‘Magical’ total eclipse of the sun wows viewers
Posted: Wednesday, July 22, 2009 12:21 PM
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Beijing, China
By Adrienne Mong, NBC News Producer
FENGXIAN, China – I had to suppress a smile.
A physician from Vancouver, Duncan Etches, was carrying a book entitled "Mathematical Astronomy Morsels" and was in the process of recounting his decision to join a UCLA Extension/Far Horizons tour to see the total solar eclipse in China.
"We were going to join a tour off the Ryuku Islands in Japan," he said. "But they had some bird-watching sites as part of it. And we thought, two weeks with bird watchers? They’re kind of fanatic."
Etches was so determined to catch this once-in-a-lifetime sighting that he had traveled all the way from Canada to Fengxian, a beach resort on the outskirts of downtown Shanghai to experience it.
But while Etches might be a total solar eclipse virgin, some of his fellow travelers were not.
"I went to see my first total solar eclipse in 1977," said Dr. E.C. Krupp, director of the Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles. He was leading the tour that included Etches and roughly a dozen other people.
"This eclipse is the longest period of totality for a total solar eclipse in this century," enthused Krupp. "So if you want to see all the phenomena occur during the totality, the longer the totality, the better, and… I’m not going to live to see an eclipse longer than six minutes."
Milky sky presented a challenge
In fact, at its longest point, Wednesday’s eclipse lasted 6 minutes and 39 seconds somewhere over the Pacific Ocean – after originating in India and then crossing over Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan, and finally China.
Unfortunately, for keen stargazers, visitors to China found clouds gathered in a milky sky.
"Pray for a break," said one American woman to another in Fengxian, where we had gathered with Krupp in the early morning hours before the eclipse.
"Or we could do a dance, we could do a prayer," piped up another.
In fact, the scene wasn’t a whole lot better elsewhere for eclipse watchers as the phenomenon sped across a narrow corridor of Asia – some estimates had the moon’s shadow moving from west to east at speeds of over 1,500 miles an hour.
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| Adrienne Mong/NBC News |
| Dr. E.C. Krupp from Griffith Observatory gets his camera ready. |
Low-lying clouds presented a challenge in numerous areas, including Taregna, a much-touted spot to get the best view in India. And according to reports from Tibet, the first location in China to experience the eclipse and where the sky is often a stunning clear blue, clouds were also a problem.
But the group in Fengxian soldiered ahead, preparing their cameras, GPS meters, and special Mylar sunglasses to protect their eyes while staring into the sun.
In the meantime, Krupp explained to us the event’s significance from a scientist’s perspective.
"Astronomers still study total solar eclipses because there is a still one very special kind of information we can get from them," he said. "[Professional solar astronomers] want to see a very specific part of the sun’s atmosphere that is only really revealed when the dark disc of the moon covers it up…We care about that, because the sun produces all the energy on which life on earth ultimately relies, and so we want to know how it works, and this is part of understanding how it works."
‘Ooh spooky’
In Wuhan, to the west of Fengxian, another American leading a tour called in and said that he was having a little more luck with the weather
.
"We have no low-lying clouds," said Rick Brown, a commodities trader from New York who’s been following total eclipses since 1991. He started doing site inspections two years ago for Wednesday’s eclipse before settling on a location near the Wuhan Bioengineering Institute.
In fact, Brown and several hundred people around him were able to get a full look at the sun – even though their view didn’t last the five and a half minutes everyone had hoped to have in eastern China before the eclipse headed over the Pacific Ocean.
"It was a beautiful, pearly white, shimmering corona," Brown told me over the phone after the big event, referring to the halo of light that appears during a total solar eclipse.
By the time it reached us in Fengxian, however, we were only able to see the eclipse bit by bit. At totality, the sky went dark, provoking oohs and ahhs from everyone, including the NBC News team.
"Unbelievable," said our cameraman David Lom.
"Ooh spooky," said one woman.
And in the middle of the darkness, rain began pouring down, adding to the drama of the moment even though we couldn’t see the eclipse itself.
As the light returned and the rainfall ebbed, Krupp shrugged off the cloud cover.
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| Adrienne Mong/NBC News |
| Caption: An enterprising retailer advertises on the back of his car special lens filters to protect the eyes during the eclipse. |
‘Darkest eclipse I think you’re ever gonna see’
"Little solace for those who want to see the corona, the diamond ring, the prominences, the planets, the color of the horizon, you didn’t get any of that," he said. "But you saw the darkest eclipse I think you’re ever gonna see. It was like nighttime. And if we didn’t know the eclipse was here, we would be scared."
His sentiments were echoed by Etches. "Magical," he said. "I mean you don’t know what to expect, but just the suddenness of it getting so dark and then you have no sense it’s going to end – you only know because you read it in the books, right? And then all of a sudden it’s light again."
Several other members of the tour group said they were hooked, including recent USC graduate Christie Jilly, who majored in astronomy. "Oh yeah, I’m hooked. I want to see one where I can actually see the corona."
There’s another total solar eclipse due next year, but it won’t last as long as this one. In fact, there won’t be another total solar eclipse as long or longer than Wednesday’s until the year 2132.
In the meantime, Krupp was already looking ahead.
"In 2012, there’s a transit of Venus," he said enthusiastically. "Nowhere near as spectacular as a total solar eclipse, little [black dot] going across the sun, but you know the last one was 2004, the next one 2012, and then you gotta wait 100 years or more. So you gotta be there!"
