Total Solar Eclipse: 2009 July 22


Costa Classica in Jeju, South Korea

Iwo Jima

Fukutoku-Okanoba

The route of the 'Eclipse of the Century' cruise

Crowded mid-deck area

Booby hunting flying fish between 1st and 2nd contact

I was onboard the cruise ship Costa Classica that departed from Tianjin (Beijing) on Friday 17th July 2009. Despite poor conditions over the Pacific Ocean in the vicinity of China, South Korea and Japan, the eclipse centre line was pretty clear and the sea calm. The few cumulus clouds around the horizon added to the beauty of the eclipse standing out against the wonderful 'sunset colours' around the horizon and reflected in the water. Solar activity was low and apart from some minor chromospheric activity, only a solitary prominence was seen towards the end of totality. Earthshine on the Moon was particularly bright and some observers reported seeing it through binoculars. The corona's apperance was as expected for solar minimum.

Contact times (uncorrected for lunar profile):

Event Position UT
1st Contact 141° 46' 18" East 25° 04' 55" North 01:02:18
2nd Contact 142° 02' 24" East 25° 15' 51" North 02:25:47
Maximum 142° 03' 10" East 25° 15' 33" North 02:29:06
3rd Contact 142° 03' 42" East 25° 15' 20" North 02:32:29
4th Contact 142° 00' 53" East 25° 24' 16" North 03:53:25

Duration: 6 minutes 42 seconds, extended duration of 3 seconds due to 9 knot speed of the ship along eclipse track.

Here are a few preliminary images obtained with the Borg 101ED.

2nd Contact

Mid-eclipse

Mid-eclipse

Earthshine

The thermochron recorded a drop of 5.5 degrees during the eclipse, with a ten minute delay after 3rd contact before the temperature started to rise again:

Here is a zipped file of the route followed by the ship: Costa_Classica_GPS_log.zip (right-click, thenSave Link As and unzip...) that can be opened in Google Earth. Google Earth overlay from Xavier Jubier.

This link http://www.costacruise.com/B2C/USA/WebCam/webcam.htm is to the Costa website which shows the current location of the whole fleet. Locate and click on the icon for the Classica to go to a page showing the ships's current track, and a link to a webcam.

Eclipse flag

Seascape

Eclipse day sunset


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Copyright Nick Quinn, 2009 August 01