July 22, 2009 ALP Total Solar
Eclipse Expedition To Wuhan, China
by James Kevin Ty & Francisco Lao, Jr.
Images
by James Kevin Ty , Jett Aguilar, Francisco
Lao, Jr., Andrew Ian Chan , Chang Guo Qiang
DAY BY DAY ACCOUNT OF THE
EXPEDITION TRIP
DAY 3 - JULY 21 JIANGTAN PARK
ECLIPSE DRY RUN / FINAL PREPARATION
After again an early heavy
breakfast, the group headed back to Jiangtan Park
to make a final eclipse dry run prior to the E-Day
tomorrow morning. Johnny Quinto's family members
opted to take more rest at the hotel. The team
arrived at the park at around 7:30am and quickly setup
their equipment and they were able to successfully setup
all of their equipment before 8:00am. The setup
time is good because they will be at the site at around
4:30am so that their setup site will be secured at an
earlier time as for sure many other imagers and
observers will try to get the best site at the park as
early as possible. As they were rehearsing, Mr.
Chou Guo Qiang joined them at the site and happily
showed them an issue of the Chang Chiang Daily News
which shows Zed Contractor focusing on his camera with
the rest of the ALP Wuhan TSE group setting up at the
foreground. It was such a nice morning greeting
for the group and Zed told the group that after the
rehearsal he will be going to the newsstand to buy
al the available copies :) LOL
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Jiangtan Park Entrance |
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ALP Wuhan TSE Team got
featured in front page of July 21, 2009 issue of
Chang Chiang Daily. |
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Zed: " Yesterday, there were
two cams, now my system got three cams now :) " |
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ALP VP Jett Aguilar is all set
and ready to go with his Canon imaging system. |
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(L-R) ALPers Jun Lao and
Johnny Quinto posed beside their eclipse still and
video equipment. |
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ALPer Andrew Ian Chan standing
beside his eclipse imaging system. |
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ALP Wuhan TSE Expedition Team
Leader / President test and calibrate the focus of
his Canon imaging system. |
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ALP Wuhan TSE Reserach Team
posed and raring to go for tomorrow's E-Day! |
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ALPer James discussed with the
Jiangtan Park Security Officer on the team's layout
of equipment on E-Day. |
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ALPers shown here bringing
their heavy imaging equipment back to their waiting
air conditioned bus. |
They were able to finish their
rehearsal at around 10:00am centering more
on the important crucial 9:15-9:35am time.
Temperature that morning was a little more or less 36
deg C compared to yesterday's hot 38 deg C. They
were also able to see a faint Sun Halo which indicates
that weather later or next day will not be that good :(
After they packed up their stuffs, they headed back to
the hotel and get some rest before they had lunch again
at Mr. Xie. Zed opted to just rest at the hotel while
James, Jett, Jun , Johnny and Andrew had again a good
lunch. Then they went out to get more food
and water supplies as well as batteries and also some
more counterweights that Jett needs for his mount's
balance.
At the hotel, ALPer Christopher
Go made a mobile phone call from Hangzhou and inform
James that they also made a good rehearsal that morning.
He told James that they will setup at their hotel's roof
deck because his companion Tomio Akutsu was able to
convince the hotel manager to let them setup there
with a condition that they would also be able to look
through their telescopes as well. :) Good
compromise :) After a while, Mr. Ma Cheng called
up James and inform him if it is possible for the group
to get interviewed by Chu Tian Metropolis Daily . James
obliged and they setup the interview meeting at the
coffee shop at the 2nd floor of the hotel at around
4:00pm. When they met, Ma Cheng as well as his
manager Mr. Qi joined them on the interview. The
interview lasted more or less around 30 minutes and the
news reporter thank the group for their time.
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ALP
Wuhan TSE Research Team wearing Molecules Official Shirt
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ALP
Wuhan TSE Research Team wearing Canon Official Vest
Afterwards, Andrew, James and
Jun went out to make get some pizzas at Pizza Hut that
they will be eating at the hotel while making final last
minute preparations for tomorrow's event. They
also monitor the weather condition in the internet as
well as CNN weather news. It was declared that
Shanghai and nearby Jiaxing will be in big trouble
because thunderstorm and rains are expected to hit there
on eclipse day :( ALP Shanghai group led by
Armando Lee and Francis Sarmiento and ALP Jiaxing group
led by Edwin Aguirre and Imelda Joson are more proned to
be affected by the bad weather unless they moved out of
their current positon. Hangzhou and Wuhan, on the
other hand, will also be affected by scattered clouds
but no rain expected on their sites. James was
able to communicate with Armand through Yahoo Messenger
and Skype and James informed him about their situation
but Armand say they decided to stay put at She Shan
Mountain, Shanghai and take the risk. James asked
Armand if he can provide Imelda's Skype number as they
were the only ALP Group that has not communicated with
the Wuhan base. Unfortunately, he told James that
Francis has her Skype number only and he went out to bar
hop with his friends. He also informed James
that they were also able to make good rehearsal that
morning. As they were communicating, he told James
that they were experiencing mild rain already that
evening. Since they will stay put at their chosen
site, James wished them good luck and good weather
tomorrow.
Jun went to sleep early that
evening while James almost didn't sleep that evening and
was also doing Yahoo Messaging with Andrew who was
on the other room. On the side note, Andrew's
sister ALPer Berenice Viola Chan and their mom Elaine
Chong was expected to arrive in Wuhan from Guangzhou
late in the afternoon but their flight was delayed so
they were only able to arrive in Wuhan almost around
midnight :( While at the hotel, James also tweak
his Vixen mount motors which was a little loose during
the dry run that morning and was able to make final
calibration that evening as well. James also ask
the hotel information to give them an early 3:30am
wake up call so that they can be up and going to the
observing site as early as 4:00am to secure their
observing site inside Jiangtan Park. Packed Breakfast
Bags were also prepared for the team members to bring to
the site.
DAY 4 - JULY 22 ECLIPSE
DAY !!!
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