Posted: Thu, Jun 21, 2001, 5:41 PM ET (2141 GMT)
Millions of people in several southern African countries witnessed the first total solar eclipse of the millennium Thursday. Skies darkened along a band extending from Angola through Zambia and Zimbabwe to Mozambique and Madagascar, as well as portions of the Atlantic and Indian Oceans, as the Moon passed directly between the Sun and Earth. The event was broadcast and webcast throughout the world. Several scientific expeditions were stationed in the region, primarily in Zambia, to study the Sun during the eclipse, which offers a rare opportunity to view the solar corona with the naked eye. Spacecraft also trained their instruments on the Sun to provide data on what the whole Sun was doing while in eclipse. The next total solar eclipse will be on December 4, 2002: it, too, will be visible from portions of southern Africa, as well as the southern Indian Ocean and part of southern Australia.

Related Links:

•  AP article about solar eclipse
•  totalsolareclipse.net