Partial
Solar Eclipse March 20th 2015
March 20th
Eclipse at 09:42 from South Lakes with 230mm lens.
I admit I’ve
been lucky with domestic eclipses so far. I vividly recall seeing the summer
eclipses of 1972 and 1973 from my junior school playground (something much too
dangerous to risk with today’s kids, apparently) using old pieces of film as
filters. I can place the memory precisely in time because for some reason I remember
all the girls in my class being obsessed with Donny Osmond at the time,
following those (cough cough) wonderful hits like Puppy Love.
For the 1999
eclipse, I seriously considered sneaking into Cornwall on my motorcycle to
avoid the gridlock, but settled for bunking off from my job at BT in
Wolverhampton and watching the show from my summery Hertfordshire garden.
That 1999
eclipse was lucky for me because Cornwall was a cloudy damp squib, whilst I saw
the whole thing (minus totality of course) – preternatural dusk and cold, odd
breezes, disoriented birds, strange eclipse-shaped shadows everywhere, the sun
becoming a brilliant thin crescent. I was hooked.
I suppose my
eclipse luck was due to run out (as luck generally seems to in middle age). So
for this one, I hauled myself out of bed to find that days of clear sunny
weather up here had somehow turned into a dank overcast on the morning of the eclipse
- March 20th. The locals were so disinterested they were filing down
the lane for their papers without so much as a glance
skywards.
The radio
was determinedly trying to get into the spirit of things with Holst, some
symphony by William Herschel (who was a musician first) and (inevitably) that
Sky at Night music by Sibelius. But, nope, out of the window it was all grey
badness.
That might
have been the end of it, but in fact it did clear miraculously to give us a few
glimpses through thin cloud (actually great for partial eclipses cos you can
risk direct naked eye viewing). I got some photos too and we had one glimpse
early on through the solar-filtered Questar.
Not so
unlucky in the end, then, and my teenage daughter even got over her natural
‘whatever’ long enough to start researching the next ‘proper’ one – I have to
take her to Hawaii in a couple of years apparently.
Details of
my eclipse observations follow, if you’re interested!
0730 – 0800 Got
Up. Radio 3 playing some symphony by Herschel. Sky
completely overcast.
0815 – Brief
glimpse with solar-filtered Questar through cloud. Nothing yet. Solar disk appears clear. The Questar is a pain because this one is ancient and has no
filter over the finder, so finding Sol is trial and error!
0830 – Better
view with the Questar; Sun briefly almost clear of
cloud. Small chunk now missing from the disk. It’s
started!
0840 – Radio
3 playing ‘Total Eclipse’ aria from Handel’s Sampson. ‘No Sun no Moon’ indeed –
completely cloudy L
0832 – Radio
3 refuses to play much requested ‘Total Eclipse of the Heart’ by Bonny Tyler.
Good call! Still cloudy.
0850 – Thick
cloud, but noticeably cooler and dimmer now. Birds still
twittering normally, though.
0853 – Neilsen’s Helios Overture on the radio. But no sign of
Helios! Arrrgggh!
0905 – Dark
and gloomy with thick cloud. Jackdaws not bothered yet. I watch a couple with
my Zeiss 7x42s – they’re trying to manoeuvre a huge twig into my neighbours’
chimney pot.
0908 – Very
brief glimpse of the Sun, with more than 50% gone, through cloud with naked eye
and binos. Took a few snaps. Family excited (for
once).
0912 –
Jackdaws now huddling against preternatural chill. Really getting quite weirdly
dim: feels just like 6 am dawn.
0918 –
Drizzling, misty, need lights on in house.
0924 – Local
street lamp comes on!
0926 - Just a
sliver of eclipsed sun through clouds! Must be close to that
95% maximum now. Daughter squealing with enthusiasm – her usual ennui
has vanished for once.
0932 - Like deep
dusk. Cars driving with headights
on. Jackdaws roosting in the tree opposite.
Birds generally quiet now. Surprisingly cold. No
eclipse breeze noticed this time.
0940-0943 - Cloud
thins at last! Great views and lots of pics!!
0950 - More
views and pics through thin cloud. Ambient brightness almost
back to normal. Birds twittering again. Air warming fast.
1000 - Cloud
thickens again. No further sign of sun. But now I’m in the mood to go eclipse
chasing in a year’s time (if I can afford it).
Strange
cloud effects near eclipse maximum at 09:25 March 20th 2015.