Unless you have been living under a rock, you probably already know about the recent eclipse. In HK, we didn't get a full eclipse - only a 70% eclipse. Even so, this was something which I was looking forward to (and what were the chances of a full eclipse occuring in the same year as the 40th anniversary of the Moon landings!).
And I wasn't the only one. The region seems to have been gripped by eclipse fever with eclipse tours being run around China. Even flights at the time of the eclipse were fully booked as people tried to get a birds eye view of this once-in-a-lifetime phenomena.
In HK, first contact was at 8:16am with last contact at 10:47am. Considering my normal travel schedule, this means that I would miss the start. However, at the time, I wasn't too worried as I normally get out of the MTR at around 8:45am which would have given me a great view of the eclipse.
Sure enough, I entered the MTR system at approx 7:50am when the sky was still bright. As I got to Tai Koo station, I could feel the anticipation building. What would the sky be like as I exited the MTR? Would the skies darken in biblical fashion? Would I be exiting onto a dark street? I figured this wasn't very likely as HK wasn't getting a full eclipse. As I said above, we only got a 70% eclipse. Nonetheless, I figured that 70% would still darken the sky noticeably.
I get off the train at Tai Koo and eagerly rush to street level, almost forgetting to buy my breakfast bun from Maxims in my boyish eagerness to view the eclipse. And as I rush out into the street, I am almost blinded by the sunlight.
Double U - Tee - Eff!!
Where was the eclipse? Why wasn't the land shrouded in darkness? Considering that, not only was it not darker, it was actually brighter than its been in weeks, the sense of disappointment was palpable.
What a gyp!
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2 comments:
That's weird - I would also have expected to see some effect - are you sure you got your timing right? 8:16-10:47 seems rather long for the eclipse to be in place, given that the full eclipse lasts only about 6 minutes???
The timing was copied from the newspaper. It was also corroborated with several other newspapers so I think the timing is correct.
The reason was probably that, at 8:45am, only a very small portion of the sun had been covered so that it was still very bright. Bear in mind that HK would only get a 70% eclipse and this would have occurred at 9:27am.
In other words, the problem was that I was probably expecting too much at 8:45am. Still disappointing though.
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