Dear Robbie,  Over a huge part of Hungary we had a total eclipse (100%
for 2 minutes 22 seconds), and the weather conditions were superb at
almost every place of the country from where the totality was visible.
Even better, the eclipse happened almost at the astrological noon, when
the sun is at it's highest position on the sky!

I observed the eclipse from a hill near the lake Balaton, which turned
out to be one of the best places (compared to other places seen on TV
in the evening summary).  There were some clouds during the first phase,
which started at about 11:26 AM local time, but fortunately they dis-
appeared completely before the totality occurred at 12:46 PM.  The
totality was very interesting and beautiful.  To my surprise darkness
did not come gradually: even when the moon covered almost the whole
sun there was almost no change of light -- only the colors turned a bit
darker.

The most interesting part started about 5 minutes before totality.
Birds and insects went silent, and another surprise: the wind stopped
completely.  It was thought before, that there will be strong wind
during the eclipse.  The western horizon became darker and darker,
and rather quickly the light dimmed to almost night, and the air cooled
down rather abruptly.  (It dropped about 3-5 degrees, but the lack of
the sun made it feel even chillier.)

I was looking at the sun (with special glasses, of course :-) since
I wanted to see the Bailey's String of Pearls (caused by the craters
on the surface of the moon -- I'm not sure this is the correct English
name for it), and the diamond ring right before totality, but every-
thing happened so fast, that I saw almost nothing.  :-(

As the last ray of the sun disappeared, one could look into the sun
with naked eyes, without the glasses.  It was fascinating!  You could
see a big "black hole" surrounded by the sun's corona (a light ring and
rays going out to all directions, just like children would draw a sun).
Without telescopes the protuberances were not visible.  Nor could we
see the stars (maybe because the air was rather humid, and the sky did
not go totally black); only the planet Venus was visible as a very
bright star.

Besides the sun the view around from the hill was fascinating, too.
The far horizon was still in light, and the clouds on the horizon were
bright and had a beautiful orange-yellow color.  Everything else -- the
sky, the neighboring hills, the lake Balaton -- were in darkness.  It
was something like just before the sun is down, but even more spectacu-
lar.  Unfortunately I didn't take a camera with me, because I didn't
have a lenses to make photos of the sun and I didn't expect that there
would be such a beautiful view.  Now I'm sorry for that.  :-(

When the first ray appeared again I had to switch back to the special
glasses.  The darkness disappeared rather quickly, and ten minutes
after the totality one would not notice there had been anything sensa-
tional happening (though the sun was still covered partially for more
than an hour).

This total eclipse was a very big event in Hungary.  It was not an
official holiday (although the suggestion almost got through the
Parliament); nonetheless, very many people took a free day and traveled
into the zone of totality.  There was an enormous traffic jam on the
highways, and many people simply could not get on the trains, even
though they had their tickets, and despite the increased number of
trains going there.

The media has been talking about it since a couple of months, and all
the TV channels had live transmissions from different cities around
Hungary.  There were many tourists coming from the neighboring coun-
tries, too.  I've heard that this event was the best tourist attraction
since many years.  The next one here will be in 2081, so be prepared!
I'll have my camera with me.  ;-)

Zoli Janosy