Solar ring eclipse

Sunrise in some parts of China and Japan and by sunset in the western United States, a partial solar ecplise is set to slink across a narrow swath of the Earth Day on May 20 and 21.

Depending on where people are in the ecplise's path, some may be able to witness an annular ecplise in which the moon blocks out all but a ring of the Sun's light.

Others will see the Sun as a cresent, partially obscured by the moon, for a period of around four to five minutes.

This event will be the first time in 18 years than such an ecplise is visible from the continental United States, according to Fred Spanak, a longtime solar ecplise expert with NASA.

The path of the annular ecplise will span " a 240 to 300 kilometer wide (150-185 mile) track that traverses eastern Asia, the nothern Pacific Ocean and the western United States,"according to the US space agency.

The ecplise begins at sunrise in southern China at 2206 GMT Sunday, which is early Monday local time, and swiftly travels eastward to the southern coast of Japan, NASA said.