What luck! It was a beautifully clear morning, so I was able to see the solar eclipse that was visible today across much of Asia. Folks in northern China could see 100 percent coverage of the sun, while Hong Kongers saw about 80 percent.I watched it from the roof with my little homemade device: two white index cards, one with a pinhole in the middle. It projects the tiny image seen in the photo above, a white spot that gradually became crescent-shaped as the eclipse progressed. This photo was taken at 9:30 a.m., just after the peak of the eclipse.
I met a few other eclipse-watchers carrying specially-designed glasses that gave a much more detailed view, but there was no way I could get a photo through them. Those glasses were really incredible, though. You could actually watch the moon moving across the sun if you held them up long enough.
Looking out across the city, it seemed to me that life was as usual, except it was much more dim, kind of like at twilight but not quite. It's difficult to explain what the light was like, but it was definitely noticeable. Everything appeared a little more soft and muted -- quite different from the harsh direct sunlight that returned after the eclipse was over.
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