David Gillon

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.