WEATHER STATIONS

SOLAR
ECLIPSE
Igor Zaytsev
Romain-Rolland-School, Berlin
20th March 2015
One of my first thoughts, as my alarm clock goes off and I lift myself out of my bed,
deals with an event that has been discussed and planned for several weeks in my
additional Physics course. Something unique and rare is going to happen today.
Something so unique, that I will even be allowed to bunk off my Biology lesson and
half of my English lesson to watch it: the solar eclipse which can be viewed not only in
Berlin, not only in Germany, but in almost half of the European countries. So I am VERY
excited, particularly because this is the very first eclipse for me to observe. As there
will be a lot of preparation and special equipment required for the observation, I won’t
have Biology today and, instead, will be spending time outside and enjoy the beautifully
warm and sunny spring weather today. Sunny spring weather? Oh, yes, we are actually
very lucky today. Our Physics teacher especially was really concerned about the weather
forecast provided on Wednesday, our last lesson before the eclipse, which predicted
cloudy skies — not the best conditions for the use of our brand-new solarscope. But
on my way to school I am reassured as I see the bright blue sky. I actually have not
seen such a beautiful sky for a long time: it looks like a freshly washed tablecloth that
somebody laid on top of Berlin. Clean, no clouds, no fog, just sunshine and a few white
tracks left by several airplanes. At the moment the sun is still shining as it usually does,
but boy, this will change after the next two Geography lessons. 90 minutes pass like 90
seconds after which I will join the guys from my additional Physics course to build up
our observation zone. During the break all the other students will have the opportunity
to watch the eclipse with the help of our instruments. Which instruments? Apart from
the solarscope, which is a special telescope for sun observations, a special box-shaped
projector that shows an enlarged projection of the sun, and a set of super-fancy-looking
sunglasses which are so dark that you can look through them in the direction of the sun
without setting your eyes on fire. And so it begins. The moon starts to cover the sun
at approximately 10 a.m. The eclipse reaches its climax right as the long break starts.
SOLAR ECLIPSE
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