Sky gazers chase longest eclipse, defy soothsayer predictions

• Source: Global Times
• [07:56 July 22 2009]
• Comments

Amateur astronomers look yesterday for the best spots to photograph today’s total solar eclipse, on Mount Phoenix, opposite the Three Gorges Dam in Zigui, central China’s Hubei Province. Photo: Xinhua

By Liang Chen

With Chinese scientists set to capture a 40-minute sequence of images of the corona during a solar eclipse visible throughout much of the country this morning, tourists have flocked to cities believed to be the best observation spots, defying soothsayers’ ominous predictions.

“We have set up 17 observation stations along the central line of the solar eclipse path in China to capture the whole sequence of corona images,” Wang Sizhao, a researcher at the Nanjing-based Purple Mountain Observatory, told the Global Times via e-mail, adding that the total eclipse would last as long as 6 minutes and 43 seconds, the longest of its kind this century.

It’s also the longest total solar eclipse visible in China since 1814, and the next one this long one won’t be seen on the mainland until 2309. Beijingers interested in catching the eclipse can start watching the sun vanish at 8:30 am, and a partial eclipse will be most visible at 9:30 am.

The 17 stations were set up along the eclipse path from southwestern Yunnan Province to the eastern coastal province of Zhejiang, stretching 2,500 km across China, Wang added.

“If weather permits, we are very likely to capture the full path of the solar corona that can help to thoroughly study the impact of solar activities on the earth,” he said.

The total solar eclipse will be visible by people in much of the Yangtze River valley, including Yunnan, Sichuan, Hubei, Anhui, Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces, and the municipalities of Chongqing and Shanghai. A partial eclipse can be seen elsewhere, including in Taiwan.

To attract more eclipse chasers and tourists, Anji, Jiaxing and other cities of Zhejiang province all boasted that their city is the best place for observation, claims rejected as marketing strategies by experts.

“There’s no actual best observation spot at all,” said Jay Pasachoff, head of the Solar Eclipse Working Group for the International Astronomical Union.

But some sky gazers aren’t content just gazing at the eclipse on the ground; they chase it. Tickets for flights from Chengdu to Shanghai this morning were booked by enthusiasts who didn’t think a ground view would suffice.

To shape a safe observation environment, relevant departments have fully prepared to cope with possible inconveniences caused by the eclipse. In a statement issued by the Ministry of Railways, all construction work across the nation, excluding work related to traffic safety, has been halted for the whole day.

The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology also issued a statement yesterday, urging science departments to widely spread the scientific explanation of the eclipse among the general public via the media to eliminate possible panic and superstition about the phenomenon that are rife in China, where a total eclipse has often been viewed as a sign of impending catastrophe.

Nearly 5,000 lights along the Yangtze River waterway will be on all day to help ships navigate safely.