CABO SAN LUCAS, Mexico (AP) _ In a resort city known for its spectacular sunsets, tourists and residents stopped what they were doing and watched the moon cover 94 percent of the sun late Monday.
With the sun still high in the sky, the dark shadow of the moon took a small bite out of its lower half, than began creeping slowly over the rest of the glowing yellow orb. An hour later all that remained was a small sliver of white light that looked like a fingernail or an upside crescent.
The most impressive part of the eclipse lasted about 10 minutes and then the moon began to slowly slide away. The sun set under dramatic pink and orange clouds about 15 minutes later.
Tourists and beach vendors stood next to restaurant employees and locals, all staring up at the sky. At Billygan's bar and restaurant, people set down their drinks and walked to the ocean's edge with their heads turned skyward. Many covered their eyes with foldable cardboard glasses fitted with lenses of dark film that hundreds of shops and vendors sold especially for the event.
While not a major astronomical event _ several partial solar eclipses can occur in a year _ Monday's eclipse was exciting for those who crowded Cabo's beaches to see it.
``You have to see these things when they happen because who knows when we'll see the next one,'' said Tomas Esteban, a 35-year-old jewelry vendor. ``These are things that happen in the cosmos and it's interesting to know what's going on with the planets.''
Juce Garcia, a singer-songwriter from San Francisco, said she ``planned her whole day'' around what was the first partial solar eclipse of 2002.
In most places in the United States, sky gazers saw only tiny portions of the sun's surface obscured, if any at all. On the East coast the eclipse occurred after sunset and was not at all visible.
The event began across the International Dateline at sunrise Tuesday in Southeast Asia. The moon's shadow partially darkened the sun, then widened as it sped eastward on an 8,700-mile journey across the Pacific.
In Banyuwangi, an Indonesian city 560 miles east of the capital of Jakarta, port official Afan Tabona said he enjoyed a seven-minute view.
``A small section of the lower part of the sun was cut out,'' Tabona said. ``We saw the sun as a crescent with the naked eye until the end of the eclipse.''
The eclipse in various parts of Indonesia lasted up to 15 minutes, with the moon covering about 20 percent of the sun. But it reached its final phases and staged its most impressive show late Monday near San Diego, Calif., Mexico's Baja California peninsula, and the resort city of Puerto Vallarta on Mexico's Pacific coast.
``If you knew how rare they were you'd savor every one,'' John Downs, president of San Diego's Oceanside Photo and Telescope Astronomical Society, said of partial eclipses.
Near Hollywood, Calif., a howl went up from a crowd of 300 people on the lawn of Griffith Observatory when the eclipse reached its maximum.
``The drama that leads up to it is the thing,'' said Paul Jose, 51, of Culver City, a construction worker and eclipse aficionado who photographed the event.
``The temperature changes and the light changes, and I always enjoy it when I can take off my sunglasses. That's when you know something is happening,'' he said.
Just south of Puerto Vallarta and about 30 miles south of the tip of the Baja California peninsula, 97 percent of the sun was hidden, leaving only a narrow burning ring of fire, known as an annular eclipse.
Heavy rains drenched Puerto Vallarta on Monday, leaving Los Cabos one of Mexico's most promising places for a land-based view.
``It was very pretty, quite impressive,'' said Fernando Avila, a cook at Billygan's who watched the eclipse in his white chief's jacket. ``These things happen what, like every five years? It's something everyone should see.''
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