The early morning of July 22 found me in Jinshanwei, southwest of Shanghai, hoping to see the longest total solar eclipse of the 21st Century. I was there as part of a tour sponsored by the Planetary Society. (Jinshanwei, also known as Shanghai Beach, is actually within the city limits of Shanghai, although more than 60km from the city center.)

The weather was quite murky, and though the clouds briefly thinned enough for us to see the partially eclipsed Sun from time to time, they closed in again so that we were denied any view of the totally eclipsed Sun in the otherwise dramatic midmorning darkness. I did get some good photos before the clouds came in, though; take a look, after the jump.

We had driven to Jinshanwei the previous day from Hangzhou, a few hours to the west. We'd had terrific thunderstorms during the night, and eclipse day began with a solid gray overcast. By the time our bus got to the beach at 7:15, though, I was amazed to see a hint of sun behind the clouds.

Soon after that, the partial phase of the eclipse began, and the Sun became intermittently visible through medium to dense clouds. The clouds actually worked in my favor at that point, acting as a natural solar filter to snuff out the worst of the Sun's glare and enabling me to get some good photographs. I'd brought both my Canon Digital Rebel XTi and Canon PowerShot SD990 IS, as well as a Bogen/Manfrotto 785B Modo Maxi tripod. I used the tripod-mounted DSLR with a telephoto lens (at 300mm) for close-ups of the eclipsed Sun, and the smaller camera for wide-angle shots and video.

My last photo of the eclipsed Sun, before it was itself eclipsed by the thickening clouds, was from 09:30 local time, about 9 minutes before the onset of totality: it shows as a very thin crescent of Sun barely visible through the overcast. I took some video of the gathering darkness, in which birds (swallows or swifts) flew by, presumably going home to roost.  Then we had close to 6 minutes of deep, nightlike darkness--but not even a glimpse of the totally eclipsed Sun. (A couple of my fellow travelers also made a video of the onset of darkness and return of the light--in it, I can be seen in the foreground, in red shirt, shooting my own video.) And within 15 minutes of the end of totality, it was pouring rain--seemingly acid rain, as it stung my eyes. We quickly packed up our gear and left the beach, and soon were on the road to Shanghai.

Dramatic as this experience was, I felt bitterly disappointed. We had been teased by the clouds loosening their grip on the Sun, only to have them close in again with renewed force before the best part of the eclipse. I'd seen many partial eclipses before--most notably the event of March 7, 1970, in which the Sun was 96% eclipsed from New York City. Now I've even been in the path of totality, traveling halfway around the world to get there, but I still haven't observed the fully eclipsed Sun and its remarkable phenomena--the Diamond Ring, Baily's Beads, prominences, and the delicate streamers of the solar corona, the Sun's rarified yet super-hot atmosphere. My trip to China was wonderful, but the eclipse--with its dramatic yet empty darkness--was not among its finer moments.

I'd chosen this particular expedition (a lot of travel companies offer eclipse trips these days) largely because I needed to be in Shanghai the day after the eclipse for a one-day conference on comets. Our expedition leaders had considered staying in Hangzhou an extra day based on the unfolding weather forecasts, but forged on to Jinshanwei instead. As it turned out, most (but not all) observers in Hangzhou were able to see the totally eclipsed Sun, while the reverse was true in Jinshanwei, based on reports I've seen online. Yet a lot may have depended on local weather conditions beyond the ability of anyone to accurately predict.

At this point, though, second-guessing is futile--the Great Asian Eclipse of 2009 is in the books. Having come so close (and so far) in my first attempt to view a total solar eclipse, I don't want to leave this undone. I'll try to be in the path of the 2017 solar eclipse, the first to cross the U.S. mainland since 1979. But I may not want to wait that long, and there are a few total eclipses in the interim--though they mostly occur over water. On July 11 of next year, Easter Island lies in the path of a total eclipse, as do parts of Chile and Argentina. Weather prospects aren't very good, though, and Easter Island is bound to be overcrowded, with tens of thousands of eclipse chasers ending up there. Of more interest to me is Australia in 2012--like China, it's a place I've always wanted to visit. A 2016 event in Indonesia is also intriguing. I don't have the money nor the inclination to chase every eclipse that comes along (as some people do), but for the right opportunity I'm willing to go the extra mile (or 10,000, as it may be) to see this rare and spectacular natural phenomenon.