live solar eclipse 2009,surya grahan live,sun eclipse,solar eclipse in india today,watch solar eclipse online,taregna,total solar eclipse video,solareclipse,solar eclipse 22 july,kurukshetra

A total solar eclipse began its flight on Wednesday across a narrow swathe of Asia, where hundreds of millions of people watched the skies darken despite thick summer clouds.

The longest total solar eclipse of the 21st century was visible along a roughly 250 km-wide (155 miles) corridor, according to the U.S. space agency NASA, as it travelled half the globe and passed through the world’s two most populous nations, India and China.

Thousands of people snaked through the narrow lanes of the ancient Hindu holy city of Varanasi and gathered for a dip in the Ganges, an act considered as leading to salvation from the cycle of life and death.

Amid chanting of Hindu hymns, men, women and children waded into the river with folded hands and prayed to the sun as it emerged in an overcast sky.

“We have come here because our elders told us this is the best time to improve our after-life,” said Bhailal Sharma, a villager from central India who came to Varanasi with a group of about 100 people.

And that’s the Solar Eclipse 2009 Photos, Surya Grahan Pictures