Here is a slightly computer enhanced view of a flare at the sun's upper
limb (just to the left of center in this image).
Here is a slightly computer enhanced view of a flare at the sun's upper
limb (just to the left of center in this image).
After arriving in Bangkok on the 22nd, approximately 60 other astronomers from all over the world, and of course myself, were taken by two air-conditioned coaches from Bangkok to our hotel in one of the several former capitals of Thailand, Ayuthaya. Although still some 60-km away from the site we had chosen to observe the eclipse from, this was the closest hotel that we could get rooms in, all others closer having been taken by other people intent on seeing the eclipse. Many of the roads we traveled that day were flooded and thus far better suited to the customary local form of transport at that time of the year, the boat, which no doubt would have been quicker, and would probably have kept our luggage drier!
After a strenuous day sightseeing in and around Ayuthaya, we were horrified to be told that the following day a wakeup call would be given at 4:30am so that the coaches would be able to leave by 6:00am, in time to catch the eclipse at approximately 10:30am.
The next day, and sure enough at 4:30am the telephone in my room rang to tell me it was breakfast time. The excitement of what was to come was enough to energize me, and 6:00am couldn't come around fast enough. Eventually the coaches departed and our journey began. The monsoon season had just ended in Thailand the week before, and so we were all extremely pleased to see almost perfectly clear skies. The weather had been the only real concern in choosing to observe the eclipse in Thailand. In October the chances of clear skies in Thailand are only 50-50.
Soon
however concern began to mount as we quickly found ourselves in the midst
of a huge traffic jam in the middle of wind swept rice-fields as far as
the eye could see. The road was ordinarily a two lane country road, but
today, due to immense public interest generated by two years of government
supported publicity about the eclipse, in true Thai fashion there were
three lanes of traffic heading toward the eclipse, using the left hand
hard-shoulder of the road, the left lane as well as the oncoming lane.
Oncoming traffic, what little there was of it fortunately, was forced to
use the hard-shoulder on the other side of the road. As time passed, as
amazed and pleased as we all were to see such high public interest, we
were getting more and more worried as we were still many kilometers from
our chosen observation site.
As
the moon began to eat its way across the sun we were still stuck in our
coaches in the midst of the traffic jam. But at least by now we were within
the path of totality. By the time that the sun was about half covered by
the moon we abandoned trying to get to our chosen observing site and instead
settled for the grounds of a rice mill. One advantage of the rice mill
was that there was plenty of flat concrete and even a little shelter from
the gusty wind, perfect for setting up cameras and telescopes. I had a
simple Olympus SLR camera with a 500-mm lens mounted on a tripod. The best
prepared of our group had a 5-inch reflecting telescope, to which he attached
a similar camera setup. Naturally enough the telescope attracted a great
deal of attention from the local school children as well as the teachers
and parents who had come across from a nearby school to see what all of
the fuss was about. There was a wonderful view of the sun through the telescope.
Several large sunspots were clearly visible on that part of the sun not
yet hidden behind the moon. As more and more of the sun was covered up
by the moon it grew slowly but steadily darker. When finally only a small
fraction of the sun's surface was still visible the light began to fade
rather more quickly and the temperature dropped rather dramatically, probably
by 4 or 5 degrees Celsius.
Local
legend says that the eclipse is due to a mighty sky dragon who in fact
attempts to swallow the sun. Accordingly, during such events the Thai use
all manner of methods to produce as much noise as possible in order to
scare the dragon into returning the sun to its former brilliance. Loudest
as totality approached were volleys of fireworks. The legend turns out
to be wide spread, being common in many South East Asian countries.
Finally, the moment of totality was upon us. A magnificent sight to see. The solar corona, the gaseous extended atmosphere of the sun usually unobservable due to the immense glare from the sun's surface, was plain to view and stretched out on both sides of the the sun. Beautiful flashes of the solar surface, seen between the valleys of the mountains on the moon's surface, produce the so-called Baileys-Beads effect, as seen in the picture, and at least one large prominence, also seen in the picture, was visible. All too soon, just 33-seconds after totality commenced, the sun began to re-emerge from behind the moon. Never the less, I don't think anyone was disappointed by the short duration, even though we had been expecting totality to last almost 2-minutes. Everyone was, I think, simply amazed by the beauty and splendour of the eclipse. Since no one in our group was a solar astronomer, this was really sightseeing for us, rather than science, so we were all able to simply watch an appreciate the eclipse without having to be too concerned with experiments or scientific observations.
I, like most in my group were amazed and impressed by how well prepared for and interested in the eclipse the Thai people were. Obviously the efforts of the government to both publicise the event and raise public awareness of the simple explanation for the eclipse played a major part in this, and I'm sure that fact that the Princess of Thailand herself was very interested -- and indeed observed the event along with Thai astronomers -- also helped to raise public awareness and interest.
Well the eclipse over with, we returned to our coaches in order to fight the traffic in order to return to our hotel. But not without stopping along the way to see the Sacred Monkey Army of Hannoman, and the ruins of the first Thai Observatory, built in the 1600's by French Jesuits, in another former Thai capital, Lopburi. With all the traffic, it turned out to be a rather long day. We spent approximately 12 hours in the coaches that day, but despite that, the 33-seconds of totality was made it all worthwhile. I can highly recommend that if you should ever have an opportunity to see a Total Solar Eclipse that you should definitely take the opportunity. It is not something I will ever forget, and I'm sure all who have seen such an event would agree.
I am thankful to the Royal Society of New Zealand, the Royal Society of New Zealand -- Canterbury Branch, the Department of Physics and Astronomy ot the University of Canterbury and the Frank Bradshaw and Elizabeth Pepper Wood Fund for providing funding that enabled me to attend the conference and to take the opportunity to see this wonderful phenomenon.