STORY:
Millions Watch Last Eclipse of Millennium

Traffic jams, clouds mar viewing in Europe

All across Europe and Asia, tens of millions of people watched the last total solar eclipse of the century - a millennium event full of superstitious significance and scientific wonder.

There were traffic jams more than 10 miles long in northern France as people tried to get to squeeze into the zone of totality that measured nearly 200 miles wide. Unfortunately, bad weather marred the view for many, who had to resort to watching the event on television with video recorded from helicopters and planes flying above the clouds.

For some, however, clouds weren't an obstacle. Some 200 people boarded a Concorde flight at London's Heathrow airport, giving them a cloud-free view of the eclipse from 55,000 feet. Even the Pope could not resist eclipse mania, peering through a special filter to watch the moon pass across the face of the sun.

In Germany, thousands of people poured into Stuttgart, despite rainy weather. People crowded rest stops on the A-8 highway, the so-called "Eclipse Autobahn," because it follows the path of the eclipse.

But one eclipse watcher in Germany let his enthusiasm get the best of him. A 24-year-old man received a 20,000-volt shock after climbing a utility pole to get a prime viewing spot. He is hospitalized with serious burns.

The eclipse swept across the earth at 1,500 mph, from Europe into central Asia, before sinking at sunset in the Bay of Bengal. The next total solar eclipse worldwide is not until 2001, the first year of the next millennium. The next one in the United States is in 2017.

The BBC has an online video clip if you missed it.

DATE: 8/12/99

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