Eclipse 2010 at Hao, French PolynesiaEclipse 2010 at Hao, French Polynesia
This year was a better planned and version of the
2009 Enewetok Jet Eclipse Expedition.
Our target for this eclipse was Hao, an atoll in French Polynesia with
a long enough runway to fly into. We had planned to sail north for
a longer eclipse, but weather suggested staying put. The morning dawned
very clear, but sadly, just before the eclipse, clouds came up at our
location, and blocked both 2nd and 3rd contact, but did give us about 30
seconds of relatively cloud free viewing out of the expected 3 minutes 30
seconds. Other places on the island, including the airstrip, got a mostly
cloud-free eclipse.
In spite of the clouds this was a spectacular eclipse, with 3 bright
prominences and a large corona with a few giant streamers.
Can't wait until Cairns in 2012!
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Atoll flown over
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Pure sunset on way back to Papete
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Island Transit #1
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Yes, we are standing on the bones of dead corals
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Tidepool on the ocean side of Hao
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Count them again
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Fakaravan tower to look for shrimp boats
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Lagoon of Fakarava
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On an island with just a few miles of roads
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Fakaravan Church
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Coconut drying house
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Bailey's beads, such as they were.
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A middle exposure shot of the corona
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The diamond ring was behind clouds
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Just before 3rd contact a big disconnected prominence appeared
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Some of the prominences
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Giant streamers made a big corona
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The Story
This was my 5th eclipse, the first with serious cloud blockage. This
year we had a boat but decided to watch from shore, both for the chance
to take photos and to experience the eclipse on the ground with a crowd,
and get the full context of the land, as I think that is the best
experience.
Hao features an 11,000' runway able to land a 747. Other potential
locations included Easter Island and the hills above El Calafate, Argentina.
Both had poor weather prospects but turned out at the last minute to
have success for those there. El Calafate, with the eclipse at sunset
just above the Andes, delivered the most stunning visuals, but it was a
risky destination, as clouds at the horizon are very common, and anything
but perfectly clear skies would likely leave people disappointed. They
weren't, however.
I learned again the hard way: Don't do anything in an eclipse you
haven't rehearsed many times. Once again I was writing shooting scripts
until not long before, and the ones controlled by the Mac failed to start.
My robotic panorama mount refused to connect by bluetooth and so I had
to shoot my pano by hand -- and didn't do settings quite correctly on the
camera.
Other Links
Comments on this article can be left on the blog page.
Equipment
Eclipse images with Televue 76 f/6 refractor and Eos 5D Mark II Camera, with clock drive.
Some other images from a Celestron 1500mm Schmidt and panorama from 5D.
