Shimla, July 22 - Partly cloudy sky Wednesday morning in most parts of Himachal Pradesh marred the early moments of one of nature's greatest spectaculars - the century's longest total solar eclipse, weather officials here said.

'Clouds in most parts of the hill state remained an intermittent problem, with most areas reporting partly overcast conditions,' meteorological office Director Manmohan Singh said.

On the historic Ridge in Shimla, a large number of people, especially schoolchildren, have gathered to witness the eclipse through clouds.

'It's amazing for us,' said 18-year-old Ragu Rai as he peered skywards with special eclipse glasses. 'It's a bit cloudy, but we're hopeful that we witness when it is getting darker,' he said.

In India, the totality phase was to last for some 3 minutes 30 seconds and places like Surat, Indore, Bhopal, Varanasi, Patna and Taregna near Patna were to observe the total solar eclipse.