Thousands have gathered to watch, and images have been beamed around the world, as a solar eclipse plunged Western Australia’s North West Cape into darkness.

Darkness fell across the North West Cape about 11.29am AWST (1.29pm AEST) on Thursday, when the moon completely blocked the sun for a minute after temperatures suddenly dropped by five degrees.

The assembled crowd of up to 20,000 cheered and screamed as the cloud-free afternoon sky went dark. Perth schoolgirl Georgie Gibbs said it felt eerie.

“It’s surreal. It feels like a dream actually,” she said.

Exmouth experienced 62 seconds of total darkness as it became one of the only places on Earth to experience Thursday’s total solar eclipse

The whole eclipse lasted about three hours as the moon passed between the sun and Earth in a partial then total eclipse, casting a 40-kilometre wide shadow over the World Heritage-listed Ningaloo reef region.

A bright solar corona that looks like a white halo visible to people in the path of totality, along with some stars and planets was eagerly anticipated.

As the partial eclipse started, Lois Polatnick from Chicago described his excitement.

“The moon is taking a bite out of the sun as we enter the shadow of the moon,” she said.

“We can see sun spots as we eagerly await totality.

“My favourite parts are the diamond ring and solar flares that become visible as we enter totality.”

NASA astronomer Henry Throop was among those cheering in the darkness.

“Isn’t it incredible? This is so fantastic. It was mind-blowing. It was so sharp, and it was so bright. You could see the corona around the sun there,” the excited Washington resident said.

“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. It was just awesome. Spectacular. And then you could see Jupiter and Mercury, and to be able to see those at the same time during the day – even seeing Mercury at all is pretty rare. So that was just awesome.”

Tweet from @SkyGuyinVA

As the sky darkened on Thursday, the Perth Observatory website crashed as people took to the web to watch a live stream of the eclipse.

The observatory turned to Facebook to provide an avenue to view stream the phenomenon.

“Thanks for visiting our website. You all crashed it,” the observatory said.

By the time the eclipse reached its peak, the website was back up and running, though the link to the livestream remained down.

Astrophysicist Melanie Johnston-Hollitt, from WA’s Curtin University, has always wanted to experience a total solar eclipse and had never been in the right place at the right time.

“To be able to see it from Australia makes it particularly special,” she said.

Fremantle’s Julie Copson said the event left her skin tingling.

“I feel so emotional like I could cry. The colour changed and seeing the corona and sun flares,” she said.

“It was very strong, and the temperature dropped so much,”

Cruise passengers took in the event on a ship off Exmouth, while eclipse-goers set up along the roadside along the route to the main viewing point at Cape Range National Park.

Professor Johnston-Hollitt said the eclipse would help people understand the structure of the solar system.

“We are on a rock, the earth, being orbited by another rock, the moon, both of which are orbiting a star, the sun, in the vastness of space,” she said.

Thursday’s eclipse was considered rare because it was a hybrid eclipse that started as an annular eclipse in the Indian Ocean before changing into a total eclipse near Exmouth.

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Exmouth, with a population of about 2800, swelled with thousands of visitors keen to witness the eclipse, arriving by air and road. It had a prime viewing position for Thursday’s historic event, although other parts of Australia also got some effect.

In Perth, where there was about 70 per cent coverage, crowds lined the city streets to watch. They were armed with phones, special glasses and DIY cardboard devices to safely take in the view.

Back in Exmouth, Detroit man Shane Varrti, who has seen five eclipses, said he had started to plan his trip to WA a year ago.

“It’s very exciting. All this effort has come to fruition,” he said.

A festival atmosphere took hold in the WA town, with concerts and events at towns and cattle stations across the region.

Campsites have sprung up in front yards and on vacant blocks of land and the streets have been bumper to bumper with 4WDs and camper vans.

Partial views of the eclipse were visible elsewhere in Australia. Source: Weatherzone

Exmouth’s Earlybird Cafe had a line of customers out the door on Thursday morning.

Owner Mandy Brendel said the influx of visitors had kept her and three staff busy in the lead-up to the eclipse.

“It’s been absolutely amazing,” she said while making coffee.

Thursday’s event was the first of five eclipses that will be visible from Australia in the next 15 years. The other four are:

• A 2028 eclipse that will be seen the Kimberley in WA, the Northern Territory, south-west Queensland and NSW, including Sydney;
• A solar eclipse in 2030 that will cross over South Australia, north-west NSW and southern Queensland;
• A total solar eclipse in in 2037, which will be seen in southern WA and the southern NT, as well as western Queensland, including Brisbane and the Gold Coast;
• In 2038, the final solar eclipse will pass through central WA, SA and along the NSW/Victoria border.

– with AAP