The sky over Lake Constance when the first Zeppelin flew

On the evening of 2 July 1900, the airship LZ 1 rose from the Bay of Manzell on Lake Constance, near Friedrichshafen in southern Germany. Earlier that evening, it had been towed out of its floating hangar on a raft. It was the first flight of a rigid airship built by Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin.

Crowds watched from the shore and from boats on the lake. The flight was short, but it started the age of the Zeppelin.

Sky chart of the night sky above Friedrichshafen, Germany at 20:03 on 2 July 1900
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The sky above Friedrichshafen, Germany on 2 July 1900

The sun was above the horizon, so daylight hid the stars. The chart shows where they were. There was a waxing crescent Moon in the sky, 30% lit. It stood 25° above the horizon in the south-west, in the constellation Leo.

The sun is above the horizon at this moment, so daylight hides the stars and the planets. The tables show where they are in the sky.

Local time
20:03
Time in UTC
2 July 1900 at 19:03 UTC
Sun
Daylight
Sun position
2° above the horizon
Moon phase
waxing crescent Moon
Moon lit
30%
Moon position
25° above the horizon in the south-west

What happened that evening

LZ 1 was about 128 metres (420 feet) long, with a frame of aluminium and cells of hydrogen gas inside a fabric cover. Two engines turned its propellers.

The airship stayed in the air for about 18 minutes before it came down on the lake. Problems with its steering and balance showed how much work was still ahead.

Why people remember it

Zeppelin kept building. In the decades that followed, his company's airships carried passengers across Europe and the Atlantic, and the Graf Zeppelin flew around the world.

Today the Zeppelin Museum in Friedrichshafen tells the story. A star map of this evening makes a gift for an engineer, a pilot, or anyone from Lake Constance.

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