We'll have some fun on Tahiti today & tomorrow and then carry on to Huahine before returning to Papeete on April 2 at 18:25 on VT 466 - hopefully a pre-eclipse party will take place there that very evening. In a nutshell: It's just great here, with lush vegetation, tons of birds you'd normally find in a pet store, and a rather relaxed atmosphere (though it's Easter Monday and most everything is closed).
One important advice for anyone spending more than a few hours on Tahiti before embarking on the cruise: DON'T take taxis, hire your own rental car by all means! Taxis are so expensive that you get only about 20 minutes for the pice of a full day's car rent! But be aware that their offices have short opening hours on Sundays!
So much for now,
Daniel & company in Papeete, Tahiti, French Polynesia (at the business center at the airport for 300 pol. francs per 15 min)
Date: Fri Apr 1, 2005 9:14 pm
The few days we have spent in French Polynesia have just been outstanding: fantatstic islands, gorgeous coral gardens with half the cast of 'Finding Nemo' aroud - and the fanciest weather I've encountered anywhere, with sunshine and torrential rains often within minutes and sometimes at the same time, rainbows in plain blue sky (how is that possible?) and stunning night sky views approaching high mountain sites, but just 1 m above sea level.
The Discovery people have told me that they've had excellent weather during their cruise (from NZ) so far and that they aren't aware of bad systems ahead (but the sat images in local newspapers show some large fields all the way from the Tuamotus to the Gambiers - which isn't that far away from where we're to encounter the eclipse). It'll stay interesting.
Daniel Fischer & company, currently at Fare Ma'o, Pension Mauarii, Avea beach, Huahine, French Polynesia - sounds great, and it is ...
Date: Mon Apr 4, 2005 8:45 am
The week in French Polynesia was great, with new adventures every day (like a drive thru the Kauaii-like mountain interior of Tahiti today) - and since yesterday I'm stumbling over fellow eclipse chasers every minute.
There was a great gettogether of passengers on the Gauguin (which already left last nite) and the Discovery in the port of Papeete last night, and there must be hundreds more of 'us' around here. The weather forecast for the eclipse zone is, er, interesting, but a lot can change here in 5 days ...
Daniel Fischer & company, aboard the MV Discovery
Date: Wed Apr 6, 2005 8:35 am
- There have been three major presentations on the upcoming eclipse,
- a dress rehearsal for the eclipse has been arranged for April 6th,
- the first detailled weather report is now available for E Day (positive with some caveats),
- the first 'official green flash watch' has been arranged at sunset (and there was a briliant flash indeed, in a convenient cloud hole),
- and observations of the night sky on a particularly darkened deck have also begun.
So far the weather has been great while the ship has been speeding (at its max. velocity of 18 knots or so) from Papeete towards the Pitcairn islands which we will reach on April 7, and the roll and pitch usually stay within a degree or less - good eclipse photography *could* be possible even from the middle of the Pacific. If only the weather holds: In any case the famed eclipse meteorologist Jay Anderson, who at first claimed to be just a mere passenger on board, has already been promoted and set to the left of Captain Eric during tonight's Captain's Dinner ...
Daniel Fischer on the MV Discovery (where it is now 23:30 local time on April 5)
Date: Fri Apr 8, 2005 1:41 am
Daniel
Date: Fri Apr 8, 2005 9:27 pm
Daniel Fischer from somewhere north of Pitcairn, now heading for Easter Island
Date: Sun Apr 10, 2005 5:12 am
The video recorded alongside the still camera (with 1000 mm f/10 Maksutov) is terribly shaky and chaotic, but many single frames are sharp and revealing - here are the chromosphere, prominences and the corona the still photos missed, so in the end I have everything. And then there is a 2nd video, shot automatically from the lunch buffet and recording some interesting behavior of our waiters ...
The atmosphere here aboard the MV Discovery is still one of elation, and we are also continuing to look out for green flashes in large numbers at every sunset (sometimes from the well-placed jacuzzi ...). The only really good one occured on the very first evening, though. We are now halfway between Pitcairn (their eclipse first day cover went on sale aboard today) and Easter Island where new adventures beckon ...
Daniel Fischer (posting this time via the yahoogroups website)
Date: Fri Apr 15, 2005 5:27 pm
- Perfectly sharp high-resolution photographs *were* possible even from a boat rocking several degrees, thanks to fast lenses and especially the new digital SLR cameras (especially those of a certain Japanese brand starting with a C). Prominences, the long chromospheric arc (that spanned some 190 degrees at times) and at least the inner corona have been imaged during this eclipse with a quality as good as during the last 3 or so land-based eclipses.
- Also thanks to the state of the art of computers (I've never seen so many notebooks in action on a ship) many could process their images to their best already, optimizing contrast etc. And this includes corona processing genius Miloslav Druckmueller (whose previous results are at http://www.zam.fme.vutbr.cz/~druck/Eclipse - sit down before viewing this site! :-): He has already combined dozens of images taken on the ship into stunningly detailled views of fine structures in the corona.
- Since there were no stabilized platforms in use on the Discovery, all videos shot here are, well, dynamic and not up to the digital (or even some chemical) still pictures in resolution, but often superior in entertainment value: Either the tripod was fixed and the Sun was moving in and out of the field of view (which guaranteed the funniest results, according to this audience's reactions), or the videographer tried to track the Sun, resulting in sometimes quite successful seconds of video, interrupted by frantic jerks ...
Never before have results that good been presented so shortly after an eclipse on a ship, that one is for sure. And everyone, that is also clear, has learned a lot from the 8 April 2005 extravaganza for the next TSE, only 50 weeks from now. With 4+ minutes duration, won't we all feel that the totality will be boringly long then ...? :-)
Daniel Fischer (half-way between Easter Island and Pisco, Peru)
Date: Fri Apr 15, 2005 11:05 pm
Daniel
Date: Mon, 25 Apr 2005 16:01:06 +0200
Daniel (slowly getting used to living on dry land again ... :-)
P.S.: At http://www.astro.uni-bonn.de/~dfischer/skyreports/2005/timeline.html there are also a timeline of the journey - and my official certificate :-)
[A few minor and obvious typos have been corrected; otherwise nothing was changed]