Eclipse ‘ring of fire’ wows Asian, US sky-gazers

US: Millions turned their eyes to the sky on both sides of the Pacific as a solar eclipse created a “ring of fire” from Asia to the western United States, where it was greeted with whoops in California. The annular eclipse was visible from parts of China early Monday before moving westwards across Taiwan and Japan, and was continuing across the Pacific on a 13,600-kilometre (8,500-mile) arc ending in Texas late Sunday local time.

“That was totally awesome,” said Geoff Reid, 28, from Santa Cruz, at a huge “viewing party” on a terrace overlooking Los Angeles, after a New Year's Eve-style countdown climaxed with huge cheers at the eclipse's peak.

“We're on holiday with the kids, visiting Disneyland. Then we heard this was happening, we had to come,” said British tourist Ian Hunter, among thousands gathered at the hill-top Griffith Observatory, near the iconic Hollywood sign.

In Asia, clouds across much of southeastern China prevented a clear view, with some early risers in Hong Kong able to see only a small sliver of the “annular” eclipse and others coming away disappointed.

An annular eclipse occurs when the moon passes in front of the sun, but is too far from the Earth to block it out completely, leaving the “ring of fire” visible.

However, many in Tokyo got a spectacular sight as the sprawling Japanese capital of 30 million people received its first glimpse of the phenomenon in 173 years.

Sadanobu Takahashi, 60, from Japan's northern Akita prefecture, said he and his wife joined a special two-day tour of Tokyo to watch the eclipse from the top of a 54-storey building in the Roppongi district.

“Look! Now it's a perfect ring. How wonderful!” he cried out.

Around 200 people were gathered on the roof terrace, where two-year-old Hikaru Ichikawa ran around with special viewing glasses designed to protect his eyes, shouting: “I can see it! I can see it!” Commuters from businessmen to schoolchildren stopped on the streets of Tokyo to watch as the eclipse developed, cheering when it became visible.

AFP