Jerry Wernke shoots the eclipse by using a pinhole in cardboard to project the image onto paper. (Glenn Hartong photo) | ZOOM |

        Jerry Wernke took the shot of a lifetime Christmas Day.

        Mr. Wernke, along with his basset hound, Chrissy, braved below-freezing temperatures to snap a few frames of a partial eclipse of the sun — an event that won't be repeated on Dec. 25 for more than 300 years.

        It was Mr. Wernke's first try at shooting an eclipse.

        “I thought it would be a little more spectacular, but that's what we had,” said Mr. Wernke, who took the photograph in the driveway of his White water Township home.

        “But it was worth it. I won't be around for the next one.”

Don't hold your breath for the next one.

        The moon blocked a fraction of the sun — less than 60 percent — for Midwestern observers. Some people in North America saw up to 72 percent of the sun blotted out.

        The last Dec. 25 partial eclipse was in 1954 and was visible over Africa.

        The next Yuletide eclipse is expected in 2307; in North America, 2383, according to NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center.

        Still, Dr. Frank Pinski, head of the University of Cincinnati Physics De partment, didn't follow his family outside to watch the eclipse Monday.

        “In 1970 or '71, as an undergrad, I drove from Minneapolis to Virginia Beach to view a total eclipse,” he said. “That was worth it. But partial eclipses are very hard to see.”

        The Associated Press contributed to this report.
       

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