Working late and chatting online with a couple friends until nearly 4a.m., I only had two hours until the solar eclipse was set to peak here in Taipei. I laid down on the couch with the drapes open and alarm set, figuring I would end up missing it otherwise. Given that the living room balcony offers a direct sunrise view and the prime time for us in Taipei was just after 6 a.m., this should’ve been a win for photo taking.
Wrong.
Sleep eluded me as I sat fixated for two hours on the thick storm clouds passing over just as the sun started peeking over the base of the mountains. There was this clear patch in the sky that would be right where the sun would rise…if it could just hold out for an hour. Like normal in Taipei lately, within minutes it was dark and starting to rain.
With the three layers of clouds blowing in every different direction, the two seconds at the height of the annular eclipse (with the “ring”) was not visible. Arrgh!
We were in the direct path of the eclipse and in theory, we should’ve been able to see a visible ring around the sun as the moon moved in its path, which is called an annular eclipse as “annulus” is Latin for ring.
Taipei was one of the areas forecasted to have the highest diameter of the sun covered (94%), with Tokyo, Crescent City, CA and Albuquerque, NM at the top with 97%. I have since seen initial photos posted from Tokyo…definitely the place to be this morning.
The best photos came from moving inside and using the tinted balcony doors combined with a filter — unfortunately the pictures are a bit grainy shooting through two dirty balcony doors and a screen, but at least the eclipse is more visible!
