SOLAR ECLIPSES 2001

Total Solar Eclipse 2001 in Lusaka Zambia.

This eclipse was perfect from all kind of views. The whole sky the whole day did not show any clouds. The organisation locally was friendly and perfect. The flight was excellent organized by the travel organisation (Astronomy Travel). Total price for this nonstop trip from Vienna to Lusaka and back was 1000 US$ with no weight limitation for the luggage. So i put 84 kg astronomical equipment into the plane. We arrived at 3:00 am in the morning of eclipse day in Lusaka, built up the equipment, had a look around, talked to the locals, shot our pictures and we left Lusaka at 8:00 pm the same day.

It was my 3rd total eclipse (this time within a big croud of people) but again very impressive. The local people were very friendly the whole time and very very enthusiastic during the totality. It was a real festivity. The local TV visited us and captured images through our telescopes. We gave square meters of sun foil in small pieces to the crowd to enable the people to look at the sun during partial phase.