In the night before our departure from home...
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In the night before our departure from home...
We joined a group tour travelling to China to observe the total solar eclipse on 1st August 2008 (the tour was organized by Astro Station Conrad from Vienna). We travelled from Vienna via Amsterdam to Chengdu; unfortunately, we didn't stay the night there, but spent the (hot and muggy) day visiting the "Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding", walking through a park, having dinner, and so on. Afterwards we took a flight (the third one on this long "day") to Lanzhou. We should have arrived at our hotel in Lanzhou at about 2am, but due to bad weather conditions the flight was delayed, so we could only go to bed at 7am in the morning (after a "early" breakfast and approximately 40 hours without a bed).
A Red Panda with bamboo...
Crescent Lake
The next day around noon we visited a park with water wheels close to the Yellow River and the "Lanzhou White Pagoda Park" (far above the city) with a great view on the Yellow River (and very beautiful weather). Then we went from Lanzou to Dunhuang (the 4th flight of our journey).
In Dunhuang, we visited the Crescent Lake (on the edge of a large sand desert) und the Mogao Caves. Afterwards, we went (by bus) from Dunhuang to Jiayuguan, our first big bus drive lasting 5 hours (roughly 300 kilometers): we experienced impressively monotonuous countryside, and it was even raining part of the time, a little bit worrying 2 days before the eclipse ;-) Shortly before arrival in Jiayuguan, we entered the path of totality.
After our first overnight stay in the hotel in Jiayuguan (it was the only hotel of the journey for more than one night, for two actually) we visited (on the day before the day of the eclipse) a fortress of the Great Wall and another part of the Great Wall (going up a hill). We had wonderful weather and a great view of the landscape there: desert towards the northeast, and far away the city of Jiayuguan,... In the afternoon we visited an ancient grave near to the city; the Conrad family and one of our travel guides didn't join us, but already went on an exploratory trip to our eclipse observation site (a camp of "Eclipse City" close to the centerline).
To get a good place within the observation camp, we left our hotel early in the morning (with all the luggage, "We will not return!"), and went (by bus) towards the centerline (part of it on bumpy roads); we had to pass a police checkpoint; at noon, we arrived at the "Eclipse City" camp (100 km distance from Jiayuguan): one of the two oberservation sites in the region which was permitted by the Chinese government.
The eclipse took place not before the evening, so I had just enough time to prepare for the setting-up of my automatic cameras. Using CHDK (for Canon-Kameras), I have developed scripts for 3 cameras (Canon Powershot A560, A720 and S5) long before the eclipse to automatically capture the event. Since I have already been told about the (sufficiently) exact coordinates of the eclipse camp a few days before our departure from home, I knew the contact times as well as the azimuth and altitude of the Sun, Venus and Mercury (at different points in time) in advance. Right before 1st contact (being at approx. 18:15 Chinese time, 10:15 UTC resp.) I succeeded in setting up each of my 3 preprogrammed cameras (and, in addition, a MiniDV-camcorder).
17:53 I set up the Canon Powershot A720...
One frame of the MiniDV recording
In general, the staff of the camp was very unfriendly and not very sensitive: shortly before 1st contact (the observation of the eclipse should not be disturbed any more at this time), they started to collect the stools which had been "scattered around in the desert" by some of us (one was not allowed to remove them from their initial place). One of them almost ran down my tripod (with the Canon A720); I could only prevent him from doing so by grabbing his arm and pulling him aside. A couple of minutes earlier, I had set up the A720 using a grid (prepared at home, again with CHDK) and the sun (not yet eclipsed at that time); this would not have been possible later on.
Moreover, the operators of the camp ran a generator (for a group of scientists), resulting in air pollution and noise (which can be heard on the video recording).
Awaiting the umbral shadow of the moon (approx. 100 seconds left); totality begins at approx. 19:12:49 (11:12:49 UTC), and will last for approx. 1 minute 50 seconds...
The second contact, automatically photographed by the Canon Powershot S5:
The inner corona with a prominence during totality (here is a comparison of the sizes of the Sun and the Moon):
The Canon Powershot A560 (my "pure landscape camera") has taken pictures for several hours, at 5 second intervals (a total of more than 2000 photos, partly with automatic exposure, partly with different manual exposure settings); here are three of them (please click on the left image for a larger view):
The outer corona with a star at the bottom right :-) (again photographed by the S5); if you want to see the corona at four different exposure settings, please click on the image below.
The following picture shows my parents and me during totality, as well as the Sun (and the Moon), and Mercury and Venus at the upper left; like many other photos (click here to see some of them), this picture was automatically photographed by the Canon Powershot A720. Each of the 3 cameras ran automatically (thanks to CHDK), therefore I didn't have to do anything around totality (aside from removing two filters); during totality I exclusively watched the eclipse and the landscape.
Note that this photo shows the whole inner planet system and my family: Sun, Mercury, Venus, Earth, Moon (coincidentally covering the Sun ;-)), my parents and me; one has to seize this rare opportunity :-)
The third contact (again photographed by the S5):
Shortly after 3rd contact (photographed by the A720, with short exposure time; more pictures can be found here):
The following picture shows several shots of the S5, which have been added up; the tripod was fixed, so the movement of the Sun/Moon is due to Earth's rotation; the corona shot approx. in the middle of totality, the partial crescents of the sun at 2 minute intervals (please click on the image for a larger view):
In the partial phase after totality, the sun was covered by clouds from time to time:
Photos taken by the S5, shortly before sunset...
... one minute later...
... another minuter later...
Unfortunately, we had to set off soon after sunset (which occured at approx. 20:39 with respect to the "mathematical horizon"), since after dinner in a city near Jiayuguan (approx. 150km from the camp) at midnight we had to go to our next hotel in Zhangye, a bus drive of several hundred kilometers; we didn't have the chance to sleep more than 4 hours there, the people, who have chosen to travel on to Tibet, even less than 2 hours. Because of all that, I cut short the execution of my camera scripts (in the A560 and the A720) at 20:47, so as not to hold up my fellow travellers even more; nevertheless, the photos of the landscape would have been interesting at least until 21:00.
After our overnight stay in Zhangye, we went on to Wuwei (by bus), did some sightseeing, and stayed overnight. On the next morning, we went back to Lanzhou (it was a very impressive bus drive; we saw very rural regions and went over a pass approx. 3000 meters high). From there, we took a flight back to Chengdu and stayed there overnight. Next morning, we visited a Taoist monastery (which was very interesting to me), then we travelled back to Vienna (via Amsterdam). In the plane from Amsterdam to Vienna (the seventh and last one of our journey), I have seen the (waxing) crescent of the moon for the first time.
I observed the partial eclipse of the moon while being at a "show jumping competition" in Reifnitz in Carinthia (southern part of Austria); note the Moon at the upper right which has already touched the umbral shadow of the Earth:
The partially eclipsed moon, at four different exposure settings:
Finally, there was even a fireworks display during the lunar eclipse ;-)
Shortly before the end of the partial phase: the Moon, with a small part of its surface still in the umbral shadow, and some clouds...
The Moon has completely left the umbral shadow (approx. 1 minute ago); penumbral phase (photographed with very short exposure time):
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