Eclipse

I would like to start by stating, that the weather has been really clear (and HOT and HUMID) here in Shanghai for the past days. Blue skies every day. And that is not given in Shanghai, with all the pollution and staff. But it has been really good for about a week now. But now to the topic of the day.

Today, Wednesday 22nd of July, about 9:30 in the morning, a "natural wonder" took place. It was "the greatest astronomical event in 3 000 years". The solar eclipse in lasted 6-7 minutes. That is one very long eclipse, say those who are in the know. Longest in the 21st century.

Some people have prepared for this for months. There were several hotels in Shanghai arranging special events to watch the eclipse. And there were trips from Shanghai to the near by island. I didn't plan to do anything extreme, but I purchased special glasses you should use to watch the eclipse and planned to go out to the roof and watch the thing.

That was actually a tough call, 'cause it sure would have been nice to see how people in the less developed areas react: had they heard about the eclipse? Where they freaking out? Anyway, I had no idea where to find people who are totally oblivious of what is going on, so I settled with watching the thing myself.

Anyway, the eastern part of China / Japan are the best places in the world to watch the eclipse. "The Chinese city of Shanghai is being touted as one of the best spots to watch the eclipse, with tourists coming from across the globe to view the phenomenon, during which the sun's corona -- the sun's outer atmosphere -- becomes visible." said CNN.com.

See Shanghai Daily for some good shoots.

Yeah right. From the early morning you could see that the skies were heavy with clouds, even the weather lady at CNN at the same time tried to claim that weather in Shanghai is clear at the moment. It was all a grey, thick blanket. Changes to see anything were... slim. Less than that.

Then, about 15 minutes before the climax, it started raining. Just pouring down. So no roof. No sun. Just darkness. Darkness for 15 minutes. That's all I got. So, all of you in the other continents: you didn't really miss much.

But think about all those solar-tourists...