Total Eclipse of the Sun over Wuzhen, Zhejiang, China

Success against all odds on 22 July 2009 for the Karawane Reisen tours!

A wide-angle view of the totally eclipsed Sun in a nearly cloud-free hole in a dense layer, just after 2nd contact - half an hour earlier it had still rained, and earlier that morning the air had been so damp that all optics fogged over for good. But this was then ...

Funny signs in the lobby of the main hotel in Wuzhen where our groups were staying - are these literal translations of the Chinese terms for 1st to 4th contact?

Left: Another - much bigger - tour gets briefed on the eve of E day in Wuzhen's western water town; the decision has been made to stay put and ride out the bad weather. Right: Representatives of the incoming agency responsible for the fate of hundreds of eclipse chasers who have converged on Wuzhen. The left one was the permanent guide for Karawane's group A, on the right Zhao Liquin who had accompanied me a year earlier on a crucial scouting trip which has led to the decision to make Wuzhen the primary observing site.

Ominous clouds over Wuzhen - water town, city, hotel - on the eve of eclipse day.

Briefing for the Karawane groups later that evening; solar filters are distributed, just in case.

The cloud situation early on E day (on the Chinese wx service's web site) - and what that meant for the prospective observers at the Middle School grounds in Wuzhen ...

Waiting for a turn of fate at the school - while life in the village on the other side of the road continues (picture taken deep in the first partiality; still no Sun seen in the sky).

The clouds thin more and more with 2nd contact approaching, though solar filters are needed only rarely. Middle right picture taken with a 1000 mm f/10 "Russentonne" on ISO 100 film, other Sun pictures with a Panasonic DMC-TZ2 compact camera at full x10 optical zoom.

Second contact! A final "diamond" of photospheric light, the chromosphere and a prominence are caught by the Russentonne, clicking away like crazy; in all the excitement I even forgot to install a cable release - of which I had brought three, just in case ... :-)

The corona shines over Wuzhen! Top two pictures with the compact camera, lower two somewhat later with the Russentonne - note that the prominence seen earlier in the lower left is now covered by the Moon while another one has become visible in the upper right. None of these pictures is much affected by inhomogeneous clouds, as far as I can tell.

The dark Sun over Wuzhen - and one of the final glimpses of the 2nd partiality, imaged with the compact camera; the clouds quickly thickened again after the main show.

Rewind to the third contact with a striking "double diamond" and the return of the photospheric crescent (note a Baily's Bead in the middle left image), as caught with the Russentonne.

Afterthoughts: taking down the instruments, several live TV programs still on air during 2nd - invisible - partiality in Wuzhen, comparing digital pictures and videos on the bus while leaving Wuzhen and some post-eclipse papers in Shanghai on the morning of 23 July.

From this eclipse trip (for which I was one of two astronomy lecturers) there are also five reports sent in real-time by me and picture series by B. Brinkmann, K. Schulze-Frerichs, P. Ens, I. Streek and S. Ueberschaer available - and a short video clip of the scenery & 2nd contact!

Continue (on E-day) to Sheshan Observatory or go back to the main page for this trip!

All pictures by Daniel Fischer with a compact camera or on chemical film - first posted 25, links added 27 July and 17 August,
film scans inserted 1 August 2009 (the original digital-only page is preserved here, by the way)