Hunting the Partial Solar Eclipse of 4 January 2011 in Germany

with a huge crew of Westdeutscher Rundfunk TV, SNG truck included - a picture story

The hunt begins at the HQ of Eclipse-Reisen in Bonn which also has a detailled report and a little movie about the adventure. The message from all the weather models was clear: Go West!

With dawn breaking we reach the highway rest stop "Rur-Scholle" on the A 4 near Düren where the SNG truck is set up while the crew and us walk into a neighboring field with high snow. The scenery reminded us a lot of Patagonia 1/2 year earlier, with a difference: No clearing in sight here yet ...

Several times we go live in the ARD/ZDF-"Morgenmagazin", the morning show with the highest ratings on German TV - only to demonstrate that in our back, where the Sun's about to come up, clouds still linger ...

... while in the West and even overhead cloud holes are growing.

Alas, no live view of the Sun until the final broadcast ends at 9:10 CET ...

... but it was a fun morning with an interesting nature experience, a big hare and a flock of geese included. Yet we came to see the eclipse, and so ...

... the hunt continues on the A 4 westward, towards Aachen.

The view from our car towards the East - and there it is, the first glance at the solar crescent suddenly breaking through the clouds, just after maximum phase! The only problem now: finding a suitable place to park the cars and set up the TV cameras (minus the SNG truck now).

That place is finally found at the parking lot of a bewildered car dealer on the outskirts of Aachen - where I'm pinhole-projecting the Sun (now in an amazingly clear sky) with my fingers onto his office's wall.

The still partially eclipsed Sun seen of the display of one of the TV cameras ...

... and shot directly through black polymer eclipse glasses - left over from the 1999 eclipse - with a Panasonic DMC-TZ2 at x10 optical zoom.

Final interviews which were part of a segment on the ARD-"Mittagsmagazin" airing a few hours after the eclipse (a recording can be accessed - at least temporarily - here and here). And a revisit to the Rur-Scholle location, now also in sunshine. Still the extended chase to Aachen had given us additional minutes of the eclipse. Three TwitPics from our adventure are here, here and here, other impressions from Aachen here and from nearby Roetgen here.

All pictures by Daniel Fischer

Initially published Jan. 9, link added Jan. 11, 2011