Canadians on Hikueru

A great picture of the group of smiling Canadians who participated in the Ring of Fire Expeditions eclipse trip to Hikueru, French Polynesia for the July 11, 2010 total solar eclipse.  We were smiling even though we were clouded out during totality.  Perhaps this picture speaks oceans of the mettle of Canadians.
Photo Credit: Alan Dyer, RASC Calgary

Eclipse Day - Climate is What You Expect, Weather is What You Get!

Following up on my previous blog entry... We were clouded out at our observing site on Hikueru and missed the totality portion -- the most important portion -- of the eclipse.  It was like going to a baseball game only to turn away and miss that winning home-run with the bases loaded!  Nevertheless i have a few pictures to share of the first partial phase of the eclipse.  In other words, the first partial phase is the period of the eclipse right up to totality when the disk of the Moon totally obscures the normally visible part of the Sun, and at which time the chromosphere, prominences and the corona of the Sun are visible.  Here are the pictures:

This picture shows the type of clouds we were dealing at our observing site with over the course of the eclipse.  The clouds moved over us at probably 30 kilometers per hour.  We would have alternating sunny and cloudy periods lasting anywhere up to maybe 15 minutes.


 

 

C1 or Contact One is where the Moon begins to cover the apparent disk of the Sun, or "take a bite out of the Sun" as some ancient myths would explain the phenomenon.  C1 was predicted for 8:37:11.1 a.m. local time.  I was able to detect it in my solar-filtered binoculars at 8:37:20 a.m.  This picture was taken shortly after that through light clouds.

Probably half of the time, if we saw the disk of the Sun at all then it was through obscuring clouds.


















Notice the sunspot towards the bottom of the disk of the Sun in this picture. "Sunspots are temporary phenomena on the surface of the Sun (the photosphere) that appear visibly as dark spots compared to surrounding regions. They are caused by intense magnetic activity, which inhibits convection, forming areas of reduced surface temperature. Although they are at temperatures of roughly 3,000–4,500 K, the contrast with the surrounding material at about 5,780 K leaves them clearly visible as dark spots... Wikipedia: Sunspot.

The eclipse proceeds inexorably...

streaming through light cloud...

The focus in this picture is a little sharper and the sunspot stands out better...

Totality approaches... (the phenomenon where the apparent disk of the Sun is totally blocked by the disk of the Moon)...












But here you can see here that the clouds are moving in...

Near the time of C2 or Contact Two, which is the start of totality, i removed my solar filter on my camera and started shooting HD video.  These two last pictures are frames grabbed from the video (which i may post later).
In this first frame we can see the thin crescent Sun has broken into little beads of light called Baily's Beads, so named after Francis Baily a British astronomer of the 19th century who explained the phenomena.  The beads are caused the the rough topography of the lunar limb blocking some of the last traces of sunlight.  Finally the last Baily's Bead in the second frame will form the C2 Diamond Ring (i.e. the very last of the Sun's brilliant photosphere to be seen before its emergent on the other side of the Moon in a few minutes.)  At this time the eclipse was totally obscured by the Sun

Being clouded out... i took a few pictures at our site...  This is totality on the ground!

Turning around... i shoot a picture towards the west where the sky is brightening as the shadow of the Moon passes over us.

Eclipse Day - Getting There and Setting Up

After a brief few hours of rest on the Saturday night, my alarm woke me up right at 1:00 a.m. July 11th.  I immediately flipped on the night-light, and telephoned Joanne and Murray Paulson in their room with a resounding "Time to get hot!" (we had agreed that the first one up would call the other as a back-up to our alarms).  We assembled in the lobby just after 2:00 a.m. for our flights to the atolls.  In our Ring of Fire Expeditions group there were 41 of us going to Hikueru; the Haorangi ("Hao") group consisted of 61 eclipse chasers.  Our 2-hour flight departed at approximately 4:00 a.m.
Before leaving the hotel i had quickly checked the satellite infrared loops and saw that the predicted low and middle clouds were moving in over our observation sites.  Hikueru is approximately 740 kms east of Faa'a, Tahiti airport.  The picture at the right shows the cloud conditions about 75 - 100 kms before landing in Hikueru.  Notice the relatively clear area behind the foreground clouds; that is the best we could hope for.  If we would be fortunate enough to have an "hole" over us during totality (beginning 8:37:11.1 local time and lasting 4 minutes 19.1 seconds) then we would count ourselves lucky.

We landed just after sunrise (6:02 a.m. local time) and proceeded to our observing site which was located near the spartan airport facilities on the west side and well away from the airstrip. Some of the local folks were out to greet us including the municipal police chief.

The forty-one of us quickly spread out parallel with the airstrip over perhaps 100meters.

Under some of the coconut trees we discovered colonies of hermit crabs which gathered at the base of the tree.  Maybe they knew something we didn't.

I took up my position at the southern end of the line of observers and into the sheltered area, watching out that i wasn't directly under the release trajectory of a coconut bomb.  The tress screened me from the full effects of the wind and lessened vibrations to the camera.

I spread a double bed-sheet on the ground, weighted-down with coconuts and marked out with 50 cm. squares.  In the event of shadow bands before or after totality i had hoped to capture them on video or stills.

So here i am with my simple set-up.  A Canon SX 20 on a Slik tripid and my 12 x 36 image stabilized binoculars, both with homemade filters using Baader solar film with a density rating of 5.0.  Unfortunately, the sky was not looking good.  In my next blog entry i will show the few pictures i did manage to capture of the eclipsed Sun in its partial phase.

Hikueru - Clouded Out

Unfortunately, in Hikueru which has such a good climate in July for eclipse chasing, was hit with bad weather.  About 100 kms west of Hikueru we started down into broken clouds.  We did have a few moments in the initial partial phrase to observe, but in a nutshell, almost exactly at totality a big asyastem of cloud moved in .

I got 3 hours sleep last night; up since 1 AM and it is now 10 PM... i am going to sleep now... i will post later tomorrow...

Eve of the Eclipse

The time is 9:40 PM, Saturday July 10th.  I am trying to get a few hours sleep before my 1:00 AM alarm goes off.  Our group will assemble in the hotel lobby at 2:05 AM, depart for the airport at 2:15 AM for a 4:10 AM departure for Hikueru.  Our ETA at the atoll is 5:55 AM.  Sunrise is at 6:02 AM.

First contact is at 17:22:14.4 UTC (7:22:14.1 local time)...

Totality begins at 18:37:11.1 UTC (8:37:11.1 local time) and lasts 4 minutes 19.1 seconds.

All calculated times are approximate... but you get the picture.

Now to bed...

Friday - Sort of a Day Off

Friday, July 9th... I took it easy, sort of... No tours around Tahiti, or to Mo'orea where many of our group went.  No, i basically stayed at the hotel most of the day to study and experiment with my new camera.  E-day looms on the horizon and i am still not ready -- actually, when is anyone every ready for an eclipse.

So even posting this note was a struggle (as it was, it was posted on Saturday evening on the eve of the Eclipse!)

But all fun was not lost.  On Friday evening Alan and i attended the Heiva i Tahiti festival in downtown Pape'ete.  I wish i could post pictures, but i cannot.  Photography was prohibited.  But my memory of 60+ dancers gyrating in a frenetic dance, the beautiful traditional costumes, and the hypnotic churchy Polynesia singing will stay with me.

Now back to studying...

Getting Serious about the Eclipse

The rest of Thursday was taken-up driving around this doubled island.  The northern part of Tahiti Iti looks much less developed and poorer.  The east coast of Tahiti Nui is very rugged and beautiful, and we passed a blowhole which was not active at the time. We stopped by Pointe Venus again to shoot some pictures, and Alan wanted to shoot a sequence to stitch together a 360 degree panorama.  I also discovered that the beach at Pointe Venus appears to be swim-tops optional.

 

In all we covered about 200 kms today and i got my bearings on this place.  Tonight is my free night... nothing planned.  Same for Friday, where i will spend major time checking out my observing gear, weighing in the gear for Sunday's charter, and learning about my new camera.

Time to get serious about the upcoming eclipse.