Total Solar Eclipse, 22nd July 2009

Prospects for viewing the longest total eclipse of the 21st Century were always no better than 50/50, so I set off this time more in hope than expectation. Most of the eclipse track was over the Pacific Ocean, and this included the point of maximum duration (6mins 39sec) which was to the south-east of Japan. The overland section began in western India and moved through China before the centre-line crossed the coast just south of Shanghai - this I where I thought I would be but a late change dictated by the enormous number of people expected to be present saw us further down the coast, at the yellow spot on the map.

Weather conditions in the days before the eclipse were pretty good but things changed the night before when thick clouds and rain moved in - not entirely unexpected, as it was monsoon season, after all! More heavy rain on the journey to the chosen site did not improve the mood but at least this had decreased to light showers by the time we arrived. First contact came and went with the sun entirely invisible but the clous then thinned slightly on several occasions to give us tantalising glimpses of the decreasing solar disc. By the time the sky began to darken things had closed in again though, so when totality arrived we couldn't say where the sun was let alone see a corona! After a suitably long darkness (difficult to say exactly how long, as light diffused in by the clouds made it impossible to say when totality actually began and ended) we at least had the distinction of having been "under the shadow" for the Big One - this wasn't exactly what we had come for though!

Naturally enough, about 10mins after totality the clouds began to clear so the closing partial phase was easily visible through a thin veil - so near but yet so far, once again! However, we were by no means the only ones to see virtually nothing as the whole of eastern China and the near-Pacific were blanketed by clouds and rain. There were reports of sightings from central China and India but the 2009 event could easily be the least observed eclipse of recent times!

The viewing site was actually already set up for spectators, but for China's only tidal bore, not the eclipse! (of which, more later). This shot shows the covered seating area and, at the right, the beginning of the open terraced area which had been allocated to us.	In front of the terracing was an area of grass and then a concrete path running the whole length of the viewing area - this is where I chose to set up my equipment (it's actually just visible to the left of the man with the dark red shirt near the middle of the picture!).
The other groups from Explore were here as well, proudly flying the flag for the UK! The chap sitting down to right of centre in the first image and standing second from left in the second is Francisco Diego, the well-known astronomer, who was accompanying one of the tour groups. Note the assemblage of water bottles steadying the tripod to the right of the first picture - a trick I tried in 2001!! My equipment can be seen in the first picture but is more easily seen in the second, again just to the left of a red shirt (bright red this time). The eagle-eyed among you will spot the distinctive "sun-shade", the very useful accessory which only I seem to have thought of!

After the eclipse was over we waited for the appearance of China's only tidal bore. While not particularly large, this was interesting for the fact that it spanned the entire width of an estuary which must have been at least a mile wide. The images below show it approaching me and then rushing past.

And so that was that! Back onto the coach and on with the tour. I took quite a lot of images of Shanghai and Suzhou which I've assembled into a mini-site, as I did with the Moscow pictures in 2008. To view it, click here - it will open in a new window. To return to this page, close the new window.

I've also produced a video of the entire eclipse taken with the digital camera. This has been compressed down from a file of over 400Mbytes to produce one of less than 10Mbytes! The quality is reasonably good even though the picture size and frame rate are small, so it's worth trying it at the "double size" setting in your movie viewer. The results of my efforts can be seen by clicking here. The duration of totality is accurately recorded, but the clouds make it hard to tell exactly when totality begins and ends at the viewing site - it's clearly a pretty long duration though! It is noticeable that the western skyline (the direction the camera was aimed) gets dark and then light well before totality arrives at and departs from the viewing site. The frequent "flashes" are exactly that - camera flashes fired off by the excitable chinese crowd. The occasional "ooh's" and "aah's" don't signify anything in terms of the eclipse - it's just reaction to fireworks being let off across the estuary [you can hear the explosions in the background] "to scare off the dragon eating the sun". As you will see, it worked rather well!!

So, it's now time to save up for Easter Island in 2010 - very expensive!!