While travelling to the Faroe islands or to Svalbard was out of the question, I was able to take a day off for the solar eclipse of March 20th 2015.

The Vorarlberger Amateur Astronomen (VAA) organized an eclipse observation in cooperation with the Pfänder-Bahn at the summit of the Pfänder mountain above Bregenz. Thanks to Kurt Gattnar, who managed the organization from the VAA side, we had a very enjoyable experience. Even carts for our equipment were available!

At 8:00 a.m. we took the first cable car up the mountain and set up our equipment. Soon people started to show up, in the end about 200 people attended. Reporters from the local newspaper and TV station were also there and interviewed guests and amateur astronomers.

I was surprised about how cold the air got during mid-eclipse.

Here is a timelapse video of the crowd and the eclipse itself: