‘Definitely a Bummer’ for Eclipse Aficionados : Celestial phenomena: Hundreds flock to viewing points in the county, only to be denied their goal by thick clouds.

Hundreds of eclipse aficionados gathered on beaches and hills Saturday to witness the sun being obscured by the moon, but thick clouds robbed most spectators of their celestial view.

Uncooperative weather shielded the heavenly event from a group of about 200 who had gathered at the Circle X Ranch in the Santa Monica Mountains. Astronomers had said the remote spot should offer some of the best views of the eclipse.

“It’s definitely a bummer,” said Mike Lippman of Panorama City, a member of the Ventura County Astronomical Society, as he stood shivering in the twilight with about 30 members of his group.

“But if you don’t see one eclipse, you just wait for the next one to come along,” Lippman said before he packed up his telescope.

Even National Park Service rangers who hosted the event for the public gave up early, after cloud cover drove half of the spectators away.

“This is a natural event, and we can’t control nature,” park ranger Costa Dillon said with a shrug as the sun dipped behind the clouds and vanished for the night. “Sometimes it works for you and sometimes it doesn’t.”

About 4:30 p.m., before the moon was expected to be silhouetted against the sun, Dillon finally gave in to pessimism.

“We’re forecasting continued darkness until tomorrow,” Dillon glumly told the crowd. “This’ll happen again in another 20,000 years.”

The annular eclipse--in which the moon covers the sun, leaving a ring of light--was supposed to be visible throughout most of Southern California.

But after a brief break in the clouds during the first phase of the eclipse, the sun disappeared for good.

The lure of the eclipse had drawn spectators from throughout the Southland.

The most avid astronomy buffs lugged telescopes and cameras to record the eclipse. Others sported makeshift glasses fashioned from darkened pieces of film and special lenses to protect their eyes from the sun’s harmful rays.

About 3:40 p.m., yelps of “You can see it!” and “We have contact!” broke out as the first shadows appeared over the sun. Then silence fell over the crowd when the sun again receded behind cloud cover.

Roger Linfield, 37, an astronomer at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, said he dragged two friends 60 miles on the slim chance that the weather would clear up.

“There seemed to be marginal enough conditions that could have gone either way,” Linfield said as he held up a white piece of cardboard that showed the small bite taken out of the sun. “If we’d stayed at home, we definitely wouldn’t see it.”

Despite their disappointment, some tried to make the most of the phenomenon by trading stories of other eclipses they had seen from Hawaii and Mexico.

Mellissa Yarbrough and Sue Peelle, both of Thousand Oaks, popped open a bottle of sparkling grape juice to celebrate the eclipse along with their four children.

Yarbrough described her interest in almost religious terms.

“For me, it’s cosmic. It’s a great group of people that have enthusiasm for this,” said Yarbrough, who was in Hawaii for the July eclipse. Yarbrough said their husbands had stayed home.

“I can’t believe they’re missing this,” she said. “They’re working and watching the games and missing a once-in-a-lifetime event.”

Peelle shared a Solarama viewer purchased at the Griffith Observatory with other spectators who lacked their own telescopes and lenses.

“I think nature has great surprises for us,” Peelle said. “For a while, it looked great. We did see something.”

The clouds that brought gloom over the eclipse watch also were expected to shepherd in rains for the second time in a week.

Steve Burback, a meteorologist for Weatherdata Inc., which provides forecasts for The Times, said the new storm was expected to hit Ventura early today.

“The rains will be pretty good,” Burback said. “Ventura County will get a half-inch to an inch before it blows over.”

Showers are expected to continue throughout the day today and to decrease by tonight. Overnight lows are expected to be in the 40s.

The sun is unlikely to make another appearance before Wednesday, Burback said. Another storm front will bring more clouds Monday and Tuesday but little chance of rainfall.

“It will kind of zip through real quick,” he said.

* RELATED STORY: A1