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

Thank you for your very nice posting on the "Drained" thread. I am delighted that you have added me to your friends list and I have done the same. I have never seen a total solar eclipse in my life. Just one partial eclipse when I was young. I have seen a few lunar eclipses though. The moon was obscured by a layer of light cloud over the weekend so I didn't see the orange colour customary to a total eclipse. I got my eldest son up around 11 but he was just too tired - he is an extremely heavy sleeper. Yes - this thing about a web page on the blog site - you don't need to enter it. It's used as a "calling card" for other bloggers to point them to the sender's home-page. You could enter in "http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/U516677" which would be fine, but it's not necessary to do it. I hope all is well with you, Take care Woodpigeon

Dear Woodpigeon

Just found your reply. Thank you.

May I gently tell you that my name is the French Christiane. Thanks!

I think that somewhere I thought that I had met you on another thread when you went to Barcelona - years ago. And I wrote to you then!. Or am I imagining it? I have just met Someone who called himself King Bomba. I thought that there was a King Bomba who lived in Australia and when I asked him he said that it was not him!!.
I really am losing it - at least I hope not.

Had you told your son what a total eclipse was? Perhaps he did not understand. Mind you, the total eclipse of the sun happened in mid afternoon. Isuppose I must have known what it was but I was far more interested in watching the chickens hatching out of their eggs!! The fact that it was dusk suddenly in the middle of the afternoon and the cocks were crowing and going to bed did not worry me one little bit!! I think that I just thought it was rather strange.

Lovely photos of your skiing. The Canadians have done wonderfully in the World Championships. The problem is that there is hardly any snow in the Alps now. It is so sad.

Kind regards

Christiane

I'm sorry I got your name wrong. Many apologies!

King Bomba is a fellow Irishman, based in Belfast. A gentleman and a scholar too, from what I know about him.

I think a solar eclipse must be the most amazing thing in the world. Lunar eclipses are interesting as the moon is put into shadow, but a solar eclipse brings night-time to a small part of the world for a brief time, and what you can see when you look at the sun incredible.

Do you know it's a quite amazing freak of nature that the Moon and the Sun are roughly the same size in our skies? Even though the Sun is 400 times bigger than the Moon, it is also 400 times further away, so they both look the same when we see them from Earth. If it wasn't for this co-incidence we would never see the corona during solar eclipses.

One day, one day...

hI Woodpigeon.

Thank you for changing my name

I have just had a visit from a friend who was in Devon and who watched the eclipse of the moon. She said it was extraordinary because the moon actually took on a completely circular appearance - depthwise I mean ,and was a marvellous colour.

I was thinking about your son. I do not think that when I was sitting in the chicken run, waiting for the eggs to hatch under the hen. I was aware of what a momentous event I was privileged to be party . It was strange for the sky to go dark at three o'clock in the afternoon, and then to hear the cockerels crowing and a general air of dusk approaching very rapidly.

All I was interested in was watching the birth of a little chick - that was of far more importance to me!!, But I can still remember with a "frisson" the feeling of dusk coming so early in the afternoon.

I wish I knew more about the galaxies.

So much to learn - so little time.

Go well,

Christiane