'Ring of Fire' wows people across Americas

People across the Americas stared skywards on Saturday to witness a rare "ring of fire" eclipse of the sun.

It happens when the moon passes between the Sun and Earth at its furthest point from the planet but does not cover the Sun completely, creating "ring of fire" effect is created. The phenomena lasts only a few minutes.

"It's majestic. We're in awe," Shannon Cozad, who watched the eclipse from New Mexico in the United States, said.

NASA said the eclipse followed a path from the US Pacific Northwest, crossing over parts of Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Colombia, and Brazil before ending at sunset in the Atlantic Ocean. 

"It is something that nature brings us and that we must watch," said 77-year-old Pilar Cáceres who watched the eclipse by following its shadow through a piece of cardboard in Mexico. 

Saturday's event comes ahead of a total eclipse set for April 2024, but the next annular eclipse, as the "ring of fire" is more formally known, will be in 2039 in Alaska and 2046 in the lower 48 states.