A stunning solar eclipse turned the sun into a ring of fire Sunday stretching from China to Japan to the middle of the United States.

The moon passed in front of the sun leaving a "Ring of Fire. Scientists call this event an "annular eclipse." This is the first time one is visible in almost 18 years.

The phenomenon was also captured from space. A picture of this spectacular sight emerged Monday. (View a Special Gallery Here).

In the U.S. the eclipse was visible in cities such as Medford, Oregon; Chico, California; Reno, Nevada; St. George, Utah; Alburquerque, New Mexico and Lubbock, Texas.

Viewers were not only astonished by the sun in the sky. Some of them also saw the sunbeams turn into little crescent-shaped and rings of light. These could be visible on the ground beneath a leafy tree for example..

"I like to compare different types of eclipses on a scale of 1 to 10 as visual spectacles," NASA's leading eclipse expert Fred Espenak said. "If a partial eclipse is a 5 then an annular eclipse is a 9."

"A total eclipse is a million," he added.

People in Facebook, YouTube and Twitter were commenting about the event and posted images and videos from different parts of the world.

The ring of sunlight during annularity is blindingly bright and even though most of the Sun's disk will be covered, people still needed to use a solar filter or some type of projection technique.

VIEW MAY 20 SOLAR ECLIPSE SLIDESHOW

View a Time Lapse Video Below:

Editor's note: A previously posted image of an eclipse captured from space was a rendered image. It has been replaced with a news photo.

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