Diners along the Riverwalk use special glasses to keep watch as the moon moves in front of the sun during an annular solar eclipse, or ring of fire, Oct 14, 2023, as seen from San Antonio, the United States. (PHOTO / AP)

CAMPECHE, Mexico - Thousands of people across the Americas gazed at the heavens on Saturday to witness a rare phenomenon known as an annular solar eclipse, when the moon passes in front of the sun, momentarily producing the appearance of a "ring of fire" in the sky.

"It's one of those things you can't miss," said Oscar Lopez, 26, who traveled from Mexico City to the southern Mexican city of Campeche to see the eclipse. "It's amazing. We're really lucky as human beings to be able to experience these things."

US space agency NASA said the eclipse was following a path from the US Pacific Northwest over California, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas, crossing over parts of Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Colombia and Brazil before ending at sunset in the Atlantic Ocean.

The moon moves in front of the sun during an annular solar eclipse, or ring of fire, Oct 14, 2023, as seen from San Antonio, the United States. (PHOTO / AP)

Lopez and his family were among hundreds of spectators wearing sunglasses who gathered to watch the moon slowly glide across the face of the morning sun in Campeche, a picturesque colonial-era city on the western edge of the Yucatan peninsula.

An annular solar eclipse occurs when the moon passes between Earth and the sun at a time when the moon is at or close to its farthest point from our planet. It does not completely obscure the face of the sun, unlike in a total solar eclipse.

Instead it creates the image of a brilliant ring on the outlines of the sun surrounding the dark disc of the moon.

The full annular solar eclipse is seen from Valley of the Gods outside Bears Ears National Monument in Utah, on Saturday, Oct 14, 2023. (PHOTO / CARLOS AVILA GONZALEZ / SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE VIA AP)

Isaac Solis, 26, a video editor in Mexico, chose the eclipse to propose to his 27-year-old girlfriend Alondra de Jesus Aguilar as they looked up at the sun in Campeche.

"I wasn't expecting it at all," Aguilar said. "I feel really happy. And really sure I want to spend my life with him."

The Moon crosses in front of the Sun over Memorial Juscelino Kubitschek, during an annular Eclipse in Brasilia, Brazil, Oct 14, 2023. (PHOTO / REUTERS)

The solar eclipse is seen using a solar filter as people gather to watch the eclipse at a museum in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, Oct 14, 2023. (PHOTO / REUTERS)

People gather to watch the solar eclipse at UFAM university in Manaus, Brazil, October 14, 2023. (PHOTO/REUTERS)

Visitors gather to photograph the annular solar eclipse in the Valley of the Gods outside Bears Ears National Monument in Utah, on Oct 14, 2023. (PHOTO / AP)