1 Aug 2008 Yiwu, China

Matthew Marcus

I just got back from an eclipse trip to China. The observing site was at the border of the Gobi Desert, not actually at Yiwu, but a 2-hour bus ride more or less N from it, over a range of mountains, but stopping just short of the next range. The TravelQuest site (http://www.tq-international.com/index.htm) has the details; drill down through the Silk Road tours. It's really in the middle of nowhere.

The forecast was for cloudy early in the day and through the mountains, clearing by the time we reached the site. The last-computed odds, by Landon Noll, were something like 70% clear, 25% scattered clouds, and 5% "it just gets dark". The reality was that it started clear, clouded up over the mountains, and remained partly cloudy. It was hot, as expected - in the high 90's, and the dark, stony ground didn't help. Fortunately, there were beach umbrellas set up beforehand to provide some shade. A nice touch I haven't seen at any other eclipse site is that each umbrella was also provided with watermelons, which went down really well in the dry heat. One observer used a melon as a counterweight.

The Chinese set up an exhibit complex out there in the back of beyond, including a planetarium and domes for scopes. This being related to the Chinese tourist industry, there were also many vendors of the sort of stuff tourists buy.

The clouds played cat-and-mouse with the sun, covering it 5 minutes before 2nd contact. Some people were running back and forth trying to stay under the holes, but that was futile since you can't outrun a cloud. Most of us stayed put. Maybe a minute or two before 2nd contact, the cloud moved away. Whew! A real nail-biter! The sky darkened, Mercury and Venus came out, Bailey's Beands and the diamond ring appeared, and the sun was replaced by a beautiful pearly-white flower with a black center and 4 long petals, like the extensions on a skate-egg case ("mermaid's purse"). Long streamers were expected since it's solar min, but this time, it seemed to me that the streamers weren't as long as in some past solar-min eclipses. It was almost like a cross between a solar min and solar max eclipse. A large prominence was visible through the scope, and I caught a glimpse of pink at 3rd contact. All too soon, the sky to the N brightened to orange and the usual sequence of 3rd contact ensued. A happy crew got on the bus to go back to Hami, where we were staying.

At Bolivia, 1992, Judith Shanks suggested to the observers that they draw what they saw and compare to solidify the memories and also get an idea of the range of what different observers saw. Nobody sees everything. I've been championing this idea ever since, though I usually run into resistance ("I'm not an artist!", to which I reply "Neither am I!"). She was at it again this time, but only two of us did any sketches. I'll have to scan mine in and post somewhere. I still think it's a great idea.

The above-mentioned Landon Noll was doing actual science during the eclipse. He was conducting the Carter Roberts Memorial Vulcanoid Search, using CCD cameras and very fancy image-processing techniques to look for asteroids inward of the orbit of Mercury. It will take months of data processing before he knows whether he found anything. He was wise enough to make his experiment completely automated so that he and his helpers could enjoy the eclipse without equipment worry.

I'll sit out 2009, as the weather prospects aren't great and I don't feel the need to go back to China so soon, but I do intend to hit 2010.

2017 is coming!

mam