C E L E S T I A L P O R T R A I T S :: S E D I L I E X P E D I T I O N S

Sedili Expeditions

Annular Solar Eclipse 1998

With an overdose of excitement, I was up early at about 0430hrs to survey the sky from my balcony. Good, besides tinges of high cirrus clouds, the day would be fine. I began to pack all the necessary equipment and personal belongings, but most important of all, to make sure that all my optics were clean and ready for this expedition.

At about 0700hrs, I reminded Tingchuan to bring his camera so that we could take the chance to capture the progress of this event and of course, to have our pictures taken together with the NASA people.

At 0745hrs, Tingchuan came just in time to help transport the equipment to Paya Lebar MRT station where Weileong would pick us up and meet the others at the Woodlands checkpoint.

We arrived at the Woodlands car park at 0940hrs and bought some last-minute items from NTUC supermarket. We met Moises, a Filipino amateur astronomer outside the entrance. He too, was excited about the event and was ready to capture photographs of the eclipse as he brought two cameras and a tripod. About 10 minutes later, a Mercedes and an Elentra stopped over at the parking lots. It was time for an introduction to the group.

Mr. T.P. Lee, owner of Southern Scopes (at Coronation Plaza, Bukit Timah) and a Meade dealer, was the organizer of the eclipse expedition. His brother, George, was also present. The rest were Americans: Paul Maley, his wife, and Richard Nugent. Both Paul and Richard are from the International Occultation Timing Association, NASA. IOTA was established to facilitate the observation data reduction, and reports of lunar and asteroid occultation and eclipses. They were specialists in there own right and were fully prepared to obtain as much information as they could from this annular eclipse. Nevertheless, they valued our assistance. After some brief interaction, we embarked on our 2-hour drive up to Sedili Country Resort.

Close to noon, we checked into three single-room chalets. We had a local lunch upon settling down, and were told to be ready for a reconnaissance trip in search of a suitable observing site for optimal viewing of the eclipse. As the sun would be 18 degrees above the horizon at point of totality, we had to select a location that offered a clear eastern horizon.

According to our NASA counterparts, we would be separated into two groups, each would have to be located 500 meters apart and at the same moment, within the totality path. The sites would have to chosen to lie at the southern tip of the region of totality. This is prior to a former NASA arrangement: there were altogether three separate NASA groups in Malaysia. One group, at the northern tip of totality (Mersing) another at the centerline (Pulau Dayang) and the last (our group) at the southern tip (Sedili). Just before setting off for site hunting, Paul took down the exact location of our resort location via the GPS (Global Positioning System) so that he could calculate the ideal location of the eclipse site. It was found to be located 12km northeast of our present accommodation.

Quickly, we headed off to the supposed location with help from the GPS. Unfortunately, we realized that the site had an obstructed eastern horizon and unfavorable terrain. At this point, Mr. Lee suggested an alternative location, which satisfied the recommended global coordinates by NASA. It was located inland and was about 30km away. With little time in our hands, we sped off to the second location. 45 minutes later, we arrived at the location and yes! It had a clear eastern horizon but was just a small adjacent clearing along the road that we traveled on. We found a suitable region that was a safe distance away from passing vehicles.

By the time we arrived back at Sedili Resort, it was 5:30PM. It was time for an early dinner before we started our stargazing at the beach nearby. During the course of the dinner, Paul conducted a short briefing. We discussed about our plans during the progress of the eclipse. The Americans would be filming via CCD cameras and some of us would be taking photographs of the "eaten sun".

At about 1930hrs, dusk came. Weileong, Moises, Tingchuan and myself began to set up the Celestron 8-inch Schimdt-Cassegrain via the Losmandy GM8 mount and the Celestron 6-inch Newtonian. The stellar vistas showed their magnificence and the arching Milky Way stretched amazingly from the Sagittarius constellation till Cygnus, and beyond. I managed to catch a glimpse of the North American Nebula. Using Weileong's Oxygen-III filter, the "Gulf of Mexico" was clearly visible. Upon visiting this deep-sky object, we stopped over at the Pelican Nebula and the Veil. All showed equally well, particularly the Veil when filamentary structures were easily visible.

Observation went on till about 0200hrs when bouts of clouds swept across the sky, marring the star-filled sky completely. Soon after, we were beginning to feel lethargic and decided to retreat back into our chalet for a rest. We would have to leave for the eclipse site around 0530hrs. Upon arrival at the site, low stratus clouds filled the eastern horizon. Dawn was fast breaking, and we set up our telescopes promptly.

The first sub-group consisted of Weileong, Tingchuan, George, Moises, Richard and myself. The others made up the second sub-group that was located 500 meters away. Here, one of the main objectives for NASA was to obtain a sizable estimate of the solar diameter via eclipse observations. The data obtained from this trip would then contribute to a 30-year long analysis that involves calculating the growth rate of the solar diameter from all these observational data. The photographic capture of "bailey beads" was also within our interests as these phenomena indicate regions of undulating terrain of the moon.

We were all ready for the eclipse at about 0710hrs: short-wave radio broadcasts of time and information, radio contact with the second team, CCD-imaging, astrophotography and also the home-made Mylar filters courtesy of Moises. Alas! At about 0730hrs, the sky was still obscured till beyond the 18-degree altitude line. Everybody was keeping their fingers crossed wishing that the clouds would be "blown" away. Suddenly, at about 0740hrs, there was a distinct emergence of the solar rays within a spot amongst the clouds. Wow! The sun was "bitten" into a crescent. Not wasting any more time, I started to click away, taking as many as 10 exposures per minute even though it was only partial. A group of sunspots on the sun's surface further added to our excitement.

From this moment, the sun began to play a continuous hide-and-seek game with the clouds and we could observe several brief periods of the eclipse. The overall sky condition began to darken and we could see a distinct purple color in the eastern clouds. At the same time, the ambient temperature dropped slightly. At time of totality, the clouds were still obscuring our view but thinned periodically such that we could actually see a telescopic view of the eclipse without the Mylar filter! Talk about safety! All this while, Richard was using his Sharp video camera to capture the frenzied moments.

We enjoyed the progress of the eclipse until an obscuration of about 60% when we decided to pack our equipment. Prior to heading back home, we took portraiture photographs of our group. It was without a doubt that our view of the eclipse was tainted with slight disappointments from the weather elements, but it was well worth the effort to travel all the way to Sedili to enjoy an expedition with a close-knitted group of similar interest - astronomy!

(Click on thumbnails to view larger images.)

1998-08-22

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