Jan. 26 Indonesia Annular Eclipse report

[jiahao1986]

Hi guys,

Just came back from my trip to Indonesia for this Jan. 26 annular eclipse. The eclipse was awesome. We observed the eclipse in Carita, Banten, Indonesia, which is a beach site in West Java. The length of annular phase was only 2 minutes 36 seconds. However, we got a partly cloudy sky, and the thickness of clouds during annular phase was just right to make the ring a naked eye view. We literally saw a golden ring hanging there without any filter. At the same time the surroundings were getting dark and hundreds of swallows were flying panicly above us. The view was just as amazing as a total solar eclipse!

First photo, taken by Wang Jinglei (iouhutom on Singastro), using a Fujifilm FinePix S6500fd at 300mm focal length:



Second photo, taken by me, using a Nikon D50 at 24mm focal length:



Third photo, taken several minutes after annular phase by Wang Jinglei. At this moment a fine circumzenithal arc appeared; for this picture it is the rainbow like arc at the upper right corner.



Last photo, binocular projection at the early phase of the eclipse. Later it was too cloudy to do any more projections.

[jiahao1986]

Apart from observing the eclipse, we also spent some time travelling. We went to the famous Krakatau volcano the day before the eclipse. The old Krakatau dissappeared after the explosive eruption of 1883, leaving only Rakata Island. In 1927, Anak Krakatau, child of Krakatau, raised from the sea. Now it's over 300m high, and still is growing. During our trip, the weather was perfect, thus we got the perfect scenery.

New crater of Anak Krakatau, formed last year.





Climbing the volcano and wandering around the steaming rocks was a wonderful experience.





View of Sebsei and Rakata islands from the volcano.





Leaving the volcano by sea.





The day after the eclipse, we visited Anyer on our way back to Jakarta. The beach road from Carita to Anyer offered beautiful scenery. In Anyer, there is a lighthouse build after the 1883 Krakatau eruption, which destroyed the old lighthouse. The view from atop the lighthouse was awesome, taking the sea and Indo agricultral land into view at the same time.

Indonesian agricultral land and the beach road leading from Anyer to Carita.







New and old Anyer lighthouse.

[Tachyon]

Looking forward to your annual eclipse photo!

[Robin Lee]

Hah! It's you man. I saw a guy named Jia Hao at spaceweather.com. Congratulations on your photo being posted at spaceweather.com.

My fellow astronomy club member and I held the solar eclipse observation at the Kluang Mall. Roughly 350 people attended the event. Previously I thought solar eclipse was not interesting but now, no longer.

[wintertriangle22]

Hi,
solar eclipse from this Indonesian location appears closer to totality , hence sky became darker .When viewed from Singapore sky was quite bright at maximum even though quite cloudy.

[Robin Lee]

I guess the highest coverage in Indo was around 98.3% By the way, it's really hard to notice the partial eclipse if you don't look carefully.

[jiahao1986]

Hah! It's you man. I saw a guy named Jia Hao at spaceweather.com. Congratulations on your photo being posted at spaceweather.com.

My fellow astronomy club member and I held the solar eclipse observation at the Kluang Mall. Roughly 350 people attended the event. Previously I thought solar eclipse was not interesting but now, no longer.

Hi Robin,

Thanks for your good words. It's good to hear that you guys managed to promote astronomy to so many people. Partial eclipses are quite fun too, but you just have to witness a total or annular eclipse to really appreciate eclipses' true awesomeness.

Best regards,
Jia Hao

[jiahao1986]

Trip photos updated. Thanks for viewing.

[asterixsg]

Excellent stuff. Glad to see that you guys had such a wonderful experience.

[Robin Lee]

Whoa.. what a great experience you had! You didn't jump into the sea?

Total solar eclipse? Of course, I am going to China for the totality this coming 22nd July.