LAND‘S END, England (Reuters) - The last solar eclipse of the 20th century swept towards the English mainland on Wednesday — but bad weather marred the early moments of one of nature‘s greatest spectaculars. The eclipse began when the shadow of the moon completely covered the sun at 0931 GMT off Canada‘s east coast near Nova Scotia and started a three-hour-long, 1,500 mile (2,400 km) an hour race across the Atlantic Ocean, Europe, the Middle East and the Indian subcontinent. The eclipse ends when the sun sets in the Bay of Bengal off India at about 1230 GMT, by which time an estimated two billion people will have cautiously gazed skywards. Many Indians believe that eclipses are the work of Rahu and Ketu, two overwhelming celestial figures of Hindu mythology, who between them swallow the sun. Only passengers paying 1,500 pounds ($2,400) for a ticket on the Concorde supersonic airliner were lucky enough to join the chase as day turned into night. The last eclipse before the millennium first reaches land at Britain‘s Scilly Isles and then within a minute sweeps ashore on the England mainland at Cornwall. Inmates at Exeter prison in western England were bitterly disappointed on E-day — they were confined to their cells and their morning exercise period switched to the afternoon for security reasons. France and Germany were next in line after Britain. Then comes Hungary. The Romanian capital of Bucharest is the only European capital directly in its path. The point of greatest eclipse — as the moon‘s axis passes closest to earth — is set to fall on the Romanian town of Rimnicu Vilcea for two minutes and 27 seconds. Nature is turned upside down for the rare celestial event. Temperatures drop by as much as 20 degrees Fahrenheit. Birds stop singing, dogs howl and badgers come out of lairs. It will be the last total eclipse seen in Western Europe until 2081.