Hello - ni hao - and goodbye - Zai jian - as I write on Thursday, July 16, 2009 in preparation for my departure tomorrow.

I'll start out my solo trip with a 14-hour flight non-stop to Shanghai, leaving LA Friday, arriving in China on Saturday. 

First astronomical phenomenon of note: crossing the dateline, I gain a full day. So afternoon Friday becomes afternoon Saturday as I travel with the sun, but slower than its 900-mph speed in the 600mph jet. I leave at 130PM, and arrive at 600pm, my entire flight is in daylight. 

Saturday night in Shanghai: I sleep!

Sunday, see the town, towers, eat, shop, etc. Monday, move to the city of Jiaxing about 90km (55 miles) southwest of Shanghai. It's very close to the eclipse centerline. It's also centrally located and on a highway, so I can move quickly towards the coast (Jinshanwei) or the hills NW of Hangzhou if need be to dodge clouds on the day of the eclipse.

My greatest fear is that a typhoon will come inland on E-Day Wednesday July 22 and drown our chances of seeing the details of totality. But the sky will get awesomely dark even under thick clouds.

I'll hire a driver, perhaps in company of other eclipse-chasers from Australia and China. Crossing our fingers and toes for good weather.

One either Tuesday or Thursday, I'll travel to the Qiantang River estuary, home of the largest and highest tidal waves in the world. These are true tidal waves or bores (as they are called), caused by the moon and yet another astronomical phenom I hope to see on my Oriental Astro Adventure. They are expected to be higher than usual because the moon is at perigee, the same reason that causes the eclipse to be the longest one until 2132. 

Stay tuned for some images of the eclipse on celestronlife and links to images on other sites, even if it's cloudy or a typhoon, I'll get pics of the darkness. So under no circumstances will I come away empty-handed!

I'll use two set-ups: Primary will be a vintage C90 G3 (circa late 90s) used with the live-view Canon 450D to help with focusing. It will be on a carbon-fiber Flashpoint tripod with an Orion slo-mo head. Filtration will be 1000 Oaks Type 2+ metal-on-glass and a black polymer filter on the C90's finderscope. Secondary setup will be the Canon 20D on a Slik tripod ball head fitted with an 18-270 zoom lens. This camera will be used for scenics, etc. I can grab the tripod and simply shoot while holding the whole thing, if needed.

Plans are to get some partial phases with both cameras, then concentrate on the overall with the zoom lens, switch to the C90 just before totality, try to catch Bailey's beads, get a bracketed set of shots. Mid-totality a long-exposure shot to capture the earthlit lunar surface - surrounded by the corona! Another bracketed sequence. Meanwhile, I'll pause just to look up and snap a few more shots with the 18-270. Then a final bracketed set around then end of totality. Finally, a few partial phases after totality.

Whew! That'll keep me busy for a few minutes! Good thing totality's almost 6 minutes near Jiaxing. 

The rest of my trip will be hiking up Huangshan, traveling to the old villages of Anhui Province, then my third astro tie-in: Nanjing's Purple Mountain Observatory. I actually have a tie to the PMO that hoes back 30 years. So I can hardly miss the opportunity to see it in person while in China. 

Finally, a possibility to visit Celestron's factory in Suzhou. My final planned astro-tie-in of the trip has yet to be worked out. 

While in China  from July 18-30, I'll occasionally check e-mail at Internet cafes.

I'll also have a cellphone while there, but no laptop, since I'm travelling light (yeah, right -with all that photo gear!)

For a great summary of the eclipse, see this Sky and Telescope web article:
http://www.skyandtelescope.com/observing/highlights/50020537.html


Wishing us all - Zhu ni hao yun, yi hue er jian!