There's nothing like a partial solar eclipse to usher in the lunar new year! My family and I had just finished our late lunch cum early dinner at an eatery when I bugged everyone to go outside to catch the eclipse. We found a very random spot outside the shopping mall and sat down to wait (I thought the eclipse would start at 5.30pm...but actually it started at 4.30pm ><). The sun was really bright (never look directly at the sun!!) and being clueless, we thought that we'd just wait for the sky to darken or something. Haha. Bored, I looked around, when all of a sudden, a bright patch of reflection in the water (there was a small pool of water behind me) caught my eye. And WHOA...I clearly saw a bright crescent reflected in the water. Amazing. Admittedly, I thought I was seeing things and got my family to verify it for me. Sure enough, it was the reflection of the eclipse taking place for we soon saw the sliver of light in the water changing as time progressed. Cool, ain't it? So, next time if you are unable to rig a special set-up (special lenses, etc) in time for the eclipse, just go outside, get a basin of water, catch the reflection of the sun in it, and savour the moment :) Note: water tends to ripple when there's a breeze..so the image will get distorted. And now for pictures!
This was taken before I noticed the sliver of light in the water... There was increasing cloud cover, as if the Sun was reeling them in by an invisble thread.. 
Somehow it showed up as an orb of light in the water..probably because the image was too bright to be captured (not too sure how to adjust the camera settings >< )
Took a shot of it with flash as I heard that doing so evens the colour out..
This is my mum's favourite pic. We were all awed by this unearthly and ethereal scene...
Moments later, we saw dark clouds scudding over..like a chariot of the sun.
Shortly after, the sun itself was obscured by clouds, but where the sky was clear, light shone through. My mum thinks that it looks like a fan spreading out from the sun.
At 6pm+, we finally headed back inside.. I couldn't resist taking one last shot :)
Here are some photos of the eclipse taken by Chengyao!
Read more about the partial solar eclipse at:
http://wildshores.blogspot.com/2009/01/solar-eclipse-today.html and
http://wildsingaporenews.blogspot.com/2009/01/singaporeans-gather-at-science-centre.html
Plus, if you'd like to catch the future solar eclipses, check out http://eclipse.astronomie.info/sofi/inter/inter/S121038.HTM (got this off the wild shores of singapore blog as well :) )
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