This total solar eclipse expedition was planned for half a year. Mirek Krasnowski was the organizing "spirit". He selected a very good hotel in a nice tourist resort Side on southern coast of Turkey. Side is known from ancient times as a very romantic place. A legend tells that Mark Anthony and Cleopatra were meeting here... Small side peninsula is dominated by ancient building - Greek / Roman amphitheatre and temple of Apollo. On both sides of the peninsula, sea coast is occupied by numerous hotels and apartment buildings. To the north, high Taurus mountains protect the coast from cold winds.

The expedition was organized to depart from Lipsk, Germany and to arrive to Antalya in Turkey. From there, an hour long ride by bus delivered participants to a Melas Resort hotel. The hotel itself is located on a rocky cliff and organized in multiple levels going down to the beach level. It is 40 minutes walking on the beach from the old town.

Three days before the eclipse were spend sightseeing Side and surroundings and redying the equipment.

On the Great Day, everybody set their equipment on multiple hotel terraces and on the beech. As far as one could see, telescopes and observers were setting on the beach and on roofs and terraces of hotels. In Side itself, NASA, CNN, BBC and others were setting their stuff in the ancient amphitheatre.

The weather was almost perfect, with some very minor cirrus clouds. The eclipse itself was a beautiful spectacle which lasted over 2 hours, with totality phase over 3 minutes. We could see beautiful solar corona, prominences, "diamond ring", daytime planets and stars.

After the eclipse, we organized a bus trip to visit the famous "cotton castle" of Pammukale and organized some motor and jeep trips to the mountains.

After a "week in paradise" we returned back to cloudy and snowy Poland :-)