h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I'm just checking the details of Friday's solar eclipse. We shall be able to see (weather permitting) about a 72% covering, at about 9.30 - 11 am (that's Central European time).

I'm glad it's happening during the day at last. We missed last year's in the UK as it happened at 02:30.

we should be getting 70% starting around 9:30. I spent a large chunk of yesterday explaining the pinhole camera to my boss and showing him the entry on how to view an eclipse

http://h2g2.com/edited_entry/A357013

I hope it's on the FP this week...

My workplace has arranged a compulsory attendance seminar in a basement room tomorrow from 0.900 - 12.00

I may decide I need 'the toilet' at around 9.30 ish

Reuters newswire - LONDON, 09:30, March 20th 2015

Across the UK, thousands of people will put their everyday lives on hold, and gather to watch a rare celestial feast, known to astronomers as a nebular eclipse.

Not since 1999 has the mood of the entire country been transfixed on such a spectacle.

At precisely 09:32, a grey object, known to meteorologists as "a cloud" will slowly move between the Earth and the Sun. This will produce a period of relative darkness - observers need not be concerned. The object is expected to obscure the Sun's rays for approximately six months.

Government medical experts are urging people not to look directly at the sky, particularly through optical equipment. Punching a small hole in a piece of card will enable the image to be projected onto a screen for safe viewing.

Scientists are particularly excited by the "silver lining" which may surround the nebular object, although viewers are reminded that it can also produce copious quantities of precipitation, and protective clothing may be necessary as a result.

An hour before the event, it's beautifully sunny here.

thick fog here - it's been white in the sky since early morning - it got slightly grey for a few minutes and now back to white.

It is as though nothing exists above 40 metres above ground leve.
sorely disappointing

Yeah, my gloomy day just got momentarily worse.

I think it was good here. I can't see the sun, as I only have a skylight in my office and the window next door looks on to a tiny yard. Anyway, I didn't have the equipment .

Some of the colleagues went down and watched. It was sunny, then sort of twilight for an hour or so then sunny again. Not as spectacular as in 1999 (when we also had a clear-ish sky)

Following it on line was also impossible - server overload.

We had thick, dense, impenetrable cloud – I know that there was a sun and a moon somewhere out there, but blowed if I had any way of telling whereabouts in the sky they were...

I think the BBC website crashed due to demand.

Oh well...

<BB<

Nowt here worth mentioning either, However some people were not troubled by clouds...

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/technology-science/science/solar-eclipse-2015-astronaut-snaps-5369369

I agree it wasn't as spectacular as 1999, as we had a great sunny day then, so could really tell the difference in the lighting, and get a good image projected on to a piece of cardboard using a pinhole.

It was sunny here at the start of the eclipse, so I did see a few minutes of that stunning sharpness in the light and shadow, but then at the period of most coverage it was cloudy so my pinhole didn't have enough light to focus on. I was able to take a couple of digital photos of the sun through the clouds, though, so I look forward to seeing how they turned out when I view them on my computer.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-31984307

Love this timelapse footage over Belfast.

At 8 am there was patchy cloud. I set off for Queens University, where the whole science department were camped outside with their telescopes and gizmos. The traffic was dead slow. The clouds came over - it even rained for a bit. And parking near the Uni is a totes 'mare! So it was after 9 by the time I reached the throng of several hundred eager people. The clouds were thinning, and it was possible to see the crescent shape through the grey. I had my Chinese eclipse viewer from 2009 with me, and was wearing a souvenir T shirt I'd bought that time.

The science bods had set up some great pinhole cameras using telescopes to make the images large, and were also demonstrating with colanders. Eclipse glasses were handed out - not enough to go around, but we all shared and took turns. It grew very dusky and dark - the street-lights around the building came on. And it was very very cold. Chief scientist counted down from 10 to the maximum coverage moment.

Some passers by stopped to see what the fuss was about, and were thrilled and excited when I lent them my viewers to see the shape. They all commented how even such a teeny sliver of sunlight was enough to illuminate and warm the planet.

I'd expected to be underwhelmed - compared to a total eclipse, partiality isn't nearly as spectacular. But I was genuinely moved - more by the crowd and the reaction, and sense of - well, humanity.

My friend Pete, who I'd met in China, is in Svalbard where it was minus 20. He's a very keep photographer, but the temperature was so cold that some of his cameras stopped functioning. But it was his birthday yesterday, and he was overwhelemed at seeing such an amazing eclipse (again, lucky barstewrad....). Funnily enough, he's too far NORTH to see the aurora at this time!

I'm looking forward to seeing Ben and Z's Faroes photos.

I did try and get into the swing of things by listening to an eclipse-themed playlist at work:
Also Sprach Zarathustra by Richard Strauss
Total Eclipse of the Heart by Bonnie Tyler (lyrics by Jim Steinman)
Here Comes the Sun by the Beatles

<BB<

You forgot Grey Day (Madness) and Fog on the Tyne (Lindisfarne)

Managed to get some reasonable photos through the gaps in the cloud.

Beatrice, thanks for the video from Belfast. I'm glad you had a good experience. The rest of you--please remember if you guys get any remarkable pictures of the event.