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Total eclipse of the sun , August 11th 1999
Some astronomical images made with a video camera
My "Diary" .
T minus 1 1/2 year
The first articles about the last total eclipse of the sun this millenuim
appear in the astronomical magazines .
Many people regard this as a unique experience .
I talk to my friend Claus in Copenhagen about the possibility of going
to France experiencing a TOTAL eclipse of the sun , not just the partial
ones . We have already seen a few of those .
He is very interested and we make a preliminary agreement of taking
the necessary leave .
T minus 1 year
I speak to my friend Jan who is interested , too . Now we are getting serious .
T minus 3 months
At a visit in Denmark ( I live in The Hague , Holland ) we substantiate
the agreement , Claus wants to go , so does Jan with his mother Gudrun
.We agree that Claus should come to my apartment in The Hague , we'll then
travel to the campsite in France where we shall meet Jan and Gudrun on
the day before the eclipse . We would not like to arrive 2 seconds too
late , would we ?
"Why France ?" , you may ask . Well - it is not so far away , so it
will not be too bad even if we should miss the great show .
Apart from that , even if we miss the show of the sun's corona we WILL
expewrience two minutes of darkness in the middle of the day .
T minus 3 weeks
The E-mails begin pouring back anf forth - the last part of the preparations are in full swing . Jan and Gudrun reserve two places at a campsite near Compiegne . The directions for finding the campsite arrive , via E-mail , naturally .
T minus 1 week
Claus calls and tells me that he has changed his plan . He will be going to Hungary with some of his friends . He thinks there is a better chance of good weather there . Fair enough . I wish him good luck and prepare to go to France with Jan and Gudrun . They will be arriving two days ahead of the eclipse and await my arrival the next day .
T minus 4 days
I call the "local" astronomy shop in Amsterdam and find that they indeed
have what I am looking for : Solar filter material and a pair image
stabilized binoculars .
The weather forecast still looks pretty good in Holland and France
.
T minus 2 days
I call Claus on his mobile phone and find him and his friends in Nuremberg
(Nürnberg) . They are still planning on going to Hungary . The
weather forecast for Northern France is now less appealing . It is time
to pack everything , camera with a telelens , binoculars and the videocamera
. We would , after all , like to have more than just the memory of such
an experience .
It is high time to make the solar filters for the camera and binoculars
.
The weather forecast deteriorates during the day , predicting overcast
with showers .
Jan gives me a phone call in the late afternoon telling me that , at
the campsite , "Camping Halte de Mainville" , they have conveniently "forgotten"
the reservation ....... DON'T PANIC .......
They have been directed to a campsite about 25 km further east . In
addition it is a bit closer to the centerline for totality .
Jan gives me the directions by phone , the description is perfect we
shall meet at the campsite in Vic Sur Aisne .
T minus 1 day
It is time to leave The Hague .....
I arrive at Vic Sur Aisne and find the campsite without problems ,
and I am being directed to the place adjacent to Jan's tent . There is
nobody home , they went to visit the Eurodisney that day .
We see a little sunshine , now is the time to test the binoculars with
the filters . It is working perfectly , I can see the disk of the sun and
some sunspots ..... no, not just spots in front of my eyes , these are
"cool" areas on the sun , and therefore appearing as dark spots on the
sun .
WARNING : NEVER EVER look at the sun without the correct filters
to protect your eyes !!!!! It might be the last thing you ever see
......
Jan and Gudrun return , and it is time to rest .
T minus 4 hours
Finally the day has come , but not a sign of the sun , it is OVERCAST
!! UOCH !
Oh , well , we've still got a few hours left before the show .
T minus 3 hours
Still overcast , but a tiny blue spot appears in the grey sky .....
should we see something anyway ?
But no ... The blue spot disappears and we see that there are at least
two layers of clouds .
Well .. clouds or no clouds , we will see two minutes of darkness ,
whatever else happens .
Our neighbour from Scotland mounts a pair of binoculars with a white
cardboard screen to project the image of the sun , everybody else is ready
with the special filter-sunglasses ...... after all we should be optimistic
Locally at the campsite we find 4 tents with English people , one with Scottish people and an Italian Camper .
The camera with the telelens is being mounted on the tripod and the
videocamera is being prepared .
We are now ready for the great show ...... but will the show
come to us ?
Once in a while a blue patch appears in the sky , then disappears again . There is yet hope ...
Claus calls from Hungary , and I agree to give him a call as soon as we have "first contact" .
Still overcast ....
T minus 1 hour
The sun has not shown its face , but now it peeps through a tiny gap
in the clouds . We see it partially eclipsed - about 10 percent
....
The show has begun ...
QUICK - I run for the camera - but alas , too late .
Time to call Claus .... we agree that I shall call him after we have
had totatity , before it arrives in Hungary , about 25 minutes later .
We are still waiting for the blue sky ...
In the mean time we see a few patches of blue sky with the partially
eclipsed sun peepimg through ,
a few photos being made , but since I have no experience in solar photography
i will have to wait for the results till after developing the film . We
see in glimpses how the moon is slowly covering the sun .
T minus 15 minutes
The clouds seem very reluctant .... but look - a blue patch appears
in the sky . It appears to move in the right direction , but will it arrive
too soon , too late or just in time ? . Great excitement - and anxiety
!
The sun is still quite invisible behind the clouds .
T minus 10 minutes
It is now noticeably darker , like a thick cloud of a thunderstorm approaching , still no sign of the sun ...
The temperature has dropped noticeably .
T minus 5 minutes
The blue patch seems to have taken a course towards the sun , still
, will it arrive in time ....?
W now have a spooky kind of twilight , something we have never seen
before .
T minus 1 minute
A deep twilight , more spooky than ever , has descended upon us . It is getting really cool ....
Everybody is anxious to the extreme ....
T minus 30 seconds
The seconds tick ......... tick.......tock .....
A tiny crescent of the sun appears through the clouds brightening slowly
.... and now it happens .....
Darknes descends upon us ......not pitchdark , we can still see what is going on around us but who can withstand the lure of what we see in the sky ? .....And the real show begins :
T = 0 : Totality !!!!
The sun is now totally covered by the moon , we can remove the filter-sunglasses and look directly at the sky :
A dark sky with a round black hole surrounded by a irregular ring of wispy light .....
Spontaneous expressions of excitement , wonder , and some scattered applause from the campsite around us .
Otherwise it is very quiet everybody looking at the sun that is ....
not there . There is a moon in the way ....
....and now the temperature drops even more .
Hey -- wake up ..... get the video camera before it is too late
... I get about 15 seconds of wobbly video , showing the black hole in
the sky .
The filter is removed from the still camera and a few photos
taken ..... no idea of the result as yet ....
And in an instance it is all over ....
The light returns , very quickly , it is time to USE the "goggles" again if we want to see more .
The clouds cover the crescent of the sun , and the curtain has been lowered .
The solar crescent grows , veiled in the clouds , and appears once in a while .
T plus 5 minutes
It is time to give Claus a phone call before they will have the show
in Hungary .
They still have excellent weather and they are expecting a great show
.
T plus 20 minutes
The sun is visible again .
I look at it with the binoculars ..... WITH FILTERS
!!! ....I see two out of three sunspots in a row with the lunar shadow
right beside them . Jan looks in the binoculars confirming this and I look
again .
Just as I get the sun into view thew third of the three spots appears
in my view .
- and a closer
look :
The clouds now seem to become serious about drawing the curtain for this great show of a natural phenomenon .
"The show is over"
It has been a most memorable day for all of us . We already have one
memento : The piece of video .
We now review it and find that in spite of the wobbles it gives a good
impression of the black hole in the sky .
Now we start anticipating the photos , but first we go home .
T plus 35 minutes
Caus calls me from Hungary and tells me that they have had a GREAT show there . In a small telescope they could see many red flares coming out from the sun's surface . The weather had remained excellent in Hungary .
T plus 1 day
Time to go home , we arrive in The Hague just after 4 o'clock . Too late for delivering the films .... Time to rest .
T plus 2 days
Getting a black-and-white film developed in a hurry is not a simple thing . After a few visits to the photographic shops I am directed to a photo laboratory . They can develop the films that day , but they can not make any prints . ( closing for the week end ) .
After 2 hours wait the films are ready , and finally ,YES ! , there IS something on the negatives , it actually looks promising . On Saturday we cheat a little , going to the one-hour-shop aqnd get some prints made on colour paper . Not perfect but perfectly acceptable for bringing home a memento .
T plus 4 days
It is Sunday . Jan and Gudrun go home and I begin writing the
story in Danish . The English translation , as you see it here , follows
later .