1998 Annular Eclipse report from Mersing, Malaysia
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Day 1-Thursday 20 August 1998
A group of us from University Science Malaysia's Astronomical Club went to Mersing to observe the annular eclipse. The five of us travelled by two cars from Penang two days before the eclipse. The journey took about 8 hours of driving time (excluding stops). We stayed at Seri Malaysia Hotel.

Day 2-Friday 21 August 1998
We wake up at 7 am to catch the sunrise. It sulks. There are too much clouds to see a resonable good sunrise. See the photo and you'll know what I mean.
We had our breakfast. Then we learned that the official site for the eclipse is at Tanjung Sekakap, about 10km south of Mersing. It's about 10km from the center line. We met two French at the lobby of the hotel. They joined us most of the time after that. One of them, Olivier, came to Mersing for his 10th eclipse observations! They have friends coming over too. One of them, Millet, is 72 years old and came for his 21st eclipse!
The observation site is actually situated inside Pusat Bina Semangat (similar to Outbound School). When we reached there, the team from BAKSA (Bahagian Kajian Sains Angkasa or Space Science Division ) is in the middle of testing their equipment. They have defined an area for their observation. We introduce ourselves and were given an area next to theirs. We did an hour of test run before going for lunch.
At night, there is a public talk on the eclipse by Datuk Dr Mazlan. After the talk we did another test run at the hotel. The test soon became an observation session when the people starts to join us. The sky was clear. We saw jupiter and some open clusters. It was 12am when we finally succeed to excuse ourselves for a good night sleep.

Day 3-Eclipse Day 22 August 1998
Wake up at 3.30am! Just 3 hours of good sleep. We left the hotel and headed for the observation site at 4.30am. We were among the very first group to be there, other than the police!
With no time to waste, we quickly set up our telescope, computer, CCD camera and a TV. The telescope is a 8"SCT and I have piggyback a CCD camera fitted with a 300mm camera lens. The CCD will show live images on the TV and at the same time on the PC. I can save any images I want with a click of a button. But alas, the images on the PC gone kaput soon after the first contact. Luckily, I have taken many photos using my SLR camera.
By 6am, all the equipment has been set up. The sky is getting cloudy. I  can see the sky on the east starts to brightenen slowly.
Meanwhile, people has also started to arrive at the site. By 7am, the beach is already full with people. They make a long line by the seaside. Some armed with filters, some with camera and most of them just came to share the fun.
We miss the first contact. We barely see the sunrise as it was hidden by the clouds. It was only after five minutes that we were able to see the sun. But then, the moon has already gobbled up a good part of the sun. After that, the sun continue to play hide-and-seek. At one time, I felt that we might not be so lucky to see the annularity. But by 8am, the sun with the cresent shape, starts to show itself. The clouds are getting thinner.
8.15am now everybody starts to get excited. The scenery changes quickly. The wind stops blowing but the air is getting cooler and quiet. Everything seems to comes to a standstill. I looked around. It's very difficult to describe the feeling even though this is my second eclipse. (the first one in Sabah, Malaysia in 1995). The surrounding colour changes dramatically. The light is dimmed but it's not the same during the sunrise or sunset. Everything seems to be grayish in colour.  No wonder, one malay guy in his fifties, I think, yesterday night at the talk mentioned that the previous eclipse he saw in Indonesia,  describing the total eclipse to be like "hari kiamat" or the whole is coming to an end!
The clock ticks on. The sun is now becoming the shape of a very thin letter "C". It kept on getting thinner and thinner while the end of the "C" becomes longer and longer and finally, in a split second, it has becomes the letter "O".
Everybody cheers, clapped hands and shouted.
I kept one snapping my camera through the telescope and by the time the annularity ends 2mins and 50secs later, I have finished one full roll of film!
Soon after the eclipse, we went to develope our negatives, had lunch and prepared for another 10 hours journey home. Reach home 3am the next day!