A rare partial solar eclipse on Thursday turned out to be a rather disappointing affair in Hong Kong, with heavy clouds making it impossible to spot.

The Space Museum held viewing activities in various districts and attempted to live stream the phenomenon, which occurred around noon.

"The sun is temporarily not visible due to cloud cover," the museum conceded on its feed.

Professor Quentin Parker, the director of the University of Hong Kong's Space Research Laboratory, said only a glimpse of the eclipse would have been possible anyway, even if the weather had been favourable.

“What we could have seen from Hong Kong would have been very little because the part of the moon that occluded the sun was just a tiny fraction of the southwest side,” he said.

“You would have been able to see a bite out of the sun on the southwest side that sort of moved along the outer edge of the sun over a period of about 40 minutes very slowly.”

Parker said people elsewhere will have enjoyed a much better show.

“On the northwest part of the continent of Australia, there was a beautiful total solar eclipse. Absolutely gorgeous images of totality seen from Australia where the clouds were absent,” he said.

The next partial solar eclipse visible from Hong Kong is expected to take place in July 2028.