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(a Aug, 11th at Mésangueville)
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When I think about it, I was very lucky. I had the chance to attend a really beautyful event while everything seemed willing me to get back.
Far away from the noise of media which do not now how to captivate our dulled brains, far from the ordinary snobbery which tends to turn the eclipse into a non-event, I lived a full-emotion moment which exceeded all I was expecting.
Gone from Saint-Nazaire (western France) the day before in the morning, I travelled towards Rouen (NW of Paris) under lamentable conditions. The weather, the traffic, everything was inciting me to reverse back. If my sons, aged five and nine, haven't been with me in the car, I think I would have never left Saint-Nazaire.
I promised them for a long date we would see the phenomenon. It should be a break in this summertime that we decided to spend in enhancing our house; a small trip under the Sun to take breath was essential.
So I booked my vacations.
I have to say that I spent time on choosing the observation site. When I reconsider it, it appears cocasse since we arrived at Mésangueville without planning it.
I indeed succeeded in deciding my parents to reach the totality belt and attend the spectacle. Gone the weekend before towards Fécamps with their motor home, they finally arrived at Clères where they gave me a call, inviting us to join them. It was not the site I retained at all but what I focused on was finding a site allowing to change place easily and quickly. Fécamp would have been the worst solution since only escaping eastward is possible.
Aug, 11th in the morning, the sky was dark over Clères. The kids had slept in the motor home while I spent the night with the hardware after I pulled down the bench of the car. When I was young, I lived about ten years in a caravan because my parents were moving from place to place, following work. I always considered the rain on the roof a mother's song but this night, I must acknowledge it was breaking my nerves.
The breakfast finished I decided to lead the operations. The campsite was the heart of a depression. So I decided to empty the car of useless things and asked my mother to prepare a picnic: my idea was that with the car we would be mobile enough to track down a blue sky area if we only were higher.
And the tactics appeared smart: seconds after leaving Clères, the landscape was all around allowing us to make fast decisions.
While following a piece of blue sky farther in the countryside, we arrived at Forges-les-Eaux. Anguish; crossing point of several roads, Forges was a transit place for a lot of people. And we were afraid to stay stuck there, so close to the blue sky...
And we got out this crowdy place! A few minutes before the first contact we were driving on the D915, the blue sky on the right. We turned on the D41 road. There, exiting from the village we saw cars and met a group of people sitting on outdoor chairs, facing our star.
We stopped a little farther, on the side of the road, near the panel indicating that we had just left Mésangueville.
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First sightI had prepared the day before a timing using the Redshift 2 software that I also used to explain to the kids what was going to occur. I took the telescope, the cameras and I have made the first adjustments; approximate tuning of the telescope (but sufficient given the type of observation), choice of the photo parameters. The sunspots were perfectly visible. The kids were really excited. They were observing the Sun through the telescope for the first time. I announced the first contact seeing through the eyepiece of the telescope. My father with the binoculars confirmed. And the children behind their glasses shouted: « there, at the top, the Moon starts to eat the Sun... ». They didn't believe it. For them, it was really particular. At the same time significant, since dad said that it was important, and insignificant, or rather, without meaning... Everyone was looking at the Sun through the telescope time to time when I noticed a group of persons who were very intersted. We invited them to join us and share the telescope. They were glad since they only came with welding glasses they had to use in pairs. The sunspots were being ate by the hungry Moon. |
A few minutes before the Moon had completely hide the Sun, some clouds came between us and the two asters. The surrounding countryside was gently turning into a deep strange red-brown. Since the weather was rather fresh, the temperature falling wasn't as impressive as expected.
The athmosphere was unreal. Nevertheless, something else was fixing our attention. The clouds began to play with our nerves. How many time was remaining? Only a few minutes.
Having made all these efforts to be theft at the very last moment. Anger was growing. A mile from there, sunny fields spread out obviously under our eyes.
One minute before totality the clouds let us see the crescent. Hope was coming back. In seconds, the reward, the gift was there: the clouds desappeared and the Moon suddenly switched off the light. Incredible. As if someone had unplugged the cable.
Three generations were looking at their first total Sun eclipse.
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