SINGAPORE - Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong was at the Gardens by the Bay on Thursday (Dec 26) to catch the annular solar eclipse.

In a Facebook post, he posted a photo of the eclipse he took with his camera and wrote: "Like many others across the island, I ventured out to Gardens by the Bay to watch the spectacular annular solar eclipse today. The skies were a little cloudy, but fortunately at the critical moment the sun (and moon) peeped through!"

Mr Lee, who is on leave for two weeks from Dec 21 to Jan 3, also added information of the shutter speed, aperture and ISO of the pictures he took and encouraged others to share their pictures.

"I hope you remembered to protect your eyes from the sun," he added.

Mr Lee had said earlier that during his break, he planned to spend time with family and "perhaps go #jalanjalan". He also said he will be looking at an unsolved mathematical problem called the Collatz conjecture and mathematician Terence Tao's method to prove this.

Thousands of people across the island caught the annular solar eclipse, which was visible for the first time in two decades in the Singapore sky. It will next appear in 2063.

An annular solar eclipse occurs when the Moon covers the centre of the Sun, giving the appearance of a fiery ring around it.

Starting around 11.30am Singapore time, the eclipse peaked at 1.23pm, where 94 per cent of the Sun was obscured. This left its outer edges visible in a "ring of fire" and produced a shadow that momentarily dimmed the island.