Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Upcoming solar eclipse

I have no concrete plan yet, but since there is no place like last year, that is, a place where good weather is nearly a certainty, I didn't plan for a trip yet. And this year, the eclipse path covers big cities so that air ticket is easy to get and we can easily get there without too much travelling, so we can wait until the last minute for a quick two-days return trip.

Here is a list of factors for my considerations:

1. Weather forecast: this is the single most important thing, and so far, those easily accessible locations only got cloudy, raining or even thunderstorm. So, it's better to wait until early next week?

2. Location: since most of the locations are big city, the good thing is the transportation, but the bad thing will be a "weaker" solar eclipse due to air pollution, the most beautiful thing about solar eclipse is the huge dynamic range of detail, but then air pollution will kill contrast like hell.

Frankly, I'm kind of worrying that this solar eclipse might kill people's appetite.

Finally, there's one more less important factor and it's about equipment. Last year, I planned to shot via H-alpha filter during the first contact, I hope to see the moon cuts into some prominences, and I never saw similar photograph before. And I believe it would be interesting. However, I gave up since it's hard to bring too much equipment with me. Guess what, this photograph is do-able without totality, and I can stay in Hong Kong to do that! Therefore, if the local weather forecast is favorable, I might just stay in Hong Kong for that reason. Save the trouble to travel and risk the bad weather else where.

2 comments:

Willis Chan said...

If u stay in HK, where is ur observing spot?

Oldfield said...

Yet to confirm, but most probably somewhere close to my home.