By pure chance I am in the Dallas area for work so will get to see the full 4 minutes of totality of the solar eclipse. The fact that this is my last business trip (retiring next month) makes it even more special. My enthusiasm is being slightly affected by the wild weather that’s going to pass through this area later today and tomorrow.
I was wondering if others have been fortunate enough to experience a once in a lifetime event like this.
I saw the one in the UK in 1999. I was at work, and was in the courtyard with a bunch of personality disordered men. Outside, ine of our recent discharges had stopped taking his meds, and killed during the “Twilight Zone”. Moonmadness, as it were.
I remember the 1999 one vividly, though I was in London and it wasn’t total. I was in an editorial meeting in the boardroom of the publishers where I worked at the time. Outside on the roof terrace all my colleagues were enjoying the spectacle and slurping wine. Meanwhile I was being slowly roasted by the CEO over an open fire in front of my editorial colleagues (whose boss I was) for some imaginary blunder he thought I’d committed. As the world went dark I thought, My days here are numbered. I was right.
Lived in Kenya from 1999 to 2000 and was lucky to be able to witness
the migration of the wildebeest in Masai Mara just before I left.
I bet the wokies at the RNLI helped them. Bloody wildebeest coming over here taking our jobs
I was at the match the last time Newcastle won at Liverpool, back in 1994.
For the ’99 UK totality I was down in Devon at my brother’s house. He lived on the edge of the city, close to Dartmoor, on a quiet cul-de-sac, and everyone went outside a few minutes before it occurred. We could see across the river a long way west into Cornwall, and we could easily see the odd darkness of the umbra approaching from miles away – an eerie sight. As the deep shadow rushed across us, all of the birds around us went silent and a strange quiet ensued. We could soon see the light returning to the land away to our west, and as the shadow lifted, all the birds joined back in with a great singing celebration. So if you can, I’d say be somewhere elevated with a good view across country, and somewhere where there is wildlife, whose reaction will be as astonishing as the eclipse itself.
I was on a beach in Greece for the 1999 one (IIRC), and while I cannot recall watching the eclipse itself, I will always remember the eerie stillness as all the local wildlife suddenly went silent. It was a slightly sinister sensation, almost as if the birds thought something bad was going to happen, and seemed to make everyone else on the beach go quiet as well.
A minute or so passed, the light came back, and all the noise returned as quickly as it had ceased. A weird few moments.
I won an argument with Mrs D once.
Doubt that will ever be repeated
Similarly, Mrs F: “Yes, you can afford to buy those new speakers.”
That was about 10 years ago.
In the 1999 eclipse in the UK I was walking to work down a country path (getting to a nearby station as I worked evening shifts) and as it went dark I looked up – and stood squarely in a pile of fox shit on the path. I spent the whole of the eclipse cleaning it off my shoe.
I travelled to France with a group of astronomers staying near Mont St Michel, on the morning there was speculation that there would be cloud cover at the coast so we drove inland. We all ended up at a service station and set up. As the darkness descended the birds stopped singing and there was a drop in temperature. My friend was taking frame after frame of the eclipse on film rewinding the film and throwing the cassette into his bag and reloading. He ‘lost’ the one with the shots of totality luckily finding it a couple of weeks later.
As daylight returned the birds started to sing again, and someone shouted out
“We still live” in French.
I watched the ’99 eclipse with Suede CD singles blutacked to my sunglasses.
Why those? Well they had very little text on the label side, so could be seen through.
I am still available for this year’s Royal Institution Christmas Lectures btw
Are you sure the CDs were from Suede and not Felt?
Sadly I couldn’t get Felt. Ever 😢
Is that the Royal Institute for the Blind?
Yeah, I ruined my eyesight because of a solar eclipse. That’s the story I’m using from now on
Will be 99% here, could drive an hour south for “totality”, but am sure traffic will be crazy and I have to work too. Also a bit cloudy 🙁
I’m on a ship en-route to San Diego, we should get 86% if the clouds hold off.
You win @harry-tufnell!
You win @harry-tufnell!
@neil-dyson
That was the most extraordinary thing I’ve ever seen. Day became night in just a few seconds. Absolutely stunning.
99% was great, wish I had been able to drive an hour or so for 100%. Should have done it. Fuck work.
We went to France to see the 1999 one. Sat by a lake with thousands of people who all went silent for a few minutes along with the birds and insects. Magical stuff, you can see how pre-technological folk would have taken it as portending some cataclysm.
Wasn’t there one in around 1970? I seem to remember all being issued with coloured perspex and mirrors, being marched out onto the quadrangle to observe.
I suspect Mrs Theref is becoming a hunter. She went to Tennessee for the last one, and flew home to Texas for this one.
SHe was saying that it was overcast, but just as the event started the clouds parted and they had a clear view. She’s lucky like that.
I was working in Alton for the 1999? one.
If you can stick around a few years, there’s one coming in 2028 that’ll cover a good stretch of Australia (we’ve already told an Air B+B-owning friend in Sydney to reserve a place for us).
Have seen two so far – Ceduna in 2002 and Cairns in 2012. They’re well worth experiencing, photos just don’t do ’em justice.
Ooh, that’s worth sticking around for…less than 100% in northern NSW, but close enough. Sydney will be mad – might be easier to go to Birdsville or Dubbo!
Our end of tour is end of 25, so unlikely.