Common Sense and Whiskey

Fine New Eclipse Web Site

What a great new site for eclipse fans: Eclipse-Maps.com. It's curated by a gentleman by the name of Michael Zeiler out in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and it just began at the first of the year. Nicely done, full of historical maps, multimedia and stuff to keep you poking around for an hour. Michael Zeiler says on his welcome page that he collaborates with Bill Kramer, who runs the very nice Eclipse Chasers site, which is also included on our list of eclipse sites.

Here's a sample of one of the great maps on Eclipse-Maps.com. It's the August 2017 total solar eclipse that's set to cross directly over our farm. Make your plans now:

Thwarted

Only one of our dogs was interested in a 3:00 a.m. stroll. So Betsy, our big black dog and I bundled up and set out in search of last night's total lunar eclipse. We spent a half hour during totality looking up and waiting for a break in the clouds, but none came, and we did not see the moon.

As James Carroll wrote (in a different context entirely), yesterday's solstice was the shortest day and the deepest night, and for my money, the darkest night, too, at least for a full moon. There wasn't a peep of light from the other side of those clouds. When Betsy would run out a little ahead, she'd disappear.

The weather was better elsewhere. People in Texas, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Nebraska and elsewhere posted their photos to SpaceWeather. And Laurence Mitchell caught the eclipse from Norwich, U.K., just at sunrise (see his comment).

So now we'll wait for the next total lunar eclipse. It's next July. It's not visible in North America but the following one is, on 10 December, 2011. Here's NASA's list of upcoming lunar eclipses.

Eclipse Night!

Sure, totality isn't until 2:41 eastern in the U.S. tomorrow morning, but if the weather co-operates where you are, maybe you can set up your camera tonight, then go to bed early and rise around 2:30, bundle up and head outside.

A good blow by blow of what to expect is here.

This is the total lunar eclipse of 20 February, 2008, as we saw it in north Georgia, USA. Right now this photo is sixth most popular on EarthPhotos.com as voted by visitors.

If you do manage to get out of bed, you probably won't be disappointed. People travel across the world to view solar eclipses in which totality lasts a mere few seconds. Tonight, totality lasts 72 minutes.

Eclipse 2

On yesterday's eclipse:

- Photos from National Geographic. They write, "Eclipse chasers on Easter Island were blanketed by cloudy skies over the weekend, raising fears that the eclipse would happen behind a veil of water vapor. But winds picked up on Sunday morning, blowing away the clouds and revealing clear blue skies just in time for the sky show."

- three photos from Easter Island from The World at Night: 1, 2, 3

And while we're here talking about Easter Island, two not entirely related things:

- How many days should you visit? An honest review.

- The Explora Rapa Nui Hotel, where rooms cost $1520 - $2020 per night.

The Eclipse Gods, Teasing Again

Yesterday a total solar eclipse was visible across parts of the South Pacific.

About a year ago we wrote "Nothing is quite so forlorn as eclipse photographers all turned out, gear at the ready, with nothing but clouds to photograph." That was in response to the disappointing weather along the path of the huge 22 July, 2009 eclipse across Asia (which had a maximum totality of 6:39 off the Japanese coast).

After our abortive trip to see it, we studied the maps and reluctantly decided that the odds of cloud cover were too high for yesterday's eclipse, visible across the South Pacific, Easter Island and coming ashore at sunset near Patagonia's magnificent Torres del Payne.

Mere odds, naturally, didn't stop people from trying their luck. Japan's Wakayama University sent a team, which has posted an eight minute video from the time around totality. In case you're an eclipse fan, or just enjoy a good adventure, I won't dare tell you how their adventure ended, you can watch here. If you don't feel like you have the eight minutes to spare, I'll tell you after the jump.

Solar Eclipse Map through 2050

Nicely done map here via The Map Room. Make your plans now. Put us down for 2016 & 2017.

More eclipse resources on CS & W, here and here.

(Photo of the total solar eclipse, 11 August, 1999, as seen at Lake Balaton, Hungary. See more in the Hungary Gallery at EarthPhotos.com.)

Fine Eclipse Photography Sites

There is no experience on earth like a total eclipse. Absolutely none. I'm nowhere near eloquent enough to describe why, but just see one - once - and you'll understand. Promise. You'll want to go and see every other one from then on, ever. In Afar magazine's current issue you can read about people who do just that.

Afar first published several issues ago, aspiring to be a different kind of travel magazine. As charter subscribers, we've read them all. They're aiming upmarket, trying to feature destinations off the beaten track while attracting ads from national tourism organizations, long-haul airlines and designer handbag manufacturers.  They're pulling it off as well as anybody since the lamented Escape magazine.

So far their web site is underdeveloped and disappointing. Up to now they're unwilling to share their magazine content online, but put that down to their being new. Maybe. I point that out because I can't refer you to an article in the current issue by Jeff Greenwald, who wrote an entertaining book, The Size of the World back in 1997, about a trip around the world without leaving the ground. 

Greenwald accompanied an expedition to view the 22 July, 2009 total solar eclipse aboard a chartered ship in the Pacific, and his article has revealed a couple of fine eclipse photography sites, which is the real point of this post. Enjoy Fred Bruenjes's Moonglow and icstars, from expedition leader Jen Winter. Phil Plante wrote about the trip, too.

(Photo of our first total eclipse, on Lake Balaton, Hungary, 11 August 1999, from EarthPhotos.com. There are more eclipse resources here.)

The Earth and Space and Photos and Travel Planning

Like the Astronomy Picture of the Day, the Earth Observatory Image of the Day is almost always worth dropping by for a look. Also check out the series of features at Earth Observatory, like a nice one called Cities at Night: The View from Space. And discussion of the earth and space reminds me of a useful chart - think of it as the eclipse travel planner on a single page.

Rapa Nui Trip Review

An honest appraisal of a recent trip to Rapa Nui, aka Easter Island, including how long you should stay and a look at gaming an award ticket: Here, here and here, from Online Travel Review.

Incidentally, there are about a billion companies offering travel there for the 11 July total eclipse next year, and some still say they have availability. Average July cloud cover is over fifty per cent, though.

Cheating Totality

Yesterday's Astronomy Picture of the Day provoked pure envy. Seen here and credited to Babak Tafreshi, it's not only a gorgeous depiction of the sun's corona during the longest total solar eclipse of the century. Because of the location and movement of the cruise ship from which the photo was taken, APOD says the 6:39 of maximum totality was increased - aboard ship - to 6:42. They're just bragging, now.

After canceling our eclipse trip to Szechuan province's Emei Shan, which in the end was cloudy for the event itself, we showed you the live view we subscribed to from south of Shanghai, also cloudy. Turns out Mr. Eclipse, Fred Espenak, was near Shanghai, too, having led a trip to view the eclipse from Haiyan chasing 5:50 of totality. Mr. Eclipse has photographed eclipses all over the world since 1970, but it appears weather got in the way of this one. No comment yet from his web site.

Eclipsed by Clouds

Nothing is quite so forlorn as eclipse photographers all turned out, gear at the ready, with nothing but clouds to photograph. The skies were not kind across much of Asia for yesterday's longest eclipse of the century.

From Gujarat in western India, where the Times of India headlined Weatherman predicts heavy rain today, through Tibet, where the photo at left was taken at the Potala in Lhasa (photo via Xinhua), right on through to Shanghai, gaps in the clouds were the exception.

Emei Shan, the 10,167 foot (3099 meter) peak south of Chengdu where our abortive eclipse trip would have taken us, showed solid clouds on radar. Danwei has a video that shows the sun and moon in and out of clouds at Wuhan, east of Emei Shan.

The BBC has a 2-1/2 minute video compilation, and also reports that a woman was killed in a stampede on the Ganges river bank in Varanasi, and that thick smog in Beijing (from which the eclipse was only partial) blotted out the sky.

Boston.com also has photos.

The web site eclipse-tv.com offered live images from near Shanghai for $14. We subscribed. After the jump, see a screen grab of the sky shortly after totality from their feed.

Total Solar Eclipse: It's Game Day

Everybody should be just about in place for the longest eclipse of the century, which begins in under twelve hours. Weather prospects are not so good across much of China, with this forecast showing rain likely for Emei Shan and this cloud map showing Hangzhou socked in at the time I write this.

Since we reluctantly decided not to go to China we've found this web site offering a live HD feed from Yangshan Island off Shanghai for $14. Their last report said the weather was okay. Good luck to everybody on the center line with a camera!

(Photo of 11 August, 1999 eclipse as seen from Lake Balaton, Hungary from EarthPhotos.com.)

Quarantine Continues in China

The ethnic Uiyghur/Han riots in Xinjiang and China's ugly diplomatic business with Australia have produced a quick spate of China-as-the-dragon opinion columns: When China rules the world, From Magic Dragon to Menacing Bully, Chinese Nationalism Begets Chinese Racism.

On the other had, actually, China is falling apart: Cultural fault lines jolt China, The Riots in Xinjiang: Is China Fraying?, China is now an empire in denial.

Whichever, as two tourists, we were visa'ed up and ticketed to China, including Urumqi, location of the deadly riots. We would be leaving tomorrow. That was plan A. Plan B is still under development.

But our decision to miss the 22 July total solar eclipse in Szechuan came even before the riots. It was based on China's high-handed, xenophobic swine flu response. As we would have gotten on the plane tomorrow, I thought I'd check to see if arrivals are still subject to quarantine-by-government-fiat. A sampling of news articles from the last four days:

Swine flu fears derail couple's vacation
China's ill-considered response to the H1N1 virus
TOURISM CATCHES THE FLU
Woman in illness scare tells of ‘horrible’ ordeal in China

Yup. Still happening.

But meanwhile, on that unfortunate little deadly riot matter, not to worry: According to Xinhua today,

Peaceful and harmonious life resumes in Xinjiang.

I bet.

(See photography from China in the China Gallery at Earthphotos.com.)

Eclipse Planning and Photography Sites, and a Book

Just a few sites to fire your imagination and enthusiasm to travel one day to a total solar eclipse:

Miroslav Druckmüller is a just unbelievably talented man. See his Eclipse Photography Home Page. He viewed the 2006 total eclipse from the same region we did, Cappadocia, Turkey, and let's just say that now that I've seen his photos of that eclipse, you'll never, ever see mine.

Here's a really nicely done site called Eclipse Chasers run by Bill Kramer. There's a good section on eclipse photography.

For the best how-to book I've found on eclipse photography, try Total Solar Eclipses and How to Observe Them by Martin Mobberley.

Planning your trip to an eclipse is a big deal. You probably don't want to spend thousands, for example, to get to a place like the Torres del Payne in Patagonia (lovely as it is) for the 11 July 2010 eclipse, because there's up to an 80% chance of cloud cover. Find out things like that from Eclipse weather from the University of Manitoba.

Finally, Fred Espinak works for NASA and is known as Mr. Eclipse. Here's "Mr. Eclipse's" site. Here are world Eclipse maps through 2025.

(Photo of the total solar eclipse, 11 August, 1999, as seen at Lake Balaton, Hungary. See more in the Hungary Gallery at EarthPhotos.com.)

Best Adventure Travel Bet of 2009 Approaches

As 22 July draws nearer, interest in that day’s total solar eclipse is growing. The New York Times travel section weighed in on Sunday. Even the flight tracking service FareCompare.com recently mentioned it.

Xinhua modestly headlines, Scientists: China the best place to observe longest solar eclipse in 2,000 years. In terms of easy-to-reach destinations, they’re surely right; The biggest world city near totality’s path is Shanghai, with a blizzard of buses likely to head a short ride south to the center line. We’ve posted samples of the various travel packages on offer here, but by now, most of those tours will be filling up.

We’ll be on hand for our third total solar eclipse (1999 in Hungary, 2006 in Cappadocia), but we’ll travel to Mt. Emei, or Emei Shan, in Szechuan province south of Chengdu. On the one hand, totality is slightly shorter than to the east on the coast. On the other, at Emei Shan’s 10,167 foot peak (3,099 meters), we have a fair shot at escaping fog, mist & ground haze.

With a maximum totality off the coast of Japan of 6:39, this eclipse is nearly as long as they get, and by far the longest in any of our remaining lifetimes. The science is a little daunting, but according to the textbook Astronomy Today, “Because the (moon’s) shadow sweeps across Earth’s surface at over 1700 kilometers per hour, the duration of a total eclipse at any given point on our planet can never exceed 7.5 minutes.”

The book Totality elaborates on the rarity of the event:

- “… only a tiny fraction of people, about one in 10,000, have witnessed a total solar eclipse.” And

- “On the average, your house will be visited by a total eclipse of the Sun only once in about 375 years.” 

See how soon your house can expect a visit with this map.

(Eclipse photo from the 1999 total solar eclipse as seen at Lake Balaton, Hungary. See more in the Hungary Gallery at EarthPhotos.com.)

Eclipse Travel

Standing inside totality of a solar eclipse is an indescribable experience. We've seen a couple, at Hungary's Lake Balaton in 1999 and in Cappadocia, Turkey in 2006. Now the scramble is on, and tour groups are filling up, to see the longest solar eclipse available to anybody alive today, on 22 July, 2009. The path of totality crosses a great swath of Asia, and at its longest, the sun will be in eclipse for an astounding six minutes thirty eight seconds.

In this photo, from Lake Balaton, the sun is just reemerging from the right side of the moon and a flare is visible jumping from the surface of the sun at about 9:00. This and a few other eclipse pictures are posted in EarthPhotos.com's Nature Gallery.