Total Eclipse 1999

Introduction

On August 11th, 1999, a total eclipse of the sun could be observed in Southern Germany - provided that it was not raining like in Stuttgart where thousands of people gathered in vain. Mühlhausen (Kraichgau) was just within the zone where the eclipse was total; therefore friends visited us: Rüdiger Pohl not only brought his telescope with him, but also his wife Isabell, his colleague Markus Eisenhauer and Markus' girl friend Britta. We provided a small TV - in case we would not see the eclipse - my small ETX telescope, and food & drinks... We drove a little bit southwards into the Kraichgau, where many spectators had already gathered.

Here I present a couple of photos from this trip. It is a pity that my camera did not capture the upcoming darkness; instead, it simply used longer exposure times - resulting in correctly exposed but unsharp images... Shortly before the total eclipse, a cloud threatened to cover the sun, but Isabell and Astrid blew it away. During the total eclipse, Rüdiger and me were somewhat "unprepared:" Rüdiger did not manage to take the sun filter off his telescope (because he believed the newspapers and left the filter on the telescope). I took some tiny corona photos by hand with my digicam; at least I could see the sun in my telescope for a short moment, before the sun light quickly returned. Later, I used Rüdiger's telescope to take a few photos of the partial eclipse (my telescope magnified too much).

Anyway, all of us were very impressed with this short moment! It is a pity that the next total eclipse will be beyond our life spans...

Photos

If you click a thumb nail, a larger version of the image will appear in a new window. You have to close this new window manually!

Before the total eclipse	Astrid watches the partial eclipse through our ETX (with sun filter)	Rüdiger at his telescope while in the background the TV set shows pictures from England...
Isabell and Astrid blow the cloud away	Food and drinks	Both telescopes
By accident I took a flash photo - the only one where you can imagine the darkness	Corona taken with a "bare" Nikon (115 mm)	The camera reacted to the darkness with long exposure times and unsharp pictures...
The sun returns (taken with Rüdiger's telescope)	Partial eclipse hidden by clouds (115 mm)	The team watching the total eclipse...
Partial eclipse behind clouds (taken with Rüdiger's telescope)	More of the sun becomes visible, a large sun spot can be recognized	Most of the sun is already uncovered, more sun spots are visible
Total Eclipse, 09/11/1999 - Nikon Coolpix 950

Total Eclipse 1999

Introduction

Photos

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