Large crowds gathered across Switzerland to watch solar eclipse

Eclipse: large crowds gathered across Switzerland Keystone-SDA

Applause rang out across Switzerland as the solar eclipse reached its peak at around 8:20pm. Armed with solar eclipse glasses, camping chairs and high spirits, many people turned out to watch the sky on Wednesday.

The spectacle began in the north-east of the country at around 7:25 pm and ended at around 8:45 pm in Geneva. At the Signal de Bernex, the second-highest point in the canton of Geneva, around a thousand people gathered, according to a Keystone-ATS journalist.

In Bern, large numbers of people gathered at the Rosengarten to watch the eclipse, according to a Keystone-ATS journalist on the scene. Dozens of onlookers had taken their places on the low walls and paths overlooking the bear pit. While waiting for the event to begin, people enjoyed picnics and drinks.

On a bluff in Murten in canton Fribourg overlooking the lake, around twenty people, including families, picnicked while watching the eclipse. The eclipse glasses were passed from hand to hand and lent to those who didn’t have their own, which encouraged conversations between strangers, according to a Keystone-ATS journalist at the scene.

Peaks taken by storm

The peaks of the Jura Arc, such as Chasseral and Tête-de-Ran, were swamped with visitors, as was the case in Moléson in canton Fribourg.

On the road leading to Chasseral in the Bernese Jura, traffic jams formed and the road was closed. Many hikers walked the remaining four or five kilometres on foot. “The Neuchâtel police intervened at the request of our Bernese colleagues, as the situation is complicated,” the cantonal police headquarters told ArcInfo.

In Valais, nearly 200 people watched the eclipse from the St-Luc observatory in the Val d’Anniviers. “In St-Luc, we were able to observe a partial eclipse of 91%, slightly less than in Geneva, while it was total in Spain,” said Guillaume Buro, chairman of the board of the François-Xavier Bagnoud Observatory Foundation, speaking on Swiss public television RTS.

In Ticino, nobody wanted to miss the astronomical event. Around 150 people gathered to watch the eclipse at Cardada, above Locarno, according to a Keystone-ATS photographer.

See you in 2081

The last partial eclipse of such significance in Switzerland took place in 1999, with the Sun being obscured by up to 99.5% in some places. To experience a similar event in Switzerland again, we will have to wait until 2075.

And for the next total eclipse, we will have to wait until 2081. The last total eclipse of the Sun took place in the Mendrisiotto and Val Poschiavo in 1842. In the Mittelland region, such an event was last witnessed in 1724.

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Translated from French, reviewed by an English Department journalist.