Eclipsed

[davidgillon]

So my attempts to view today's partial annular solar eclipse in the UK were less than successful.

I did manage to wake up in time, despite not managing to get any sleep before 7AM, but then spent the better part of an hour searching for my proper eclipse viewing filter bought for the near total eclipse back in 1999. I found the booklet it came in/with, but not the filter itself. So I then quickly threw together a pin-hole camera with remote viewing screen (aka the box from a dozen cans of cider and a sheet of printer paper). By that point I'd missed the peak by about 5 minutes, and by the time I got outside and tried it all that I could see was a small arc clipped off the lower right quadrant (flipped by the pinhole, so actually upper left). I decided the pinhole was a bit big for clear viewing - it was more of a pin-slot - popped inside to get some tape to cut it down to size, but in the time it took to do that the sun disappeared behind clouds and there wasn't enough light getting through to form an image. And it's still behind clouds an hour later.

Bah.

Apparently maximum coverage in London*, and I'm close enough to make no difference, was 20%, and I didn't notice any significant change in light levels, certainly nothing like the eerie false twilight of a total eclipse.

 

* Rising to about 30% further North.

Comments

[cosmolinguist]

It was cloudy here all day, so I didn't get to see anything!

[davidgillon]

That's probably the typical result for any eclipse in the UK!

When I first looked out this morning I thought "barely a cloud in the sky, perfect conditions", unfortunately it didn't last.

[sovay]

And it's still behind clouds an hour later.

My father had that happen in 2017 after he had specifically traveled into the path of totality and it was totally cheating.

[davidgillon]

Absolutely. And worse, it was back to not a cloud in the sky later in the afternoon. Bah!

I did at least have good seeing conditions for the 1999 eclipse. And a filter to watch through. That was partial, but not far off totality.

[hilarita]

My eclipse failure was being in a bloody meeting while it was happening. Despite working for an organisation that does astronomy. :-(

[davidgillon]

*Headdesk*