Clarifying Douglas Gough's statement

Douglas Gough says "The Indonesian government had declared it to be illegal to watch the eclipse, at least for the Indonesians. They had either to watch it on TV or to go to the mosque and pray for the dragon to spit the sun out again. Which is what they believed was taking place."

1. There is no such law (had never been such binding law/regulation) in Indonesia decreed by the Indonesian government which says that if you watch the eclipse then you'll get penalty/fine/jailed.

2. They had to watch it on TV because as you may know that the seeing the UV light directly by eyes without sun ray glasses can prove to be dangerous for our eyes (especially the retina rod and cone cells) moreover in the tropical places such as Indonesia where the sun latitude in the strong angle so the there's a high UV intensity. Such explanation by B. Ralph Chou's released in NASA website. http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/SEhelp/safety2.html

3. The people go to the mosque to do prayer because there's such religious teaching in Islam to thank and acknowledge such God's creation/phenomenon by offering prayers. Not because they pray for the dragon to spit the sun out again.

4. If there's such a belief/superstition about waiting the dragon to spit the sun out again when there's an eclipse. It's not part of the religion or government explanation, but the old culture instead. I'm not sure which culture, but it'd be Javanese or Balinese culture.

So Gough clearly based his statements only by the hearsay according the local people statements, and not by actual research/proof.