I remembered the local weather forecast I had seen
earlier that morning on the Budapest television station called for clouds,
rain, and thunderstorms in the Lake Balaton area on Wednesday (eclipse
day). There were similar reports on the popular weather Internet
sites. The British Met. Office
had put together a comprehensive eclipse
weather prospects site with daily updates of conditions and forecasts
along the eclipse path. The Met. Office update posted Tuesday morning
had given Hungary a 20% chance of seeing the eclipse, basically the worst
prospects on the path, even poorer than in England. Most of us were
not optimistic. How could you be? By the time we arrived at
the Heviz Hotel at the south end of Lake Balaton, the sky was completely
overcast and the rain had started.
That evening, our group had a pre-eclipse meeting at the hotel to discuss what to expect, last minute tips on photographing the eclipse, and important eye safety information. After the meeting which concluded about 9 p.m., a few of us went outside. I looked up and saw what I thought was a star directly overhead. It was Vega shining through some thin clouds. In the next few minutes, more and more stars became visible, and it certainly looked like we were getting some noticeable clearing. Perhaps we would see the eclipse! It certainly was encouraging.
I headed back to my hotel room and did a last check of my equipment. While checking my equipment, I used my PC laptop's CD-ROM to play some motivational music. The album, titled Millennium Eclipse: Darkness & Dawn, was composed by Simon Cooper of Cornwall, England, specifically for this eclipse. In his words:
The album has been made for the August 11th 1999 Total Eclipse of the Sun. The music follows the path of totality as it reaches the shores of Cornwall, slowly crossing the Celtic lands to mainland Europe and the Balkans, moving across the sands of the Middle East to finally reach Pakistan and India, where the eclipse ends at sunset in the Bay of Bengal. The music reflects influences from all of these areas, celebrating the unifying symbolism of the eclipse. --Simon Cooper