May 21, 2012 Annular Solar Eclipse in Xiamen , Fujian , China

Last May 19, 2012, I led a group of 3 members of the Astronomical League of the Philippines which includes me, Jett Aguilar and Mark Vornhusen to Xiamen, Fujian, China to observe the May 21, 2012 annular solar eclipse. We arrive in Xiamen on May 19th before lunchtime and scout for a good site to setup and document the eclipse next day. It was raining the whole day when we arrive but we still keep our fingers crossed and monitor the weather pattern and after a day of analyzing the weather pattern. With Mark Vornhusen, a good weather satellite map analyzer, we both agreed and decided to still stay put and take a gallant stand and stick with our original plans. I brought along a very portable setup with a Canon EOS 500D DSLR with Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 IS L lens with Canon EF 1.4x converter set at 560mm (35mm equivalent of 900mm) mounted on my portable Kenko Sky Memo-R tracker. I also brought along a small Canon Powershot 650 IS digicam for me to document activity shots as well as a Sony old model TRV-120 camcorder for me to video the eclipse. On E-Day, we wake up early and went to our chosen observing site at around 4:00am local time (deduct 8 hours to get UT) which is near the coastal beach facing the small Kinmen island which is facing east horizon. It was a clear sky as predicted by the local weather news and indeed it was a clear day for all eclipse viewers in Xiamen! At around 5:23am local time , i got to see the first small horn of the eclipsed Sun and we started to click away. Although the sky is clear, I could sense that there is slight thin haze hovering near the Sun as my exposures were not consistent and I have to constantly changing exposure almost every shot thus I had to bracket my exposures to lessen the burden. With that on hand, I had to quit doing the video because I might jeopardize my still imaging session :( But nearing 2nd contact, a small patch of black cloud started to cover the Sun unexpectedly and all viewers there at the site were going crazy and all are yelling for it to go away :) But from the looks of the small clouds which covers the Sun 10 minutes before 2nd contact, I estimated and tell my fellow members that this small pesky cloud will exit the Sun before 2nd contact arrives and true to the prediction, the Sun came out of the small cloud like a "second contact" diamond ring and everyone was celebrating as the Sun continuous to come out part by part. Suddenly, I was surprised to see chromosphere,prominence ,Bailey's Beads and a small faint hint of inner corona through thin clouds! It was AWESOME, BEAUTIFUL and DRAMATIC!!! As like what fellow member Mark Vornhusen , also an avid eclipse chaser,say " It's an annular solar eclipse that we came here to observe but we were treated with a "semi total solar eclipse" effect :) LOL A few more seconds passed and we got to see the "Ring of Fire" for about 4 minutes or so before all things comes to an end 3rd contact started. We also got to see some Bailey's Beads during the 3rd contact. As the time moves forth, the Sun started to undergo partial phases till it exits the Sun more or less around 7:21am. It was a very good, dramatic annular solar eclipse and it was worth the trip going to see this eclipse!!! We went back home in the evening with a happy heart and looking forward to observing the total solar eclipse in Borneo in 2016!!! More time to prepare again :)