Two Solar Eclipses in Sichuan

Since the Chinese government closed down blogspot.com, it is hard for me to post any new reports and pictures on my Blog. Abroad it is much easier to find a way to get around this censorship and eventually I am able to begin to work my journeys all up.

In 22.July 2009 and 15.January 2010 there were two nice solar eclipses over Sichuan which I could manage to observe with my own eyes. The first was on Tsemet Pass (4550m) with the marvellous west face of Minya Konka (7556m) in the front.

waiting for the great moment

 

instruments and cameras were waiting, too...

...and then six minutes of breathtaking silence... only the larks were singing - as they do before dawn.



The second one was right here in a park in Chengdu. While other folks went to places where they expected much better weather and clear sky (e.g. Chongqing), fortunately my family and I had the luck of witnessing a great partial eclipse as well.

this was the most spectacular part of the eclipse...
and we were able to observe it with binoculars without any filter, since it was short before dusk and the smog of Chengdu made the sunlight harmless to your eyes anyway.

We took the liberty to pose-play with our bright star.