Eileen and Al, an astronomy buddy of Eileen’s, struggle to set up Eileen’s camera and telescope before the eclipse begins. (Photos by Ben Myers)

Ben Myers went a long way this summer to see something astronomically special. The Westcott Road resident traveled to eastern China in July to view what NASA has calculated to be the longest total solar eclipse of the 21st century. The event, which occurred when the moon completely blocked the view of the sun from Earth, lasted approximately six and a half minutes.

Myers has some experience with astronomy and “eclipse tourism.” His wife, Eileen, is active in the Amateur Telescope Makers of Boston (ATMoB), a group that promotes amateur astronomy and telescope-making through education and social events in eastern Massachusetts. His trip to China was not his first international jaunt to view a total solar eclipse; he traveled to Egypt a few years ago to view another, shorter event.

Ben and Eileen Myers flew into Shanghai July 15, and met up with their son, who lives and works in Japan. They were surprised by the massive construction efforts on China’s east coast. “You’re wrong if you think [that part] of China is like a Third World country,” Ben says. “There were skyscrapers, construction going up everywhere.”

Some Chinese buildings are a mixture of old and new, as is this small skyscraper topped by a pagoda as seen in the background of some older buildings (Photos by Ben Myers)

From Shanghai, they traveled to Hangzhou, a city on the Yangtze River Delta with a population of about 2 million people. There, they assembled with other ATMoB members for the July 22 eclipse. Brought by Chinese tour guides to a public park, they were positioned in a fine space to view the event. Eastern China was one of the areas from which the event could be viewed the longest.

“Eclipses are, no matter what, awe-inspiring,” Myers says. His experience in China was quite different from that in Egypt. While Egypt took its excellent location during 2006’s eclipse as an opportunity to engage in spectacle, complete with the presence of its president at its best-attended eclipse-viewing site, things in Hangzhou were more low-key. Myers described it as “a little like a private viewing.” He continued, “It was very humid, though,” which contributed to a hazy sky. Egypt, of course, is famously arid and, therefore, allowed for a very clear view.

Following the event, the Myerses went to Beijing, and saw sites such as Tiananmen Square, the Forbidden City, and a section of the Great Wall. For the Myerses, these places contrasted with a reminder of China’s massive gap between its wealthy and its poor: a “Great Wall” of another sort—one erected to hide shanty towns from tourists during the 2008 Olympic games. The pollution in Beijing, too, surprised Myers. “It was just amazing,” he says. “From the 20th floor of the hotel where we stayed you could barely see the street below.” Beijing’s population density, combined with a high rate of car ownership and its geographical position, create perfect conditions for the pervasive presence of smog.

Myers says, “It was a wonderful trip.” It was also, quite literally, the trip of a lifetime: a longer total eclipse will not occur until 2132.