A few thousand residents of Jakarta flocked to the city’s planetarium at dawn on Wednesday to view the total solar eclipse.
Long lines snaked through the compound, as volunteers distributed special viewing glasses. Families, many with small children, and groups of friends lined up as early as 2 a.m.
Sixty-five year old Sunaryo brought his grandchildren to see their first eclipse. He was overseas and missed the last total solar eclipse when it occurred in Indonesia in 1983.
“We heard from the news that they were distributing glasses. We got them because we arrived at 3 a.m.,” he said.
The phenomenon, which occurs when the moon moves directly between the earth and sun, began at 6:20 AM Wednesday, March 9 local time (5:20 p.m. ET Tuesday, March 8).
According to NASA, the moon will black out the sun over Indonesia’s main western island of Sumatra, before moving across Sulawesi and Borneo, and then over to the Maluku Islands.
Viewers will be treated to a beautiful halo effect as the earth, sun and moon align.
Forty-year old Hary Mulyarakman surprised his three young children at 3 a.m. and roused them from to come here. “I want my children to witness it. It only happens every what, 30 yrs? I want them to learn about the science behind it but also to see the beauty
He witnessed the 1983 total solar eclipse with his family in Jakarta but heard stories about many people, especially on the island of Java, who didn’t because the government said it was too dangerous and could cause blindness. “There were so many myths around it then but now it’s different. I want my children to see this. I may not be around for the next one”.
He and his family are few of the lucky ones. The glasses soon ran out and many here are deciding to watch live streaming of eclipse from monitors in and around the planetarium building.
The eclipse is expected to be at its best on the island of Sulawesi, near Borneo but it will also be partially visible in Kuala Lumpur, Singapore, Hawaii and northern Australia.
But for those elsewhere, NASA is live streaming it beginning at 8:00 PM ET on Tuesday, March 8, 2016 (1:00 AM GMT Tuesday, March 8).
The next total solar eclipse is on August 21, 2017, and can be seen from a narrow corridor across the United States.