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

My Eclipse (11/08/99)

Posted Aug 13, 1999

For various reasons, I decided not to travel to Devon or Cornwall (UK)
to seee totallity (mainly the weather forecast). As the morning of
11th of August was clear & sunny with only scattered clouds, I stayed
at home (in Chertsey, Surrey, UK) rather than go to work).

I set up my 110 mm telescope to project the sun's image onto a white
card and was please to clearly see about four sunspots. Although
occasional thin clouds crossed the sun now and again, I had a very
good view of the eclipse from first contact to maximum (~95%
obscured) and afterwards.

I managed to persuade my teenage kids that it was worth looking at (I
has approved safety-filters) and they actually thought it was 'cool'!

I found the whole experience fascinating. The temperature
significantly dropped, and the light level decreased but it never got
very dark. The main impressions I got was how peaceful it was - The
wind appeared to drop and there was no traffic noise ( I guess
everybody was watching too). The light at maximum had a earie quality:
altghoughnthe shadows were correct for mid-day, the brightness was
more like sun-set. I also noticed the multiple crescent effect in
the dappled shade of trees.

Overall an unforgetable experience. I will post photagraphs of the
projected sun image once they are processed and scanned (if they come
out OK).

Alex.

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Latest reply: Aug 13, 1999