A rare solar eclipse has mesmerised thousands of people who were herded to a tiny Australian town for the most suitable vantage point on Earth to observe it.
The sky in Exmouth in Western Australia turned dark for about 60 seconds on Thursday when the Moon cast a 25-mile (40km)-wide shadow over the area.
The total solar eclipse was part of a rare hybrid eclipse, which occurs only a handful of times per century.
Parts of Asia-pacific also could witness partial eclipses.
This eclipse began in the Indian Ocean at sunrise and ended at sunset in the Pacific, with viewers at various junctures in the way of the eclipse capable of seeing its diverse - or hybrid - phases.
Some saw a total solar eclipse. In other areas, where the Moon was too small to completely block the Sun, people witnessed partial eclipses.
The best view of the eclipses was in Western Australia, Timor-Leste and West Papua.
But only those on the Exmouth Peninsula could see the total solar eclipse, at 11:27 local time.
The reef-side tourist town - 1,200 kilometres (745 miles) north of Perth - is normally home to just under 3,000 people. But its population has expanded sevenfold with all the stargazers making it their temporary home.
Tourists and scientists who travelled to Exmouth cheered as the temperature dropped, the sky turned dark and the stars came out.
Some told local media the eclipse felt surreal - "like a dream" - while others described it as an "almost religious experience".
Henry, who travelled from the United States, told ABC News he found it "mind-blowing".
"It's only a minute long, but it really felt like a long time. There's nothing else you can see which looks like that," he said, jumping with excitement on live TV.
Canadian Tom Naber also got emotional - despite it being his seventh eclipse.
"I have to admit I cried a bit, it was incredible," he told PerthNow.
The last hybrid solar eclipse was in November 2013, and Nasa expects the next in 2031.