On September 21, 1941, Ou Yongxiang successfully completed the first aerial film of a total solar eclipse film by human beings. After the plane landed, he opened the canopy and waved to the cheering crowd on the ground.
Sun Jiansan/Wen
On September 21, 1941, the place where Chinese scholars realized the first aerial film of a total solar eclipse was precisely over Lintao County, Gansu Province, within the airspace controlled by the Japanese Air Force. To achieve this aerial photography, the Chinese Air Force sent fighter-bombers as aerial cameras, more than 20 fighters and an anti-aircraft artillery regiment to serve as guards and escorts.
Sun Mingjing's disciple Ou Yongxiang operated a movie camera above the clouds at an altitude of 5,000 meters, achieving the feat of the first aerial aerial filming of a total solar eclipse film, which was recalled in the long series of "Memoirs of the Old Cow in the Domain Boundary" by Chen Zunyi, a titan in China's astronomical circles.
Under the arrangement of his mentors, Sun Mingjing made the opening film "Air Defense" in 1936. In this title, the word "air defense" is composed of aircraft diagrams.
Weng Wenhao, a university scholar who presided over the world-shaking excavation of the Peking Ape Man and was then the president of the Executive Yuan, gave his full support. Qian Changzhao, a university scholar who served as the chairman of the Resource Committee at that time and was fully responsible for the supply and deployment of materials during the National War of Resistance Against Japan, and served as the vice chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference after the founding of the People's Republic of China, was the decision-maker who decided to provide aircraft, aviation gasoline and funds in the 1941 Total Solar Eclipse Observation in China to achieve aerial photography, and was praised by Cai Yuanpei as "the first person in Chinese film scholarship".
Dr. Guo Youshou, an underground communist party member who was then the director of the Sichuan Education Department, was the specific organizer and leader of this aerial photography of the total solar eclipse. Sun Mingjing is the proposer of "must be photographed at home" and "must shoot color movies" this time. Dr. Wei Xueren, who was responsible for the leadership of film education throughout China at that time, led his disciple Sun Mingjing to become the designer and technical solver of the specific method that enabled the film cameras of the time to achieve accurate shooting of total solar eclipses on high-speed flying aircraft.
Pictured, "Astronomical Enthusiasts" monthly magazine in 2004, the 12th issue of the serial draft of Chen Zunfei, a major expert in astronomy in China and the first director of the Beijing Planetarium, "Memoirs of the Old Cow in the Domain Boundary". On the left is the cover of the journal, and on the right is two small paragraphs of the article.
After the successful observation of this landmark total solar eclipse came out, Mr. Qian Changzhao saw the film and gave a very high evaluation of this achievement: "Our Chinese scientists and the Chinese Air Force cooperated, risking the possibility of being shot down by Japanese aircraft, under the most difficult conditions in all aspects of the country after the beginning of the War of Resistance Against Japan, the feat of successfully completing the aerial total solar eclipse film in the sky of our country not only created the first time in the history of human astronomy, but also created the first time in the history of human aviation. It also created the first time in the history of human science and technology, which is also the first time in the history of human cinema! It's a joy to behold! ”
Dr. Chen Yuguang is not only a successful educator with peach and plum in the world, but also an accomplished scientist. In 1922, as one of the two officers of the Preparatory Committee for the Founding of Beijing Normal University, he participated in the establishment of Beijing Normal University. In 1923, Beijing Normal University was founded, and he served as provost and head of the Department of Physics and Chemistry. The school has just been established, the principal Fan Yuanlian can not perform his duties, Dr. Chen Yuguang as the chairman of the school review committee twice acted as the principal, to undertake the establishment of the school and the initial development of Beijing Normal University.
In 1927, Chen Yuguang became the first president of Jinling University, the predecessor of Today's Nanjing University,Chinese and served for 24 years with outstanding achievements. Dr. Chen Yuguang commented after watching this film that records the first successful aerial shooting of a total solar eclipse by mankind: "Since the beginning of mankind, our ancestors have had infinite curiosity and fascination with the sky. From ancient times to today, how many years and how many generations, human observation of astronomy, even if the astronomical observatory or observatory is built to the top of the mountain, human observation of the sky has always been carried out on the ground. The film is a record of the beginning of an era when humanity relied on science, stopped stepping on the earth, and left the earth to fly to the sky to observe astronomy. ”
In 1933, Weng Wenhao (first from right) and Wang Shijie (second from right, then Minister of Education) attended the graduation ceremony of Jinling University in Nanjing, along with Principal Chen Yuguang
Sun Mingjing told this writer on the occasion of his 80th birthday in 1991: Today's human beings can already go to the cosmic space to observe various astronomical phenomena, they can put huge astronomical telescopes in space, they can also send astronauts to the moon for direct observation, and they can also put observers on spacecraft in distant space to observe. However, the image-recorded observations of human beings leaving the "earth" to face astronomical phenomena began in 1941, when the Japanese Air Force often bombed the skies of Lintao County, Gansu Province. This is something that every Chinese should not be unaware of – longitude 103 degrees 52 minutes 13 seconds 05 seconds east, latitude 35 degrees 22 minutes 33 seconds 01 seconds north.
The newspaper clipping is the second page of Taiwan's "JoongAng Daily" on April 9, 1966, and the article in the upper left corner (the right is an enlarged screenshot) shows Guo Youshou's identity as an underground member of the Communist Party of China, which was not discovered in the Kuomintang until March 1966.
There are several questions that must be asked and answered.
First, why did Chinese scholars dare and succeed in filming mankind's first aerial total solar eclipse film in 1941, when there was no precedent in the world to learn from?
Why was the first time that mankind successfully filmed a total solar eclipse movie by air was that science and technology were backward at that time, the all-out War of Resistance Against Japan had been fought for four years, and in the most difficult years, there were only a very small number of aircraft, aviation gasoline stocks were even more pitiful, and they could not build movie cameras that could get on the plane, and they could not build Chinese of film films?
The photo is taken by Guo Youshou (second from right) inspecting the education film in 1934, and taking a group photo with Wei Xueren (first from the left) in Suzhou. (Photo by Sun Mingjing)
At that time, due to the extreme shortage of film film in China, most of the filmmakers in Greater Shanghai retreated to Chongqing, because of the lack of film film and no film to shoot, they could only create a "golden age of Chinese drama" in Chongqing. In such an era, in the case of an extreme shortage of film films, Chinese created the miracle of successful aerial filming of mankind's first total solar eclipse movie.
On September 21, 1941, after successfully completing various observation tasks, all members of the "Eclipse Observation Northwest Team" took a group photo at the Taishan Temple station in Yuelu Mountain, the eastern suburb of Lintao County. In the lower left corner is Ou Yongxiang, who boarded the air, and the standing person is Zhang Yuzhe on the fourth right, Gao Lu on the second right, and Chen Zunfei on the fifth right. This is 103 degrees 52 minutes 13 seconds 05 seconds east longitude and 35 degrees 22 minutes 33 seconds 01 seconds north latitude.
Second, why did backward China already have scholars who could board an airplane and successfully complete the first aerial film of a total solar eclipse? Why would this scholar who controls the camera on the plane be Sun Mingjing's first student and teaching assistant, the young returned overseas Chinese community Yongxiang?