Millions of people in North America will be sky-gazing on August 21 as the shadow of the moon completely obscure the sun for a few moments for the first total solar eclipse in 38 years.
Click through the gallery for photos of eclipses around the world, like this one, taken in the eastern German town of Lebus in 2003.
Photo by Patrick Pleul/Epa/REX/Shutterstock
A partial solar eclipse as seen over Abidjan Ivory Coast.
Photo by Legnan Koula/Epa/REX/Shutterstock
A partial solar eclipse as seen in Naypyitaw Myanmar. Southeast Asian countries like Cambodia, Myanmar, Vietnam and Thailand saw the sun partially eclipsed around 50 percent. The total solar eclipse was visible in Indonesia.
Photo by Hein Htet/Epa/REX/Shutterstock
A bird flies over a partial solar eclipse at a monument in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.
Watch the eclipse with Soluna Solar Eclipse Glasses
Photo by Kith Serey/Epa/REX/Shutterstock
A partial solar eclipse is seen through a dark cloud in the sky in Bangkok, Thailand.
Watch the eclipse with Soluna Solar Eclipse Glasses
Photo by Kith Serey/Epa/REX/Shutterstock
A total solar eclipse as seen in Indonesia. A total solar eclipse plunged parts of the Indonesian Archipelago into eerie day-time darkness.
Watch the eclipse with Soluna Solar Eclipse Glasses
Photo by Ojo Bala/Epa/REX/Shutterstock
A partial solar eclipse is seen behind the Hindu Prambanan Temple in Yogyakarta, Indonesia.
Watch the eclipse with Soluna Solar Eclipse Glasses
Photo by Bimo Satrio/Epa/REX/Shutterstock
A partial solar eclipse as seen in the Canary Islands, Spain. The eclipse was viewable in Europe, northern and eastern Asia and northern and western.
Watch the eclipse with Soluna Solar Eclipse Glasses
Photo by Angel Medina G./Epa/REX/Shutterstock
The solar eclipse at St. Mark Square in Venice, Italy.
Watch the eclipse with Soluna Solar Eclipse Glasses
Photo by Andrea Merola/Epa/REX/Shutterstock
A partial solar eclipse is seen in Skopje, Macedonia.
Watch the eclipse with Soluna Solar Eclipse Glasses
Photo by Georgi Licovski/Epa/REX/Shutterstock
A solar eclipse as seen in Vigo, Spain.
Watch the eclipse with Soluna Solar Eclipse Glasses
Photo by Felipe Carnotto/NurPhoto/REX/Shutterstock
Through a solar filter material, the moon blocks part of the sun during a solar eclipse as seen over the Moscow Kremlin’s Troitskaya (Trinity) tower.
Watch the eclipse with Soluna Solar Eclipse Glasses
Photo by Pavel Golovkin/AP/REX/Shutterstock
Solar eclipse seen through a blue filter in Devon, Britain.
Watch the eclipse with Soluna Solar Eclipse Glasses
Photo by Stuart Clarke/REX/Shutterstock
A partial solar eclipse seen through a cloud at Sanur Beach, Bali, Indonesia.
Watch the eclipse with Soluna Solar Eclipse Glasses
Photo by Firdia Lisnawati/AP/REX/Shutterstock
An annular solar eclipse is seen in the sky over Tokyo, Japan. Millions of Asians watched as a rare “ring of fire” eclipse crossed their skies. The annular eclipse, in which the moon passes in front of the sun leaving only a golden ring around its edges, was visible to wide areas across the continent.
Watch the eclipse with Soluna Solar Eclipse Glasses
Photo by Firdia Lisnawati/AP/REX/Shutterstock
An airplane flies past an annular solar eclipse from Taguig City, east of Manila, Philippines.
Watch the eclipse with Soluna Solar Eclipse Glasses
Photo by Francis R. Malasig/EPA/REX/Shutterstock
The annular solar eclipse as seen in China.
Watch the eclipse with Soluna Solar Eclipse Glasses
Photo by Quirky China News/REX/Shutterstock
The annular solar eclipse as seen in China.
Watch the eclipse with Soluna Solar Eclipse Glasses
Photo by Quirky China News/REX/Shutterstock
NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory, or SDO, observed its first lunar transit when the new moon passed directly between the spacecraft (in its geosynchronous orbit) and the sun. With SDO watching the sun in a wavelength of extreme ultraviolet light, the dark moon created a partial eclipse of the sun.
Watch the eclipse with Soluna Solar Eclipse Glasses
Photo by NASA/REX/Shutterstock
An annular solar eclipse appears in Chandler, Arizona.
Watch the eclipse with Soluna Solar Eclipse Glasses
Photo by Matt York/AP/REX/Shutterstock
The annular solar eclipse as seen from Hongdao of Qingdao in eastern China’s Shandong province.
Watch the eclipse with Soluna Solar Eclipse Glasses
Photo by Wu Hong/EPA/REX/Shutterstock
The annular solar eclipse as seen from Hongdao of Qingdao in eastern China’s Shandong province.
Watch the eclipse with Soluna Solar Eclipse Glasses
Photo by Wu Hong/EPA/REX/Shutterstock
An annular solar eclipse is observed in Yantai, Shandong province, China.
Watch the eclipse with Soluna Solar Eclipse Glasses
Photo by VIEW CHINA PHOTO/REX/Shutterstock
Solar eclipse in Enshi, Yunnan province, China. The longest solar eclipse this century plunged parts of Asia into darkness.
Millions of people in India, China and Japan watched as the sun was completely blacked out for a record six minutes and 39 seconds. With around 30 million people watching the spectacular in China alone, it is also thought that the event was the most-viewed eclipse in human history. The eclipse first appeared just before 1am GMT at in India’s Gulf of Khambhat just north of the metropolis of Mumbai. The shadow of the moon then moved east across Nepal, Burma, Bangladesh, Bhutan and China before hitting the Pacific.
Watch the eclipse with Soluna Solar Eclipse Glasses
Photo by VIEW CHINA PHOTO/REX/Shutterstock
The total solar eclipse in Varanasi, India was a rare event that caused a fatal stampede of viewers on the Ganges River in India.
Tragedy struck in the aftermath of the eclipse at Varanasi, when a stampede by pilgrims killed two people. In India thousands waded into the Ganges in the ancient Hindu holy city of Varanasi, and prayed to the sun in an act believed to bring release from the cycle of life and death. A 65-year-old woman died in the stampede of bathers.
Watch the eclipse with Soluna Solar Eclipse Glasses
Photo by Excel Media/REX/Shutterstock
The total solar eclipse is observed above the Siberian city of Novosibirsk. An enormous swathe of western Siberian was submerged in darkness as the moon completely blocked out the sun, enrapturing huge crowds of Russians and foreign tourists.
Watch the eclipse with Soluna Solar Eclipse Glasses
Photo by ILNAR SALAKHIEV/AP/REX/Shutterstock
Partial solar eclipse at Stonehenge, Britain.
Watch the eclipse with Soluna Solar Eclipse Glasses
Photo by Les Wilson/REX/Shutterstock
Seen through an optical filter, the remains of the annular eclipse emerges from passing clouds at the Taiwan Astronomical Museum, in Taipei, Taiwan.
Watch the eclipse with Soluna Solar Eclipse Glasses
Photo by WALLY SANTANA/AP/REX/Shutterstock
A view of the total solar eclipse taken from Dir Mati, northeast of Mousl, Iraq.
Watch the eclipse with Soluna Solar Eclipse Glasses
Photo by JASSIM MOHAMMED/AP/REX/Shutterstock
A quarter part of the solar eclipse is seen from downtown Munich, Germany at the Karlsplatz. The moon smothered the light of the sun, as the last total solar eclipse of the last millennium swept across Europe toward the Bay of Bengal.
Watch the eclipse with Soluna Solar Eclipse Glasses
Photo by FABIAN BIMMER/AP/REX/Shutterstock