Total Eclipse of the Sun from Zambia
June 21, 2001

Preparations

The equipment I used

This is my trusted Russian Maksutov telephoto lens 1000 mm f/10 which I'm using for most eclipses since 1994 - and since 1999 at least for the 2nd contact I'm adding a x2 tele extender.

The Russian optics driven to (and beyond) the extreme: On the evening before the eclipse the planet Mars was just too tempting (reaching perigee the next morning), and so I taped an eyepiece behind the lens and shot some minutes of DV video through that contraption. On the left you see a typical raw image, and on the right a highly processed version (with the Giotto software). The dark features as well as the NPC are real!

Other observers at our site

Impressions from other observing sites

On the roof of the Intercontinental Hotel in Lusaka: Jay Pasachoff and his group, just after their arrival - plus a member of our expedition, marvelling at a really big lens.

Just a kilometer or so from our site: the " African Odyssee" Unimog van and Gernot Meiser.

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