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Come join Spears Travel and astrophysicist, Fred Espenak,
on another fantastic total eclipse trip tour.

We have updated our itinerary to enhance your eclipse experience in CHINA
Check out all the details - We would love to have you join us!

Spears Travel has been doing eclipse trips since 1991. We have traveled with groups throughout the world and have had some majestic adventures with long lasting memories. We will make sure that every detail is taken care of so you don't have to!

See pictures and read about our
Site Trip to Northern China

There are days until the 2008 Total Solar Eclipse! Are you ready?

Interested in a pre or post trip?
Tibet Pre Tours
-or-
Mongolia Post Tours

Fred Espenak (Mr. Eclipse, MrEclipse.com)is our astronomy consultant and he will be joining everyone on the Northern China trip.

A NEW Letter from Fred Espenak:

(Nov. 2007)

Greetings Eclipse Aficionados!

We learned a lot on our recent site inspection trip to China (August 2007). For one thing, the 2008 Olympics are making air connections through Beijing a nightmare. For another, the Olympics are triggering price increases throughout the country, especially in Beijing. Finally, the local government in the Hami/Yiwu region is preparing for the big influx of eclipse tourists by limiting access to the area and by designating an official eclipse viewing site. All eclipse groups will be confined to this one crowded viewing location.

For these reasons, we needed to make some major changes to our original itinerary. You'll notice that we now fly in and out of Shanghai instead of Beijing. We also worked hard to find an alternate eclipse viewing site that still benefits from the excellent weather prospects in northern China. Our new eclipse site still offers nearly 2 minutes of totality. It even allows us to stay at the same beautiful hotel for three consecutive nights. That is quite a luxury in and of itself.

We even managed to squeeze in more time for additional sight-seeing in Xian, home of the legendary terracotta warriors. Please check our new itinerary and join us for what promises to be a fantastic eclipse experience!

- Fred Espenak, (Nov. 2007)

A Note from Fred Espenak:

On August 01, 2008, a total eclipse of the Sun will be visible from a narrow path that stretches from northern Canada and Greenland, to central Russia, Mongolia, and China. With so many wonderful locations to choose from, selecting a destination for our 2008 eclipse expedition has been particularly difficult. Our final decision to pick China over Russia and Mongolia was arrived at based on climate data for Asia.

Northwestern China is noteworthy because it offers some of the most promising weather prospects along the entire eclipse path. Its position between the Gobi Desert to the east and the Talikmakan Desert to the west spares it from the monsoon systems that affect much of Southeast Asia during the summer months. The prospect for clear sky in this region during the eclipse is over 70%. That's nearly as good as the weather prospects for the 2006 eclipse in Libya. In comparison, the eclipse path in western Mongolia passes through a mountainous area that reduces the probability to 50%.Russia fares a little better with a 60% chance of clear sky near Novosibirsk.

Our eclipse site in northern China offers a central line duration of 1 minute 54 seconds with the Sun 17° above the western horizon. This low Sun altitude presents a great opportunity to capture the eclipse with our surroundings and foreground subjects using wide-angle lenses.

I'm very excited about our 2008 eclipse expedition to China's Silk Road region. See the report and photo album from our recent site inspection trip.

- Fred Espenak

For complete details on the 2008 eclipse, see Fred Espenak's website.

For useful tips on photographing solar eclipses, click here.

Please join us for an amazing journey into the path of totality!
Space on this trip will be limited so send in your fully refundable deposit NOW to get on the list!