COMET BLAZES DURING TOTAL ECLIPSE OVER ASIA.

Byline: Associated Press 

Sky gazers in China and Russia got a double delight Sunday when the sun disappeared behind the moon in a total solar eclipse that coincided with a rare view of the bright Hale-Bopp comet.

Tens of thousands of people in northern China and eastern Siberia watched the sky go dark and felt already freezing temperatures drop as the moon blocked the sun's rays for more than two minutes.

The moon looked like a giant black hole ringed by a necklace of fire.

In Chita, near Russia's border with Mongolia and China, people crowded in the streets to watch the eclipse through pieces of smoked glass to protect the eyes, the ITAR-Tass news agency said.

Nearly 90,000 people saw the eclipse from Mohe, a county on China's northern tip that banned people from lighting stoves at home Sunday morning to keep the air smoke-free for sky gazing, the state-run Xinhua News Agency said.

They bundled up in thick coats there against temperatures of minus 13 degrees.

The eclipse coincided with the arrival of the Hale-Bopp comet, extending its fiery tail toward the northwest, Xinhua said.

Chinese television broadcast the celestial show live, with the comet seen as a bright fleck of light in the eclipse-darkened sky.

Just twice before - in Egypt in 1882 and in Brazil in 1947 - have a full eclipse and the close passing of a comet been recorded at the same time, said Li Qibin, president of the China Astronomical Society.

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PHOTO The sun disappears behind the moon in a total solar eclipse observed in the southern Siberian city of Chita.

Associated Press