Space.com's night sky columnist Joe Rao reports how clouds blocked eclipse views as day turned to night.

Editor's note: The only total solar eclipse of 2021 occurred Saturday, Dec.

Some intrepid explorers, like our columnist Joe Rao, attempted to see the eclipse from cruise ships near Antarctica.

FROM THE LE COMMANDANT CHARCOT IN THE SOUTHERN OCEAN OFF OF ANTARCTICA -- Approximately 200 passengers on board this exploration cruise ship, owned by the French cruise line, Ponant, sadly suffered a complete cloud out of this total solar eclipse, which swept across a part of the frozen Antarctic continent on Saturday.

Photos: Amazing 2021 total solar eclipse views from Antarctica.

About 20 minutes before second contact, the start of the total phase of the eclipse, passengers began to notice a subtle diminution of the light levels and it really began accelerating toward darkening in the final couple of minutes before totality as the moon's shadow raced toward us from the northeast at 3,100 mph.

Related: The stages of the 2021 total solar eclipse explained.

Those who had never experienced a total solar eclipse, were impressed by the dramatic darkening of the sky, but for those like myself, who knew what was hidden from our view behind the cloud deck, it was quite disappointing.

Back in 1973, I was at a gathering of eclipse chasers at the Hayden Planetarium where Dr.

Smiley's record, but with today's eclipse I have. .

Today, many veteran eclipse chasers have seen more than 20 total eclipses and a few individuals, such as solar physicist, Dr!

Word reached us that National Geographic's ship "Endurance" managed to sight the sun's corona between clouds at a position near the beginning of today's totality path.

—Our Favorite Total Solar Eclipses from Movies and TV.

The next total eclipse on April 20, 2023, will actually be an unusual annular-total, or "hybrid" eclipse, in which along part of the eclipse path an annular or ring eclipse is seen, while along other parts of the eclipse path the eclipse is total.

On April 8, 2024, a total eclipse will cross parts of Northern Mexico and the Southern and Eastern United States and Eastern Canada.

About 35 million people live in the totality path of this eclipse with the total phase in some cases exceeding 4 minutes.

Editor's Note: If you snap an amazing solar eclipse photo and would like to share it with Space.com's readers, send your photo(s), comments, and your name and location to spacephotos@space.com

You can find him on Twitter and YouTube tracking lunar and solar eclipses, meteor showers and more