On this day 23 years ago

[Ibbo!]

 

 

[Mandy D]

On this day, 23 years ago, we had perfectly clear skies with not a cloud in sight in a village somewhere in northern France. Then, just as totality was approaching a small cloud began to materialise out of nowhere next to the Sun. There was no chance of moving to a new site, this close to totality, so we had to stay put. The cloud covered the Sun moments before the total phase began and started dissolving immediately it was over! It did still go fairly dark though!

You win some, you lose some!

[cajen2]

I remember it well, though in my case, there was 10/10ths cloud. Typical. I wait all my life for a total eclipse and it's cloudy.

[lukebl]

I was there! In a field near Dieppe. I distinctly recall hearing Quails calling as totality approached.

[Captain Scarlet]

33 minutes ago, Mandy D said:

On this day, 23 years ago, we had perfectly clear skies with not a cloud in sight in a village somewhere in northern France. Then, just as totality was approaching a small cloud began to materialise out of nowhere next to the Sun. There was no chance of moving to a new site, this close to totality, so we had to stay put. The cloud covered the Sun moments before the total phase began and started dissolving immediately it was over! It did still go fairly dark though!

You win some, you lose some!

I had the exact opposite experience. After an overnight drive from London arriving at 3am to an OS-map pre-identified random farmer’s field near Falmouth, cloud cover ruled. Until literally seconds before totality, when a small perfectly-positioned gap appeared and stayed wispy-transparent for the next few minutes. We couldn’t believe our luck.

[SthBohemia]

Hmmm 23 years ago? I was 23 years further away from the grave!  Not sure whether that is a 🙂 or a 😞 

[Guest]

So that would have been 1999.  Yeah no clue what i was doing 23 years ago today

[DaveL59]

I remember that day too, I was stood with many others outside BoHo at Heathrow next to Concorde's stand while we watched it.

[markse68]

I was down in Cornwall 

Mark

Edited August 11, 2022 by markse68

[CCD-Freak]

Same thing happened to me back in 1991 for the "Big One"....We went to Mexico to a small coastal town of San Blas where we would have 6m and 45s of totality. The day started out clear but thunderstorms started building over the mountains and the cloud tops moved towards the sun.  We got clouded out with less than 30 minutes to totality. )^8   We got all the secondary effects....dark at noon, the red horizon all around and the mosquitos came out and feasted on us.   Later I saw a guy selling T shirts that said "I came all the way to Mexico to see some clouds turn dark".  To this day I wish I had bought one.

We had better luck for the 2017 Eclipse

 

[Mandy D]

31 minutes ago, lukebl said:

I was there! In a field near Dieppe. I distinctly recall hearing Quails calling as totality approached.

We weren't a million miles from Dieppe, but for the life of me I cannot remember the name of the place. We went into Dieppe later.

[wulfrun]

I was in my mum's garden, set up with a film camera, the longest lens I had (probably a 210 and maybe a 500mm) and a welders glass gaffer-taped over the objective. Shot most of a roll of slide film, something like 2 or 5 minute intervals, can't recall. Yes, I did peek through the glass (didn't know any better) to determine when to start shooting. In my defence, it was a film SLR with a metal-bladed shutter so worst-case I might have melted the film if my "filter" failed.

We weren't quite in totality here but it was a warm, cloudless day (unlike Cornwall!). At maximum eclipse it went really dull and was distinctly cooler & had a very eerie feeling.

[Stu]

I was in France, due to head home that day. My now ex-wife could not be persuaded to set off early enough to get far enough North to see it, so instead we saw a partial eclipse. Not quite the same somehow. Ho hum.

[Craney]

I was near Baden-Baden in Germany, chasing the clear spells.    At 70%  coverage, a thunderstorm passed over and it wazzed it down for about an hour. 

Totality was spent  looking out from a friendly residents open garage.   Ho-hum.

So it does go darker and colder during a total Solar .... and wetter.

(2017 made up for it though).

[DaveL59]

1 minute ago, Craney said:

I was near Baden-Baden in Germany, chasing the clear spells.    At 70%  coverage, a thunderstorm passed over and it wazzed it down for about an hour. 

Totality was spent  looking out from a friendly residents open garage.   Ho-hum.

So it does go darker and colder during a total Solar .... and wetter.

(2017 made up for it though).

sounds just like english BBQ weather 😉 

[Louis D]

Well, 5 years ago on August 21st, I was in Nebraska capturing this image:

But I have absolutely no idea what I was doing on August 11, 1999. 😁

Edited August 11, 2022 by Louis D
Swapped in noise reduced image

[Swoop1]

Your Honour. At the time in question,  I was on duty, in uniform, standing in the car park of Marlow Police Station. I was accompanied by my young sons (8 and 10) and we were using a pinhole in a bit of card to project the partial eclipse onto the bonnet of my Panda.

By the time it was over, quite a crowd had gathered to see why two young kids were being lectured by a copper.

I still feel the fall in temperature and can see the crescent shape given to the shadows of the leaves on nearby shrubs.

 

[Paul M]

Ah, remember it well.

I planned ahead. We were in near perfect conditions on the center line in Bulgaria 😎😎 🇧🇬 

 

[DaveL59]

1 hour ago, Swoop1 said:

Your Honour. At the time in question,  I was on duty, in uniform, standing in the car park of Marlow Police Station. I was accompanied by my young sons (8 and 10) and we were using a pinhole in a bit of card to project the partial eclipse onto the bonnet of my Panda.

By the time it was over, quite a crowd had gathered to see why two young kids were being lectured by a copper.

I still feel the fall in temperature and can see the crescent shape given to the shadows of the leaves on nearby shrubs.

 

ah yes that reminded me that where we were a caterpillar had obligingly eaten nice little holes in the leaves of one of the plants, casting nice images onto the ground below. Most didn't notice that as they were too busy trying to get welders eye - not everyone had eclipse glasses so some actually looked up ignoring warnings not to 🙄

[Paz]

I was standing on Rosewall Hill near St Ives in Cornwall. The bad news was it was cloudy and what I thought would be a good and quiet spot (it was deserted when I arrived) slowly turned into a very busy place as more and more people arrived there I guess with the same idea.

When the eclipse occurred and the world darkened I don't really remember much about looking up at the sky or the sun and was a bit dejected about the weather. However my strongest memory is of looking north and east along the cornwall coast and across the countryside as it darkened and suddenly seeing it light up with sparkles all across the land! I wasnt expecting this and guessed/realised it must be camera flashes.

[skyhog]

Booked a cottage at considerable expense in Cornwall..... And it was cloudy... That's about it... Sat in garden during a very clear night that followed and watched the persieds... 

[Felias]

I was in Cornwall too. As all of us who tried their luck from there, I didn't see a thing due to the cloud cover. But it was still unforgettable, I was in the fields and the birds and insects thought that night had fallen suddenly, so they completely changed their sounds, or became silent. As the moon retreated, they resumed. Quite amazing, even if the sun didn't show up!

[yuklop]

I seem to remember getting ready to go to work at WH Smiths in St Austell (Cornwall). I remember the hype around it all and the dodgy little cardboard glasses with black film. I also remember standing in the garden, in my uniform and it being cloudy. Saw the secondary effects, shrugged the shoulders and went to work.

 

[Andy ES]

I was sitting on top of a Generator Transformer at Barking Power Station.

I remember the very weird sepia light of the partial eclipse.

My mate, who had managed to get leave, had gone to Cornwall but I think he was completely clouded out.

[Gfamily]

20 hours ago, markse68 said:

I was down in Cornwall 

Mark

The day before was one of the most perfect days I ever had.

We were camped above Sennen Cove, and spent the day on the beach with my brother and his family, my brother in law,  and some friends; so 3 families with kids aged between 10 and 7.

The weather was perfect, and the sea was warm. Picnics, games, sandcastles and 'controlled water engineering ' as the tide came in.

That evening, a joint BBQ, and an evening under the stars with a great Perseid display.

Next morning, cloud. So no sign of the eclipse, though we did see the 'dark overhead and twilight across 360 degrees of the horizon' that was the very memorable effect (in the absence of seeing the eclipse itself).

A memorable day, of course, but not as treasured as the previous day.