At a Glance

An annular solar eclipse happens when the moon covers the sun's center.The sun's visible outer edges form a “ring of fire” around the moon.The next one will be on June 21, 2039.

Hundreds of thousands of skywatchers in 12 countries across Africa, Asia and other parts of the globe witnessed a “ring of fire” eclipse on Sunday.

In this type of eclipse, when the moon moves between the Earth and the sun, a bright "ring of fire" of the sunremains visiblearound the edge of the moon because of the moon's distance from Earth. It is also called an annular eclipse, from the Latin word for ring.

A solar eclipse is seen over Hong Kong on Sunday, June 21, 2020. People across the Arabian Peninsula, Eastern Africa and Asia saw Sunday's solar eclipse.

(AP Photo/Vincent Yu)

This weekend's eclipse began at 11:45 p.m. EDT Saturday and , according to Space.com. The maximum eclipse happened about 2:40 a.m. EDT.

The actual ring of fire was fleeting. It lasted for only about 38 seconds in Uttrakhand, India.

Children look at an annular solar eclipse with X-ray film in Chennai, India, on Sunday, June 21, 2020.

(Photo by ARUN SANKAR/AFP via Getty Images)

The eclipse was visible from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Central African Republic, South Sudan, Sudan, Ethiopia, the Red Sea, Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Oman, the Gulf of Oman, Pakistan, India, China, Taiwan, the Philippine Sea (south of Guam) and northern Australia.

The eclipse occurred this year on the same day as the solstice. The only other time that will happen this century, according to Time and Date, will be on.

The next annular eclipse will be on June 10, 2021. Weather permitting, it should be visible over much of North America, much of Europe, Asia, north/west Africa, the Atlantic and the Arctic.