The Moon is silhouetted against the Sun in an annular eclipse, as seen from near the centre line of the eclipse track, in the town of Oliva, on the Mediterranean coast of Spain.

On this occasion the Moon is too far away from the Earth to cover the Sun completely, so the bright surface of the Sun forms a ring of fire around the Moon. Eclipse glasses or a filter were therefore required at all times during this eclipse, which lasted 2 hours 46 minutes in total. Annularity, with the Moon completely on the face of the Sun, lasted 4 minutes 12 seconds.

Because of the intense light of the Sun, the Sun's outer corona, a familiar feature of a true total eclipse, was not visible this time, but there were other interesting phenomena to watch for instead - click the main picture or see here for a full account and further pictures.

Three of us took pictures with different equipment and filters so each set of images has a slightly different story to tell. To the right is a time-lapse series that displays the progress of the eclipse in a way very similar to the view through eclipse glasses with the naked eye.