Total Solar Eclipse 2009

Hi Anthony,

The group I am with (Explorers Tours) will be staying in Hangzhou
from Monday and leaving on Thursday. I don't know the name of the hotel yet. There provisional eclipse site is between Hangzhou and Shanghai. There are viewing the Tidal Bore afterwards, I wonder will anyone be interested?

Has anybody got their visa for China yet. It says on the form 'type', does this mean you cannot fill it out with a pen?
The form is a PDF which can be downloaded from the Chinese Embassy
(in Dublin),

John

Block Capitals is probably what they meant though.

We got ours recently. We typed in ours.
Takes a week for them to process.
Visa office is only open till 12noon.
Pay the 30 euro on collection - they will not take money when you hand it in.
They will not use An Post either - you have to collect it in person or arrange for a courier to collect it.

Michael.

Hi John,

This is great news about your stay in Hangzhou.

I have managed to secure a room at the #1 rated hotel in Hangzhou and which has rave reviews from everyone (Crystal Orange Hotel). Once you have established the hotel your group will be staying at, please remember to let me know!

See you in China.

Anthony.

Michael,

We have it quite easy in relation to the visa fee. Americans are charged something like $100 (70+ euro) for their visa.

It is the same situation here in Greece surrounding the PDF download from the local embassy website.

Anthony.

Dave_Lillis wrote:

Out of curiosity, for those going on a ship and if you have good sea conditions, what are the chances of viable imaging ??

I'm going to give it a shot (pun intended) with a 1D mk2 and 600mm f/4L IS. The main issue is the height of the sun. None of my tripods/ heads can make that angle. I was thinking of lying back (perhaps on a deckchair or mat) and hand-holding. Image Stabilization should be a big help. I've already started practising but I think I need to go the the gym for this one

Any advice appreciated!

handheld at 600mm - even with IS, IMHO it will need to be a very short exposure.