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Eclipse!


Kell

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Will anyone else be watching the almost-total eclipse tomorrow morning? In the UK we'll have anywhere between 85% (in the south west) to 98% (in the Faroe Islands) at the height of the eclipse, with the height being between around 9.25 and 9.35, depending on where you are in the country.

 

I've just made pinhole viewers for Xan and myself, as it's the only completely safe way to watch the eclipse.

 

If you have eclipse viewing specs, make sure you don't look for long periods, and if you don't, please don't look directly at the sun at all, even during the eclipse, as you can seriously damage your sight or even go blind!

 

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I don't have the specs and pinhole projectors won't give me the clarity that just watching a livestream of it would - but I will be keeping an eye out for it getting brighter, then darker, then brighter again tomorrow morning! :D

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When I got up it was overcast, but it looks like the cloud is starting to clear, and the forecast is good, so we should be ok.  OH is going to try and take some photos, but don't have any special glasses (or shoeboxes to make a pinhole camera!), so I'll probably just wait and see what his photos are like and watch on television.

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We'll get about ~80% coverage in the Netherlands, but it'll be exciting to see. It should be starting any moment now here. Currently it's still very foggy here, though on the news this morning they said the fog should clear up in time for the maximum eclipse point. I've only ever seen one solar eclipse before, a total one, in 1999 while I was on holidays in France with my grandparents. It was pretty amazing. I'll not be outside the whole time as that would be way too tiring for me, but I plan to have a look now and then (not at the sun of course..).

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It's getting darker here and colder, but unfortunately the sky is very cloudy. The birds have gone quieter and most of our chicken seem to be resting and not as out and about as usually.

 

EDIT: Well it's meant to be at the maximum point around this time, but it's still pretty light outside, much lighter than it was in 1999 when I watched a total solar eclipse :shrug:. It's so foggy outside I can't see any of the houses in Brandevoort (they start behind the train tracks, which are at the end of our garden). It's a bit disappointing if I may be so honest, it was definitely a lot more impressive to me where I was at the time in 1999, than today. It's looking a bit darker and colder but everything is still very visible, it looks like it's maybe 16:00 / 4 PM in the afternoon.

Edited by Athena
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Here it's raining and cloudy, so the only chance we got to see the eclipse was on the tv :doh: However, at one point it did grow darker and then a bit later, considerably lighter, so I would like to think that had something to do with the eclipse and not the awful weather.

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It was clear weather in Shropshire, a beautiful day for the eclipse! :smile2: We took lots of photos, but I'm can't load them at the moment  :banghead:

EDIT - Well the first one came out, that was 0930ish, at the nearest the partial eclipse

Edit 2 - you can see it was still very light at the height of the eclipse, I thought it would be much darker.

post-11098-0-04299400-1426848519_thumb.jpg

post-11098-0-42868900-1426849076_thumb.jpg

Edited by Marie H
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Was out walking .. the sky cleared a bit so was able to see the sun but it didn't get much darker .. nothing like the last time. Just a bit darker .. and then light again .. sun looked like a Cheshire cat grinning at one point :D Passed a number of hugely disappointed people :D .. some of them on hilltops with cameras on tripods.  

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Woke up at half eight, it was cloudy, I went back to sleep.

 

I don't have the glasses so I couldn't look directly at it, and honestly if I can't look directly at it I'd sooner watch video footage when I'm more awake :lol:

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It was quite cloudy here, but I managed to get lucky with a couple of photographs when there was a slight break in the clouds - don't worry, I didn't look - I just pointed, clicked and hoped for the best (I have a whole load of photos that just didn't work at all - LOL).

 

post-3572-0-50495500-1426861437_thumb.jpgpost-3572-0-26065000-1426861446_thumb.jpgpost-3572-0-12066100-1426861454_thumb.jpg

The middle picture is at the zenith of the eclipse

 

A few minutes after the third picture, the clouds broke for a minute or so, and I was able to use my little homemade pinhole viewer.

 

An hour later, just after the eclipse had completely finished, the clouds cleared and we now have a beautiful spring day. Typical.

 

Pagans all over the country were going wild though, as the eclipse occurred on the spring equinox, which is one of the quarter days.

 

I don't know if the kids at Xan's school were being allowed to watch, but I made him his own pinhole viewer to take with him, in case they got to watch the "solar ecliption" as he's been calling it - LOL!

 

The next one here won't be for another eleven years, and the one after that will be in 2090!

 

There will, however, be one in America in 2017...

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Unfortunately it was too cloudy to see anything where I was. It got slightly dusk like and the temperature dropped a degree or two, plus the birds stopped singing, but that was it. It was a good excise however to stop work for 10 minutes and go outside on the lawn with the clients and staff from horticulture. 

 

It has though been an interesting week with the geomagnetic storm on Tuesday (the biggest in the current 11 year cycle, in fact the last 20 years), todays eclipse, the super moon and of course the spring equinox tomorrow. We are halfway to summer already - yeah !

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It has though been an interesting week with the geomagnetic storm on Tuesday (the biggest in the current 11 year cycle, in fact the last 20 years)

I saw pictures and the news and immediately wondered if you had seen them as well.  Amazing.  It was a 4, correct?

 

I got to watch the eclipse via Claire's link as I couldn't sleep last night/ this morning!  It was fun.  Great pictures too, thanks!

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I saw the eclipse this morning, it was amazing! The visibility here (Plymouth) was incredible as we've had beautiful weather here these last few days. A few of my friends and I were sat on the Hoe watching it.

Those are great pics, Kell!

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Was a bit cloudy here in Aberdeen....but folk still managed to see it. This is what I got on my phone camera. Took it over my shoulder...think this is when the sun started to appear again.

11069742_10152647107616360_3806414589248

Edited by Inver
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I saw pictures and the news and immediately wondered if you had seen them as well.  Amazing.  It was a 4, correct?

 

I got to watch the eclipse via Claire's link as I couldn't sleep last night/ this morning!  It was fun.  Great pictures too, thanks!

 

It was a G5 storm (the highest category from 2 X class solar flares which left the Sun on 14th/15th March) with a KPI index of between 7 and 9, as it varied in intensity. It started off as a 9 but was later downgraded to a 7. Sadly I didn't see any of it live on the ground, but I was watching the webcam live from the Icelandic observatory, which is the next best thing. I have one Icelandic friend on Facebook who said he was out watching it for 9 HOURS from 8pm until 5am ! The pictures I have seen circulating around the media have been incredible, with every single colour going.

 

I could be pissed off about missing it by just 10 days, but you can't predict these things by more than a few days. When I heard about those solar flares I knew that something was going to happen in the early part of the week, but I wouldn't have dreamt of it being on this scale. It was though incredibly good fortune that the skies were so clear that night - if there had been cloud, then no matter how strong the KPI was, no one would have seen a thing.

 

I am still happy with what I saw - I got the tail end of a G1 storm (the lowest category), with a KPI of 5/6, which is by itself unusual. The KPI doesn't often go above a level 3/4. Anyway - it's Iceland, so I know I will be back, right ?  At least now, I know how to photograph the damned things ! :smile:

 

Nice pictures though Kell - and Inver.

Edited by Talisman
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Gutted I didn't get to see it at all due to the cloud cover :(  Although it did mean a bonus episode of Stargazing Live :D

 

My mum said she couldn't understand why there was so much focus on it on the news cos 'it happens all the time' and she 'saw one when she was at school'.  I felt it necessary to point out that it's about 1,000 years since she was at school so they obviously don't happen that often :giggle2:   Some people have no sense of wonder :rolleyes::D

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Against expectations, I saw it! 

 

I was on a train for most of it, heading to Brighton along the south coast.  Through thinning cloud, it came and went several times during the morning and we saw it at just around maximum coverage and then several times after that.

 

Good stuff!

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