Eclipse mania took over the Netherlands Wednesday night as people flocked to the coast, roofs and open spaces to watch the largest solar eclipse of the past few decades.
“It looks like a moon giving off light,” a woman on the beach in Petten, a village about 60 kilometers northwest of Amsterdam on the North Sea, told broadcaster NOS. “This is truly very special.”
Indeed traffic jams were rampant on the roads to the sea. But weather conditions were perfect for viewing the eclipse, which was broadcast live on NOS. Some of its broadcasters were clearly moved by the phenomenon.
“This is making me a bit emotional,” NOS weatherman Peter Kuipers Munneke said.
Underwhelmed
But others were less enthusiastic.
College student Sophie joined the crowds to watch the eclipse from the Marineterrein in Amsterdam Oost. Originally planning to make glasses out of old photo negatives, her friend managed to get hold of the hard to come by eye protectors in Amstelveen. But after all the effort, she said they were underwhelmed.
“It wasn’t that special,” she told Dutch News. “The moon didn’t even cover the sun fully. It was like 88% covered and all the sudden, everyone clapped and the sun came back. It wasn’t a total eclipse like in Spain, and it didn’t really become dark. But we had fun.”
A solar eclipse occurs when the moon passes between the sun and earth, blocking all or some of the sun’s light and casting a shadow over the earth.
