This week a solar eclipse that reduced the sun to a blazing ring surrounding a sombre disk plunged millions of people in Africa and Asia into an eerie semi-darkness.

The spectacle, visible in a 185-mile band running 8,062 miles across the globe, set a record for the longest annular eclipse that will remain unbeaten for more than a thousand years.

An annular eclipse occurs when the moon passes directly in front of the sun but does not completely obscure it, thus leaving a ring – an annulus – of sunlight flaring around the lunar disk.

A truly spectacular sight.