El Escorial, Spain
Changing our plans often, Jo, Laura and I ended up with tent and rent car on a camping in El Escorial, near Madrid in Spain. Thoughts were Portugal Tunisia or what ever. Our choice was not that bad. Although the days before, some clouds appeared on the sky, the morning of the eclipse, it was spotless. A perfect blue sky. The nights had a temperature of only 4 degrees C. Quite cold for being in a tent.
We stayed on the camping and installed the two Celestrons and Jo’s Sony Hi8 recorder on the grounds near the tent and the car. First contact was as predicted. It went quite fast. About half way and men could feel the temperature drop and the eerie colour changes in the sky. The shadows became unsharp and fuzzy and the crescents where visible under the trees. Central eclipse was near and it all happened very fast. So beautiful, so perfect. No spots on the sun, but no clouds in the sky either. Some Baily’s beads were visible before and after annularity.
The ring was nearly perfect and men could notice we were quite near to the central line. No planets or no bright stars during maximum. Annularity lasted 4 minutes 12 seconds. Nice and long. Very beautiful.
Coordinates
Lat = 40 37 28.3 North
Long = 004 06 06.1 West
Alt = 1016 meters
Contacts
I 07h 39m 50s alt 15
II 08h 55m 15s
m 08h 57m 21s alt 28
III 08h 59m 27s
IV 10h 22m 42s alt 39
Magn. 0.9498
Duration = 04 m 12s
Picture by Patrick Poitevin
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