Total Solar Eclipse, July 22, 2009

[seanliddelow (Sean)]

Did you have the moon on 4x size? That made me think i could have seen the eclipse.

[Shano592 (Shane)]

UPDATE: Less than an hour to go, and the weather is technically fine here. I say technically, because, although it is a blue sky day, with light clouds... the smog has really made it's way to YiWu today.

For those of us playing at home, YiWu is basically surrounded by hills, so the wrong winds can have a terrible effect on visibility. It all settles into the "bowl" that is YiWu.

However, I can just see the sun from where I am, so that is something. Pity this is a business trip ... the only camera I have is attached to my phone.

I will keep you all updated, and try to get some footage to someone ... YouTube, twitter and facebook seem to unavailable at this time from this location ....

[Shano592 (Shane)]

I think the folks to the north of here are going to have something special to talk about!

Here in YiWu, the eclipse was about 98% totality, and it was fairly significant darkness.

Unfortunately, my phone's camera could not sharpen properly against the sun's brightness, even at 2% sun. I also tried filtering with the hotel's heavily tinted glass ... I think I needed to use a piece of welding glass in front of the lens, to be honest.

My eye could resolve it well, but the lens had no chance.

All of the lights on the streets and hotel rooves were lit ... it was actually quite eerie.

I'll try to grab some stills from the footage if I can.

[h0ughy (David)]

that would be good shane

[Shano592 (Shane)]

Yeah, I can't get it to resolve.

Best I could get was a lens reflection for the fingernail.

See the attached.

I have avi footage of before and during the event ... don't know if I can upload them. Total size is just under 4MB

EDIT: And now it looks like rain!

[castor]

Owing to a lousy weather forecast, managed to get a soft-sleeper ticket at short notice from Hangzhou to Wuhan.
Observed at a park with a lake, packed with locals. Weather was hot with some clouds, but as if nature was playing a cruel joke, there was no cloud cover on the opposite half of the sky. Hah!
Managed to get some decent photos of the partial phases, ironically because there was some cloud cover. Saw the first two minutes of totality (no diamond ring visible), but was unable to get any shots of it.
Nice view of the corona through binoculars though at 15x.
And then I left amidst heat exhaustion and mild disappointment.
On TV saw a cheesy bit about a guy proposing to his prospective wife during the second diamond ring and 3rd contact!!!!! Soooo corny.
Incidentally, after so many trips to China, I've got to say that Wuhan is one of the most ugliest towns I've ever been to and I never ever want to come here again.

[glenc (Glen)]

Hangzhou Bay Bridge http://www.skyandtelescope.com/news/51389547.html
"Just a minute or two before Second Contact, the Sun started to poke through again, and we could see a deep partial eclipse. The sky started darkening rapidly, and I could feel a surge of optimism and energy in our group. Then boom, we could see Baily’s Beads and a Diamond Ring through a thin haze, and suddenly the sky was pitch black. Against all expectations from just a few minutes earlier, we were seeing a total solar eclipse!"

[C.A.L.]

The Sutherland Astronomical Society group of about 84 people (+extras) observed the eclipse from approx 70km north of Hangzhou through a small hole in very thick storm clouds. The hole lasted just a little longer than totality, but certainly long enough for a number of people to take some spectacular images before the rain and thunder came in again. I still think we picked the wrong spot and were just exceptionally lucky, but as it appears that seeing the eclipse at all was simply a hit-or-miss matter of luck, we really did alright...

It was all rather spectacular - especially as we didn't think we would get to see anything at all.

Interesting that Wuhan had patchy viewing, given that the weather forecast was better there than Hangzhou. I'm still waiting to hear from a friend who was watching the eclipse from near Wuhan to see how they got on.

Cheers,
Cathi

[Screwdriverone (Chris)]

Hi All,

I was in the same boat, 7am, CLOUDS in Hangzhou, couldnt see the sun at all!

However, when the totality approached, from about 15 mins before, the clouds were high cirrus and quite transparent, so there was a fabulous view from the West Lake in front of my hotel!!

I had Baader solar film over the binos as well as my boss' HD video camera so we got some good approaching pics. He got almost ALL of the totality without the solar film on and also the diamond ring once totality was over. THEN the battery went dead!

Because he didnt bring a charger for the batteries (but did bring two that were pretty much flat anyway, then I will have to wait until next Monday when we are back in Sydney so I can get the video file off the camera and see if I can post some frames or some short clips here.

It is pretty amazing to hear "ooooooooh, aaaaaaaaahhhhH! at totality from 2000 Chinese people on the banks of the West Lake.

What a buzz!

Cheers

Chris

[Jen]

Chris you lucky bugger i wondered where you had gotten to
Cant wait to see ya pics when ya get back home cheers