Total Eclipse August 1, 2008 at WeiXiZia, Yiwu, China by Lynn van Rooijen-Mccullough 
Nederlands
On July 22nd, we started out on a three week journey through China, not to see the Olympics, but to explore the Old Silk Road, visit the western provinces and view the total solar eclipse of the sun as highlight. Not usually one for group tours, the ad in Sky & Telescope magazine last year caught my attention. The yurts at the western border, colorful bazaars, the western end of the Great Wall of China, Terracotta Warriors and 4 days on the China Orient Express, and with Sky & Telescope as co-sponsor, a front row seat for the eclipse, was my assumption. I was not disappointed!
On eclipse morning, we left Hami early for the 4-hour drive (theoretically speaking!) to the viewing site near Yiwu. Police security was tight because of the Olympics and general unrest in the area. 
Tickets for the viewing area were coded to our passport numbers and checked several times along the route. Crossing the mountains, concern grew with the increasing cloudiness we encountered. We finally arrived at the site around 15:00, a grassy patch of Gobi dessert with snowcapped mountains to the south. And clouds, too many clouds...
The Chinese government had built a special site with pavilion, just for the eclipse. It is intended as a monument and exhibition for future tourists and school expeditions, but one wonders who will make the long journey to the interior without the lure of an eclipse.
We all ran to stake out our umbrella, which provided at least minor protection from the 38 degree heat. I managed to get the most north-westerly site, with no one in front, a beautiful view! Friendly locals pedaled through the site distributing water and cold melon to cool us off.
But as totality grew closer, concerns grew too: clouds were piling up in the west! Just 4 minutes before totality, the sun was totally obscured. I had somehow expected the Chinese government to have arranged for the clouds to disappear -- or that the collective prayers of 4000 people would have some effect -- but things were not looking good.
Then, with literally seconds to go, the clouds seemed to evaporate and the first diamond ring appeared. The change was sudden and so dramatic. Pictures and movies are not the same as seeing an eclipse with your own eyes. I suddenly understood why everyone kept advising not to take pictures at your first eclipse. But not knowing if this might also be my last eclipse, I recovered my composure as quickly as possible and started snapping away, following the exposure series that I had somehow had the foresight to write down ahead of time. Still, in all the excitement, I found myself gripping the camera instead of the cable release at one point, not great for the focus!
Photos from the total solar eclipse in Hami, China on August 1, 2008
2nd Diamond Ring Prominances Totality Map of visible stars Telescopes on the Gobi
Taken with Stellarvue 80 Canon 20Da with telelens Stack of 10 exp. lengths Showing stars & their IDs 80mm, 300mm lens, & video
I had three cameras set up: my Canon 20Da with a 300mm zoom lens at f5.6, my old Canon 10D on my Stellarvue 80 & a video camera set up to run to capture the wide view of the crowd and lighting, and the sounds. 
Murphy's Law struck just once this trip when I discovered that the exposure wheel on the 10D was broken and I could discover no work-around to change the exposure via another method. A few test shots with bracketing on seemed to put the camera into a loop and so was also not an option. Fortunately the wheel stuck at 1/60 and this provided some good shots like the second Diamond Ring. The 2 minutes of totality went by all too fast and the clouds began to reappear. All that was left was to raise a toast to a beautiful eclipse, good company and a wonderful trip.
But wait... the story didn't end there!
As tends to happen near a total Solar eclipse, there was a Lunar eclipse two weeks later when I was back in the Netherlands. It was nearly total from my location and watching the rising Moon become eclipsed, the counterpart of the setting Solar Eclipse, inspired this picture:
