Total Solar Eclipse 1999 in Krispl

The total solar eclipse of August 11, 1999 was visible in the south of Belgium.  But because the eclipse occurred during the summer holidays, a lot of people made a trip searching for better weather.  I was together with my parents, brother and sister in Berchtesgaden, in the South-East of Germany.  We watched the eclipse in Krispl (Austria), close to Salzburg.  We were very lucky with the weather, as you can read later.

At the same moment, Sara was also in Austria with her family, but she was unlucky and could not see totality.

The movie is made during totality.  Enjoy the amazement!

The pictures that follow are taken from the movie.

We met at 10am at the church of Krispl.  Krispl is a very small town just across the border in Austria, a 25km drive from Berchtesgaden.  When we arrived, the rest was already there: the Geeroms family (Johan, Myriam, Kasper and Sanne) and the Pessemier family (parents, Wim and Els).  There were also 10 Italians at the church and two people from the Netherlands (who watched together with us).  Some local people were watching from their houses.

Wim P. brought his 15cm telescope and projected the sun.  Johan brought his 11cm telescope, with a mylar filter.  He also brought a photo-camera (for the sun) and a video-camera to film us during the eclipse.  We brought binoculars with filters, a camera with a 50mm lens and a video-camera with a filter.  Of course, everyone also had eclipse glasses.

Since we arrived in Berchtesgaden on August 4, the weather was always very good.  Yesterday (August 10), it rained the whole day...  Luckily, in the evening (around 19:00) we could see the sun again. When we woke up this morning, the sky was again totally clouded out...

Also at 10:00 in Krispl, we could not find a blue spot in the sky.  As a consequence, we missed the first contact at 11:37.  Luckily, a bit later, we could see the first, very small bite out of the sun.  The calculations were correct and a solar eclipse was really taking place.  The weather improved which enabled us to see a large part of the partial phase.  After a while, we could see projections of the partially eclipsed sun on the ground under the trees.  This even became more clear when using a white sheet.

The weather improved and the sun became smaller and smaller.  It seemed that everyone started to speak quieter.  The sun became smaller very fast now and tension rose.  Around 5 to 10 minutes before totality, it became much colder.  The light became very spooky.  The sun moved to a white, semi-permeable cloud.  Totality was only a few minutes away (at 12:40).  A larger, dark cloud came very close, but did not disturb us.

All of a sudden, the Bailey beads became visible, immediately followed by an amazing diamond ring.  Indescribable!  Fantastic!!  The corona was really breathtaking.  Through the telescopes wonderful prominences were visible.  Totality was way too short and it appeared to be over immediately.  Right before the end of totality, Venus appeared from behind a cloud.  All of a sudden, the diamond ring reappeared... This was by far the most beautiful thing I have ever witnessed!  The emotions were so huge that I needed to sit down on a bench for a while.

The weather stayed unsure for a while with a lot of sun and some clouds from time to time.  After the solar eclipse, we went to Salzburg and around 17:00 it started raining very hard.  We clearly were lucky with the weather!  I will certainly try to watch another total solar eclipse in the future!