… It’ll cover the sun. As a kid I was really interested in everything in the sky above me. Stars, planets, galaxies, I regularly went out to a dark place (or otherwise just in my back garden) to look at them. Over the years my interest faded a little as I became more interested in watching (and later photographing) birds. But now and then I still look up, trying to find my favourite constellation Orion or one of the planets.

In those early days I promised myself that on August 11, 1999 I would be in northern France, watching a full solar eclipse. I couldn’t be more wrong… In stead of going south, I headed north as this was my first summer on Spitsbergen. Here I did watch the partial eclipse, but 30% wasn’t too exciting. Nine years later, in 2008, I was on Spitsbergen again and saw another partial eclipse. The 97% was a lot more exciting, the sun was noticeably less bright, but still, no corona, no stars… Now, in little over two weeks time, I’m going to try again. Again on Spitsbergen and this time for a total solar eclipse! This time the moon will be in front of the sun for little over two minutes! I’m really excited and hope for good weather, so the eclipse will also be visible…

I’ll keep you updated!