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Solar eclipse attracts Chinese gazers

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-07-22 09:22

LANZHOU: Solar eclipse gazers gathered at the sides of the Yellow and Yangtze rivers Wednesday morning in northwestern Lanzhou and central Wuhan cities as the moon started to shadow the sun at 8:15 am.

Partial solar eclipse started at 8:01'27 am in Cona County, Tibet in southwest China, according to an observatory under the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS).

The county was one of the first places in the country to view the solar eclipse.

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However, the solar view from Cona was blocked by overcast, according to sources from the CAS Purple Mountain Observatory based in Nanjing, eastern Jiangsu Province.

Cona is 500 km south of Lhasa, Tibet's capital. The sun sunshine was blocked behind clouds in Lhasa as well on Wednesday.

Weather in many Chinese cities along the full solar eclipse path along the Yangtze River is not favorable for the observation, according to the China Meteorological Administration's forecast at 8:00 am.