Brno astronomers watched the solar eclipse from a hot air balloon near Pernštejn Castle

On Wednesday evening, three staff members from the Brno Observatory and Planetarium took to the skies in a hot air balloon to observe a partial solar eclipse. They live-streamed the flight and the eclipse itself on YouTube — even before the eclipse began, more than 5,000 viewers had already tuned in.

Launch delayed due to wind

The balloon was originally supposed to take off right next to the observatory building on Kraví Hora hill in Brno, but the weather had other plans. "Unfortunately, the wind gusts on Kraví Hora already exceeded safe launch limits, so we chose a site northwest of Brno instead — the car park at the foot of Pernštejn Castle. The valley parking area is well sheltered from the wind, which makes for a safer takeoff," explained astronomer Tomáš Tichý shortly before launch. Thanks to the altitude, the observers hoped for a much better view of the eclipse than they would have had from the ground.

Four cameras and half a thousand viewers at launch

The balloon's basket carried three astronomers and a pilot, along with four cameras: one filmed the crew, a second captured the landscape below, a third was trained on the eclipse itself, and a handheld one was reserved for close-up shots. The launch went smoothly, with the team airborne more than half an hour before the eclipse began. Only a few hundred people watched the takeoff live, but by 7:15 pm the stream's audience had already grown to over five thousand viewers. The eclipse reached its peak over the Brno area shortly after 8:00 pm.

Huge demand for special eclipse glasses

The astronomers reminded the public that the eclipse could only be safely viewed through special protective glasses. Demand for them was enormous: the 12,000 pairs of glasses put up for sale by the Brno Observatory had already sold out by Tuesday. Because of the eclipse — and to allow for Perseid meteor shower observation until 2 am on Thursday — Špilberk Castle stayed open late as well, with the site's management even switching off the illumination of this landmark in the heart of the Moravian capital.

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Around Prague, based on reporting by brnan.cz