Total Solar Eclipse - July 22, 2009

[castor]

Is anyone here going to see the total solar eclipse this year?

This will be the only time in my lifetime I get to see a total solar eclipse from my home region. While the band of totality misses my birthplace of Nanjing by a few miles, I will be spending Eclipse Day somewhere on the western shore of West Lake in Hangzhou, Zhejiang. (I will be flying standby to Chengdu if the forecast is bad.)

If any Australians are going I'd be interested as I could act as an interpreter/tour guide for the day in this most beautiful of cities and maybe go out for a drink that night and enjoy the magnitude 1 (!) skies of East China's magnificently technicolour summer evening.

Average high's at that time of year is a lovely 33 degrees Celsius with humidity on a par with Darwin in the wet season, though with much less rain. I'm sure you people shivering in the south will be thrilled.

[alphamone]

hmm, I was planning on going to wuhan, but if there are lots of people going to see it around that area, hopefuly people with solar filter film, (unless anyone knows a way for me to pick one up in canberra, as I want to have it before I go to test it out if buy one, so I can use my camera), I may go there instead.

Another thing my eclipse viewing location will depend on will be my eventual holiday plans.


Also, I wonder if anyone is planning to do eclipse viewing on North Iwo Jima, the closest land mass to the point of maximum eclipse.

[castor]

Wuhan, Hubei is an industrial city in the middle of China with virtually no touristic infrastructure except for the Yellow Crane Tower and an even hotter climate than the eastern seaboard. No-one goes on vacation there.

It is, however, gateway to Yichang the starting point of the Three Gorges Cruise on the Yangzi River through to Chongqing. I think most of that cruise trip falls on the totality band so if you could somehow get a boat trip on that day that would potentially be a unique experience.