In many cultures eclipses of the Sun serve as portents of evil or misfortune, but on December 14th the two bodies' juxtaposition brought clouds and rain to Costa Rica, thwarting millions of Central American skywatchers who had hoped to see an annular eclipse. Poor weather doused any chance of seeing the spectacle from the capital city of San José, and even some climatologically favored sites were smothered with overcast skies. Two groups of American scientists on the Guanacaste Peninsula, near the eclipse's centerline, settled for fleeting glimpses of the event's partial phases. "The weather was the worst of the week," reports a disappointed Jay M. Pasachoff (Williams College), as heavy clouds formed after sunrise then hung in all day.

A few eclipse-chasers lucked out near the event's southern limit. Paul D. Maley of Houston, Texas, leading the 25th "Ring of Fire Expedition," dodged clouds up and down the coastline until a clearing in the sky appeared near Punta Leona just 20 minutes before maximum eclipse. "This was about as exciting as it can get," Maley says. "It's the first time I've scrambled like that — and succeeded." In the same general area was another group of eclipse veterans led by Vic and Jen Winter and their Swiss colleague Olivier Staiger. (Staiger's live Webcast of the event temporarily fell victim to an accidental dousing of his videocamera.) A little farther south, on the northern end of Herradura Beach, guests at the Marriott Los Sueños Resort enjoyed a brief clearing at mideclipse despite a torrential downpour just 90 minutes beforehand.

The rest of Central America was largely clouded out as well, but clear skies prevailed over much of Mexico, the southern United States, and northern South America. Floridians had especially memorable views, as the Moon took its 60-percent bite just as the Sun was setting.