total eclipse it is getting dark, but as the last fraction of the sun disappears, then you really understand how dark it gets. At the point when the eclipse is over, the daylight returns almost instantly - it really shows that not much sunlight is needed to brighten the skies!