an annular eclipse of the sun is expected to cross china friday afternoon, cheng zhuo, a researcher with the purple mountain observatory under the chinese academy of sciences, said wednesday.the astronomical phenomenon, predicted to be the longest annularity of the next 1,000 years, will be visible in some areas of yunnan, sichuan, guizhou, shaanxi, hunan, hubei, henan, anhui, jiangsu and shandong provinces as well as chongqing municipality.