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The peak of the eclipse occurred in Novosibirsk, Russia’s third-largest city.

There, forecasts of cloudy skies proved wrong, and tens of thousands of people who had flocked to the center of town were able to observe the rare total eclipse of the sun – which lasted two minutes, 23 seconds – in its full beauty.

All gazed in wonder as an eerie silence descended on the city and gushes of unusually strong wind tore through the crowd of sky-watchers. Birds stopped chirping, and the temperature suddenly dropped.

Lucas Heinrich, a physics student from Berlin who traveled to Novosibirsk with classmates, described the eclipse as «unbelievable.»

«It became cold and dark, and suddenly it was light again. I am very happy – it was worth the trip,» Heinrich said. NTV television reported that more than 10,000 foreign tourists arrived in Novosibirsk, the largest city in the eclipse’s path, to watch.

The eclipse began in Arctic Canada and passed through Greenland, western Siberia and Mongolia before ending in China, where some saw it as a dark omen ahead of the start of the Olympic Games in Beijing this week.

In Novosibirsk, the airport announced that it turned on nighttime landing lights during the total and partial darkness, which lasted more than two hours.

At the city zoo, polar bears and white tigers suddenly lay down to sleep.

A snow leopard grew restless and ran around its cage until the sun reappeared.

Cloudy weather in other parts of Western Siberia prevented many people from enjoying the spectacle.

Viewers were repeatedly warned to prevent eye injuries by wearing protective glasses, which sold throughout Novosibirsk for 50 rubles ($2).

In Moscow, half the sun was blocked, but cloud cover prevented Muscovites from viewing the partial eclipse. In St. Petersburg, people shouted «Look! Look!» and pointed above as the sun’s outer corona appeared in the sky.

«You just feel part of nature. … This is so rare,» said Lev, a software specialist in St. Petersburg. Many used special sunglasses, computer disks and even beer bottles to watch it.

In the remote Siberian settlement of Berezovaya Katun, near Russia’s border with China, a large crowd of tourists, including some from France and Mongolia, clapped and cheered as organizers released thousands of balloons into the darkened sky.

«It is quite eerie for any thinking person to watch how everything turns into darkness in broad daylight,» the Kremlin’s top medical adviser, Gennady Onishchenko, told Vesti-24 channel. People have been recording solar eclipses for perhaps 4,000 years, and they typically inspire a combination of dread, fascination and awe.

According to NASA, the next total eclipse will occur July 22, 2009, starting in India and moving across Nepal, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Myanmar, China and over the Pacific Ocean. (AP, Reuters)2