After a little gentle persuasion I was pleased when my boss agreed it was important that we had a business visit to coincide with the eclipse!
The morning of the eclipse arrived and, to my horror, there was total cloud cover. We were due to leave Hangzhou that afternoon to make another business visit to a facility in Tokyo, so I started to pack, resigned to the fact that I wouldn't see it. I happened to glance out of the window right at the start of the partial phase and, to my amazement, I could see the sun peeping out through high hazy cloud. I dropped everything to collect my camera gear and rushed down from the 10th floor of the hotel, hardly believing my luck
I set up my camera on the lawn outside the hotel in the sticky heat, complete with 500mm lens and DIY filter made from Baader solar film. As the morning passed, the crowd of onlookers grew; all keen to view the disappearing solar disk through my camera and the hand-held viewer I'd made from some left-over film. This was a little concerning, with fears of my tripod disappearing amongst the crowd, and the risk of my new buddies removing the filter and damaging their eyes. Fortunately, everyone was very orderly and I was, for a time, the centre of attention, trying to explain what was going on through the medium of sign language!
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| World Trade Centre, Hangzhou |
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| Totality approaches! |
These are a collection of images of what we saw.
Partial phases were taken using the solar filter. A few seconds before totality, I removed the filter and programmed the camera to take images automatically every second through second contact, to try and capture the diamond ring and Bailey's beads. I did the same at third contact, before putting the filter back for further partial phase shots.
An amazing experience and I can't wait for the next one.
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| Second contact diamond ring |
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| Bailey's beads |
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| Totality |
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| Beautiful! |
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| Chromosphere and prominance |
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