China 2009 The clouds and rain on 22 July 2009 ruined observations of the total eclipse |
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| The night before the eclipse, we stayed in Jiaxing (about 100 km southwest of Shanghai). Eclipse morning we left the city around 7 am to get to our viewing site at a resort under construction about an hour's drive away, which was positioned near the bay on the centerline to maximize the length of totality (almost 6 minutes) and increase the chances of off shore winds blowing potential cloud cover away. However, that day the winds failed to materialize. | ||
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| Ruth, in hotel lobby the night before, putting specially-coated mylar film over binoculars in order to view the sun | "Peace" fashion in store display window next to Jiaxing Hotel eclipse morning |
Group leaders trying to decide best location
to view eclipse, based on wind direction |
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| Intersection traffic in Jiaxing at 7 am | Street market (on way to eclipse) | Street market |
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| Equipment set up at resort spot selected for viewing the eclipse | Trying for glimpse of sun through clouds before the eclipse | |
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| Just before 10:30 am — 8 minutes before totality — it begins to rain | Eclipse chaser from Japan | |
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| Rare view of sun before totality | TOTALITY: laptop computer only thing visible as clouds and rain obscure a very black eclipse | |
The day after: Shanghai dailies report on the eclipse |
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| “Shadow & Substance” — an excellent visual representation of the eclipse | ||
| A 1994 annular eclipse photo by Ruth (go to page 5 of this Acrobat PDF) | ||
| An account by Ed of how he became involved "chasing" solar eclipses | ||
| EclipseWar.net homepage | ||