July 22, 2009 ALP Total Solar
Eclipse Expedition To Shanghai, China
by Armando Lee & Francis Sarmiento
Amidst hectic work schedules
and continuous rains in Metro Manila, the
 team can only
manage to rehearse indoors for their July 22, 2009 total
solar eclipse expedition in Sheshan, Shanghai. Making
sure that they will only bring the essential equipment,
they double-checked and made repeated weighing of their
luggage to avoid excess airline luggage fees. They did 3
rehearsals but it was all indoors since they were always
clouded out and at times raining hard.
The team’s flight to Shanghai
last July 20, 2009 was delayed for 2 hours which made
our time of arrival to Shanghai and to the hotel 2 hours
late as well. We reached Sen Lin Hotel around 7:00pm
after a quick dinner in a noodle house. Conversational
English language proved to be difficult to find among
the hotel staff especially when we were asking for a
site where we can set up our scopes for the next
morning’s rehearsal. Initial survey of the observation
site also delayed and was even done at night instead of
late afternoon as planned for the same day. Examination
of the equipment in the luggage proved to be OK with no
damages sustained from the 2,500 miles journey. The team
was only able to survey the extent of the WIFI coverage
of the hotel’s internet connection.
The hotel where we
checked in is situated between the East and West She
Shan Hills, a small valley where a major road runs
through and where our hotel is nicely situated with a
view of the Eastern sky some 20 degrees above the
horizon. Our Western sky is blocked by the Western hill
of She Shan by some 35 degrees. The parking lot of Sen
Lin Hotel proved to be conveniently located with a WiFi
coverage coming from the hotel itself. And so we
practiced and rehearse the next day after our arrival.
After retiring late the
preceding evening, we proceeded to explore the grounds
of our hotel. We had our first Shanghai breakfast, a
stroll in a thick bamboo forest and checking on other
curiosities within the area.
During the first day’s
rehearsal we checked the grounds, the WIFI coverage, and
the scopes & cameras and we decided not to use the 66SD
with 17mm eyepiece afocally set webcam since we
discovered the FOV (field of view) of the system is not
comfortably big enough for a manually tracked photo
tripod set up. We decided to just use the webcam as is
without telescope and just use it to show live webcast
of the environment and the team’s set up during the
whole eclipse period of 2 and a half hours. Mrs Myra Lee
was till assigned to man the webcam and at the same time
control the crowd that was expected to assemble around
the team.
The other set up we
planned were tested and proven OK and we decided to go
ahead with them. They are the following:
1. An equatorially
mounted (EQ2 mount) 60mm f/5 achromatic refractor with a
density 5.0 Baader film filter cover on the objective
lens and coupled with a Neximage focal reducer and a
PC164ex CCD b/w video camera with autoiris which sends
analog video signal to a KIWI-OSD-VTI for video time
stamping of time reckoned from GPS satellite signals.
The resulting video is recorded in digital format by a
Canon ZR200 miniDV handycam.
2. A Canon ESO 350D
digital SLR coupled with an EF lens 75-300mm set at
300mm covered with a density 5.0 Baader film filter
mounted on a phototripod mount.
The remaining time in
that day’s late morning and early afternoon was spent
for tours around the vicinity of the She Shan Hills. We
first toured the Sculpture Park where there was a 10
hectare area reserved for eclipse chasers/viewers who
bought 22 USD tickets to ensure a space and some
souvenirs from the event. Dr Sarmiento bought one just
for the souvenir it provided ( a T-Shirt, ticket card,
and Sun viewer), while Dr Lee bought several solar
binoculars and some T-shirts and commemorative caps.
The group then
proceeded to the Shanghai Astronomical Observatory which
was the highest point in Shanghai. After paying 20 Yuan
each as entrance fee to the Catholic Cathedral and
Observatory Complex they walked through the trail amidst
the heat and humidity and was rewarded with a
magnificent views from the peak where the Shanghai
Cathedral and several observatory dome is situated. The
main dome houses the biggest telescope that is already
decommissioned by the government of China and which now
only serve as museum exhibit and provides revenue for
the government. The observatories on She Sha Hills were
constructed by Jesuit priests in the 1800s and 1900s and
was only shut down and converted to museum exhibits
after the New Chinese government of 1949 took control of
She Shan Hills.
The biggest telescope
in the observatory is a 40cm refractor with 7m focal
length which was inaugurated in 1900. It represents the
first large telescope in China’s history. The 10m
diameter rotunda built above the telescope, built with
an unfixed window, can be oriented along a full 360
degrees. The Catholic Cathedral is close during the time
of visit.
It was a very enjoyable
trip which provided the group a perfect setting and
background knowledge of the historical tidbits of the
site making them aware of the significance of the coming
of the eclipse they were about to observe and record the
following day.
On the Eclipse day –
July 22, 2009 after having breakfast we
 prepared the
equipment and set up around 8:00AM which was easily done
since there was not much crowd in the parking lot. The
sky then was overcast but the Eastern sky slowly and
intermittently provided some fleeting moment of window
where we saw the Sun peeping out with sunshine. And so
we started recording at 8:15AM and by that time the Sun
was all covered up. The Sun’s disk could hardly be discerned.We continued recording even with no Sun disk
visible at the 1st Contact time. And so we
missed the 1st Contact because of thick
clouds. Some opening right after the 1st
Contact provided some images in my video set up and also
in the digital SLR manned by Dr Francis Sarmiento III.
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Video frame showing
geographic coordinate of the site |
First Contact video
frame (no Sun visible) |
First decent video
image after 1st Contact |
Last decent video frame
image before the thunderstorm. |
Then the clouds got
thicker and the air got cooler and some lightning were
observed striking from every direction and thunder got
louder and louder...
As heavy
rains marred our view of the solar eclipse we ran for
cover with our equipment to one of the hotel buildings
near our observation post. Here the team continued what
we can still document and proceeded to provide a live
webcast to the SM MOA Astrocamp Observatory using
www.justin.tv/medlee until the
eclipse event ended at around 11:00AM. ALPers
Christopher Lee and Wilbert Palma together with Bernie
Esporlas were there in Astrocamp Observatory also
observing and recording the partiality event in Pasay
City Philippines. The ALPers there were luckier than the
teams deployed in China. They were blessed with clear
sky with minimal cloudiness the whole period of the
partial solar eclipse. They chatted with the She Shan
Shanghai team as they watch the live webcast done by the
She Shan Shanghai team. Guests were shown views through
different telescopes there namely; two 5 inch maksutovs,
one 80mm apochromat, and one 80mm achromat; all with
solar filters, the maksutovs with glass filters and the
refractors with Baader film filters. Time reckoning done
using Sony ICF radio.
There were media
personnel from different national and international
press agencies and print media as well as some guests
from the public and from the SM admin.
Heavy rainclouds dashed
the Shanghai team’s hopes to fully document the July 22,
2009 total solar eclipse from Sheshan, Shanghai. They
missed 1st contact yet brief cloud breaks allowed us to
catch a few moments of early partial phases of the
eclipse. However, after 8:40am local time, rains have
started. Lightning and thunder followed towards and
during totality.
Images were taken using
a Canon EOS 350D DSLR with a Canon EF lens 300mm without
solar filters. It was done without filters to capture
the eclipse through thick clouds. It was a quick
decision made by Dr Sarmiento which proved to be right.
The group could have missed the opportunity to take
digital images if not for Dr Sarmiento’s good judgement
of the situation.
The sky all the way
down to the horizon has become really very dark by the
time of totality. So dark, that the horizon can not be
seen anymore. It was an eerie sight of a progressively
darkening
heavily-clouded sky which became like nighttime at
mid-morning and brightened up a little more than 5
minutes later. All these times, the rain did not abate.
It was only 15 minutes after totality that the rains
stopped for a while and the team observed birds flying
around the hotel’s water fountain park as it looking for
early worms, probably thinking it was the break of dawn
already when in fact it was already 9:54AM!
Our Shanghai
Eclipse expedition was plagued by thunderstorms.
Totality was all lightning and thunderclaps! We were
able to shoot some images still but only after the first
contact then nothing more, darkness and hard rain
followed the totality the whole day but the darkest
moment was at the time of totality where the sky was
noted to be so dark that the horizon can not be
differentiated from the dark wet ground where we were
observing and recording.
Four days at the
outskirts of downtown Shanghai has brought us so much
fun and tense moments. Missing the eclipse highlights
was a downside yet sharing the experience of it all with
other nationalities was very fulfilling - who, in a
single moment of astronomical awe and wonder, were
humbled and reminded of the great forces that move the
universe. Eclipse news abound with both amateur and
professional astronomers bumping into each other and
getting to know each other for the very first time and
will keep in touch hoping to be together again for the
next solar spectacle in years to come.
In retrospect, it was disappointing not the witness this
eclipse in its full glory yet we have remained very
thankful to be given this opportunity to travel and be
right on the spot of a very unique experience the
longest eclipse in the 21st century has brought us. The
places we visited, the people we met, and the totality
of our Sheshan, Shanghai journey will be with us
forever. No regrets, only hopes.
Thank you Shanghai and to the Creator who
helped us complete this worthwhile journey. No matter
how it turned out, the eclipse chase continues...
On to future solar
eclipses! Rain or shine, the memories will last forever.
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