General Chat

I remember this ! I was 13 and on hol in Majorca with my mum everyone was watching on sky news until someone pointed out we all has special glasses (provided by hotel) and the sun was outside lol
I had been talking about this hol last week and couldn't remember year thanks so much :)

Marie :-D :-D :-D

Nolls, if I remember rightly I think that's exactly what we did end up doing!

Someone had read that the safest way to see an eclipse was to use a colander to project the images onto a sheet of paper. We didn't know what on earth we were doing so it all got a bit silly.

I can recall that we were all watching for what they called the "diamond ring" which is just as the moon covers the sun. We must have been in the wrong part of the world because we didn't get that - it just went dark for a bit and the cat whimpered.

Oh Marie for a moment I thought you were going to say you all put them on your heads. I had visions of you all running around trying not to let in the harmful rays :-D :-D

I can remember us and the neighbours all faffing about in our gardens with kitchen colanders. I can't remember the exact reason but it something to do with camera obscura.

I was in the garden in Leeds sorting out the boot of the car and it got darker and darker everything seemed to standstill no sound of birds or traffic no one else around just me in the street haha and I can tell you it was eerie I knew like everyone else did what was going on but I could understand how centuries ago the local people could think that perhaps witchcraft was involved :-0 :-D

Dear All

Hello

Thank you for your replies.

I always enjoy reading what people where doing at times of news events.

Thank you kindly. :-)


Take gentle care
Best wishes
Elizabeth, EOS
xx

I was trying to stay sane, with the in-laws staying and doing my head in!! Worst was that OH was doing his best to get away from them too, leaving me to bear the brunt :-S. It was very cloudy here so not much of an experience.

I was a work that day, in a busy six story office block with about 500 other people. For the duration of the eclipse the whole building was quiet as most folk went outside to watch. Apparently the whole building didn't get a single phone call for about half an hour, after it was all over the usual mayhem resumed.

Andy

My earlier experience was June 1954 apparently and it was only total in Unst (wherever that is). But we did all have to wear those dark glasses and be forced to look at the sun :-0 First psychydelic experience:-)

This one in 1999 was a bit more special, particularly if you were watching in the south west.

Coooeeee

Hi Elizabeth.

I remember that day. I was in the garden with neighbours and i have a photo somewhere of me looking rediculous in those special glasses.

It was a very eerie experience indeed.

Elizabeth. Guess where we watched it :-D From the bank above the Eiffel Tower. It was the spookiest experience as all the birds suddenly flew away and went quiet, sky got very dark and suddenly became night and all the lights came on on Eiffel Tower.

A couple of minutes later, sun was out again, lights on Tower went off and the birds sang again.

Had a similar experience when I was in Primary School about 1953, so it was nice my children could see something similar in their lives also:-) :-)

Dear All

Hello


In 1999, on this day, millions of people wore special glasses to witness the
last total solar eclipse of the century.

The only part of mainland Britain to witness totality - the full blacking out of the sun by the moon - was Cornwall in south-west England.

Cloudy skies mean spectators there were unable to see the full effect, but the spectacle was still dramatic.


TV astronomer Patrick Moore, watching in Falmouth, described it as a "strange, weird experience".

Hundreds of people who gathered on the Isles of Scilly were the first to witness the eclipse.

Across the Channel in northern France there were clear skies as there were in Munich, Germany.

But at the moment of totality, a torrential downpour spoiled the view.

The streets of Ramnicu Valcea, the south-central city in Romania -where totality could be seen the longest - were crammed with spectators.


I watched this event with many others in a large park as the blue sky turned pink and buses put on their headlights.

It was a very special moment.


Take gentle care
Best wishes
Elizabeth, EOS
xx