Vocal Voices

The eclipse, that is? It just went a but gloomy(er) here and that was that Bit disappointed really, the 1999 one was quite exciting

Just saw it on the telly.

Rodo wrote:Just saw it on the telly.

We saw a little bit of it, through a lot of cloud. It did go a bit darker, but as it's a dark and gloomy morning

I timed my jog this morning so I could be on the canal when it happened. What a non event!

It was cloudy although the sun kept popping out now and again. I did see the crescent shape a few times but I was so unimpressed I didn't really bother looking. But it didn't go dark at all - just dull as though the sun was hidden behind clouds.

I can see one very unimpressed 12 year old arriving home tonight - they were watching it happen as part of their science lesson and the teacher had really bigged it up!!!

Yes I did but only for a minute or to through thick cloud
But it was very cold and dull
Won't be around to see the next one

Well despite all the doomsayers, it was a beautiful, bright, cloudless sky here in Birmingham. For the 5 minutes or so of the maximum eclipse, probably about 85%, it went very still and dull and eerie. Difficult to describe, a sort of gunmetal blue effect. It was quite ethereal - but that was it.

As Kaz said, not a patch on August 1999 of course, when the totality passed over the English Channel. Master O and I had freedom rail tickets that week for the south-west, so we made it down from Somerset to Exeter in good time. All the trains going on to Plymouth were packed, so we didn't think we'd get any further, but suddenly a Cardiff- Paignton local turned up, fairly empty, so off we set for Torbay. We watched the sun gradually start to lose shape through the wispy clouds as we travelled, and when we disembarked at Paignton, it was a very, very strange experience. In the gloom, hundreds of folk were flocking past the station and walking down to the promenade - we followed them. The sea-front was absolutely crowded. There was heavy cloud, so we couldn't actually see the sun.

Suddenly there was a mewing, and a huge flock of seagulls flew out to sea. That was eerie in itself. Then suddenly, (although it must have taken a couple of minutes) everything went totally black - apart from a brilliant orange rim between the cloud and the sea right out on the horizon. All you could see was hundreds and hundreds of flash-bulbs going off all around the curve of the Torbay coastline as folk took snaps and selfies. And then the blackness lifted, and with a happy chatter everyone turned to total strangers and said "Wow, what about that?" or similar. And we dispersed and departed.

That was an event, a once-in-a-lifetime happening which will live forever in both my and MasterO's memory .....

We had thick cloud too. It did get darker for a while, and the birds stopped singing, so it was a bit eerie, but that was it.

The 1999 one is a special memory for me too Ossie

In the end, we saw it through light cloud, so we could actually look at it, and I did manage to project it on to card using the colander, but just briefly. It didn't even go very dark, just a tiny bit gloomier than a normal dull day.

only had about a quarter one here,luckily the cloud was enough to take the " brightness" off the sun so were able to see it quite clearly through the cloud,only lasted about 30 min though

It was cloudy here early on but at the crucial time there was a break in the cloud and the sun was shining brightly. All a bit of a non happening really as I hardly noticed. I had a viewer made from a box and binoculars but it didn't really work.