MALAYSIA

 

There were four members of the PAS delegation to Malaysia - James Kevin Ty, expedition leader; Ligaya Santos; Jun Lao; and Rudolf Abando, Jun's officemate based in Kobe, Japan. The first two days were spent in Kuala Lumpur (KL), contacting the scientific expedition leader, Looi Keng Kok of the Malaysian Nature Society, and generally getting our bearings.

We stayed in the Swiss Inn Hotel in Chinatown, where Kevin also got to meet Olivier Staiger, his eclipse buddy friend & fellow eclipse enthusiast. The Swiss Inn was strategically located in downtown KL, and offered shops close by that gave good bargains. Three nights before the eclipse, we synchronized our watches vs. the official time taken from the GPS (Global Positioning System) unit that James had brought along. We would later find out that it was a good idea to have synchronized it early since when we moved over to Pulau Dayang, we noticed that the GPS unit was always ahead by a few minutes - it was later after the eclipse that wwe found out that the unit was not repositioned to Pulau Dayang, such that the time readings from the GPS were then off.

The day before we left for Mersing, we checked out of the hotel and deposited our bags at Looi's shop across the Planetarium. We then explored the Planetarium Negara, the Butterfly Park, and the Orchid Garden.

We ate dinner at the Hard Rock Café in Kuala Lumpur and appreciated the night-time view of KL Tower and the Petronas Twin Towers. We then went back to the Planetarium by 10 p.m. to catch the bus that will take us to Mersing. KL is generally clean, and traffic is much better than in Bangkok - the new airport was quite modern, but the ride took all of an hour to bring us to the city itself.

There were two buses that the Malaysian Nature Society, Selangor branch, rented for the trip. The bus ride took six hours, but since the trip was at night, and we were very tired from our whole day exploration, the bus ride passed uneventfully, except some instances where we were bodily lifted from our seats when the bus passed some bumps and unpaved roads. We arrived at Mersing, a coastal city in eastern Malaysia, around 5:30 a.m. There, we ate breakfast and took the boat ride to the island where we would be observing.

The boat ride started quiet enough, with us on the back side of the boat, appreciating the view. Little did we know, there would be a rough ride ahead. The boat ride took 3.5 hours - quite a long trip to traverse 50 km. from Mersing to Pulau Dayang.

Throughout the trip we were concerned about clouds the following day, eclipse day, since large cumulus clouds littered the sky in the east and prevented the Sun from shining directly down. As the hours ticked by, the ride became more bumpy as waves crashed on us - people became seasick as the rolling motion of the boat disoriented and played havoc with the balance of people. It seemed the ride would never end. James was tucked inside the cabin, sleeping, while Ligaya and I were outside - we were trying not to get seasick, but there were instances that we got dizzy. Rudolf went inside the cabin to sleep, but the violent motion of the boat caused him to be seasick for the remaining part of the trip till we reached Pulau Dayang.

The boat ride finally (finally!) ended, and we were rewarded with the twin islands of Pulau Dayang and Pulau Aur, verdant spots in a sea of blue. The northern island where we stayed in was Pulau Dayang, while the island to the south, separated by tens of meters by the sea was the larger island of Pulau Aur. Both these islands are composed of igneous rock, and you cannot walk along the island to the other side because of the towering granite rock walls separating the southern part of the island. What was quite nice was the presence of powdery white sand, probably as good as or better than in Boracay, and the presence of coral not too far away - really a diver's paradise.

We landed and crossed the jetty to dry land (finally!) and waited for instructions. We were assigned to a four-bunk cottage, where we placed all our stuff. We freshened up and changed to our 1995 Total Solar Eclipse in Tawi-Tawi T-shirts so that they could see we were members of an eclipse expedition team. James and I then went around to scout for our observing site, and staked a claim on the beach with James using his compass to find a place where an unobstructed view of the rising Sun would be seen.

As we rode the boat to the Pulau Aur for dinner, we were rewarded with a very stunning sunset - dark cloud bands littered the west, and the break underneath the cloud band and between the horizon was where the setting red Sun slipped in. A very beautiful sight!

In the evening, after dinner, we were rewarded with clear black skies - with the Milky Way so prominent overhead as it wound its way from the south where Centaurus was located, and meandering through Sagittarius, Scorpius, Scutum, and on to Cygnus. The skies were so dark that you could see the dark rift bisect the Milky Way and notice the Sagittarius and Scutum star clouds vs. the rest of the Milky Way. All four of us enjoyed the great view and this lifted our hopes that the following day would be clear. As James set up his alignment to make sure the motor drive would be working and tracking perfectly, I took the time to help point out the constellations and stars to the Malaysians who were there with us. David Teoh of the MNS was the designated lecturer that night on stargazing, and the other members were listening to him. The other members set up their telescopes and they gazed at various objects in the sky, but I bet that Jupiter was one of the key objects being observed.

Dawn. Set the alarm at 5:30 a.m. and dutifully woke the rest of our contingent. Most of us were still tired from the trips and the setting up, but we had to move. By 6:30 a.m. we were already on the beach and setting up. We used Edmund's and Ligaya's banig to set up a place where we could place our stuff safe from the ever-present sand of the beach.

We placed James' Maksutov and my refractor on James' mount, as well as a stationary camera operating with a 28 mm. f/8 lens to capture the diminishing light. We greeted the dawn with some apprehension because of the clouds in the horizon, but as the Sun rose, it broke through this cloud layer. The Sun rose at 7:01, and the Moon dutifully made contact with the Sun at 7:10:43.

First contact started and we were on our way. We looked at the opposite end at the tall cumulus clouds in the west and wondered how the observers at Mersing were doing. The other observers were already gathered around at that time, and getting to see scopes and cameras and people around the narrow strip of beach was really quite nice. Breakfast was brought in - sandwiches prepared for us, but most people were concentrating on the job at hand.

As for the PAS, we divided the work so that we could capture as much data as we could. I was the taskmaster of the group, dividing the work between the people, giving them checklists such that they knew what time to do what, in other words, the expedition dictator, telling people what to do. Guess this role has grown on me since the 1995 expedition to Thailand. James took full disk pictures of the eclipse with his Maksutov, while taking a multiple exposure with a wide angle camera.

I was overseeing the activities, while at the same time, getting full disk pictures with my 60 mm f/5 refractor and capturing the dimming light with a normal camera set at a constant f/stop and exposure to see the differences in the light intensity on the beach sand, the sea, and Pulau Aur on the opposite side - so we had white, blue, and green colors on the image. Ligaya was our resident data keeper, logging in the temperatures and humidity as the minutes ticked past. She also recorded cloud cover and type, as well as contact timings. Rudolf operated our videocam, providing a continuous narrative as events progressed.

Every now and then we'd look at the Sun through mylar filters provided to us by Edmund and Looi. Although we had our telescopes set up to observe the Sun close up, it was still reassuring to watch the eclipse progress using our naked eye.

As the eclipse progressed, members of the Malaysian Nature Society passed by and observed what we were doing, surprised that we had a scientific program running, and that a four-man team could be doing so much. We exchanged notes every now and then, but always kept track of our timings. The contact timings calculated by Fred Espenak were quite accurate, and I believe people were keeping track of the eclipse and the timings through us, since we were telling them how many minutes to first contact, second contact, etc.

As the minutes wore on, the Moon covered more and more of the Sun, the temperature remained fairly constant, despite the increasing elevation of the Sun, while the humidity also remained constant at a near saturation level of 90%.

One could also notice the diminishing light intensity, which as annularity approached, could only be described as tenuous and ephemeral. We were quite happy to view the eclipse progress with no clouds that would block the view. As annularity approached, we increased the pace of our activities, with data gathering and pictures being taken at increasingly smaller intervals. And before we knew it, it was...

 

 

 

Second contact! The Sun looks like one of those dangling earrings that you see very commonly in the South, with the thin rim of the Sun on top. This then changed to a perfectly symmetrical ring of light - wow - this is so different from a total eclipse, but with a beauty all its own - it is a quiet beauty best appreciated when viewing the Sun through a filter, because the unfiltered Sun is still too bright for eyes to see safely.

 

The Moon is situated dead center, since the island is at the center line of the shadow. The annular stage lasts nearly three minutes, and pretty soon, the Moon reaches the opposite side of the limb, and third contact occurs. The show is over quickly! All around, people were giving thanks for the blessing of seeing the annular eclipse sans clouds, and also saying that the arduous trip to get here and the seasickness experienced were all worth it, just to view this ring of light.

As the Moon moved away from the Sun, observers start vacating the beach as the best part was already over, and they go on to do some snorkeling on a nearby island. We continue to monitor the Sun's condition, taking pictures and readings all the way till fourth contact.

After fourth contact, thick cumulus clouds start coming in, and none too soon. The show is over, the clouds can take the sky back. Later, we learned that the Live!Eclipse Broadcast was successful. In the island with us were eight Japanese and a few people from the Malaysian satellite company. They viewed the eclipse with a camera hooked to a telescope, and the images were sent via a Malaysian satellite, with the signal being relayed to KL to modify the signal, and then retransmitted back to the satellite for transmittal to Japan. In Japan, the signal was uploaded to the internet, so that people around the world could get to see nearly as live a broadcast as could be sent.

In the afternoon, after some rest, we lounge in the sea, enjoying the warm and clear waters and the fine sand. As we walk around, we see several fishes that linger around our feet, diving in as we walk around - they are opportunists, seeking food as we disturb the sand as we walk. At night, we go back to Pulau Aur for grilled food dinner - grilled chicken franks, crabs, squid, fish, and chicken - a hearty repast after a wonderful and fruitful day. The sky is dark and open as we head out - the Milky Way is very prominent, and we spot four meteors zipping past the northeastern sky, as well as one satellite. As our boat makes its way back to our site, the clouds start claiming the night sky once more.

We wake up early on Sunday morning to warm and humid weather - it is drizzling. As our boat makes its way to Pulau Aur for breakfast, the clouds unleash pouring rain. This looks bad - probably choppy waters as we head back to Mersing. Rudolf tells me this is bad. I tell him not to worry as the rain is pretty uniform and the waters are not choppy. To be sure, we take some Bonamine to ease up on the dizzy spells, and just take a light breakfast. As our boat lifts anchor, the Sun breaks through the uniform cloud cover and continues to open on the path that our boat takes.

Dark and heavy clouds continue to claim the area north and south of us, just leaving a break in the sky on where our boat was. Someone up there really cares for us! To while away the time and remove our thoughts from seasickness, Rudolf and I start to sing a few songs. Soon, the others are singing with us as well, and pretty soon, the upper deck of the boat where we were is filled with raucous laughter and song. Ligaya is in the lower deck talking to someone, but probably wanting to join the fun upstairs, while James is in the cabin, animatedly talking to Looi. The singing comes to a point where the head of the Japanese group is asked to sing a Japanese song; David sings their national anthem, "O Canada"; Faisal sings the Malaysian national anthem; and Rudolf and I sing the "Lupang Hinirang". After 3.5 hours, we dock into Mersing, take lunch, and are then back for a six hour bus trip to Kuala Lumpur.

We arrive in Kuala Lumpur around 6:30 p.m. with a steady rain. We check into the Swiss Inn once more, sneak out to buy souvenirs, and have dinner. Rudolf, Ligaya, and I wake up early the following morning to catch the morning Malaysian Airlines flight from KL to Manila. It's probably a good thing that we were tired, since throughout the 4.5-hour flight, there was no in-flight entertainment, and we had to make do with reading and sleeping.

Another PAS successful eclipse expedition down our belts!

 

Data Tables

Time Temp. (oC) Relative Humidity
7:00 25 88
7:10 25 90
7:20 25 90
7:30 25 91
7:40 25 91
7:50 26 91
8:00 26 91
8:05 26 91
8:10 26 91
8:14 26 91
8:16 26 91
8:18 26 91
8:20 26 91
8:21 26 91
8:22 26 91
8:23 26 91
8:24 26 91
8:26 26 91
8:28 26 91
8:30 26 91
8:35 26 92
8:40 26 92
8:50 25 92
9:00 26 92
9:10 28 92
9:20 31 90
9:30 34 81
9:40 36 72
9:48 37 63

The interesting thing about this eclipse is that we did not see a drop in temperature. The temperature remained fairly constant during the eclipse, with the temperature rising only about half-an-hour after third contact. In normal eclipses, the temperature drops as the Moon "eats" more of the Sun.

In this case, since the Sun did not have much chance to warm the ground, and with us being located near the moderating influence of the sea; as the Sun rose almost at the same time as the eclipse started, then the amount of light and heat that the ground was getting may have been fairly constant.

 

Contact timings:

Predicted Actual Sun Alt.

1st Contact 7:10:42.6 7:10:43 2.2o

2nd Contact 8:20:59.4 n.a. 19.1o

3rd Contact 8:23:50.1 8:23:50 19.8o

4th Contact 9:48:43.4 9:48:30 40.5o

 

Circumstances for Pulau Dayang:

 

Latitude = 02o28.0' North

Longitude = 104o31.0' East

Elevation = zero (sea level)

Eclipse duration = 2h38m00.7s

Umb. Duration = 2m50.7s

Eclipse magnitude= 0.9641

 

Cloud cover:

7:00 layered clouds in eastern horizon; thick nimbocumulus in western horizon

7:10 some haze over the Sun; cirro-cumulus overhead

8:00 thin haze present

8:24 altocirrus over-head

9:00 very thin haze, cumulus clouds moving toward the east

9:40 cumulus clouds dominating the sky

 

 

For more images of our trip to Dayang , click here.

For details on what happened in Manila during the eclipse day, click here.

 

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