In 1999 on August 11th, at 11 minutes past 11 o'clock, Cornwall, at the most South Western tip of England was privileged enough to be under the path of a total solar eclipse. The following pictures, video and text describe my experiences that day.

We viewed the eclipse from "The Gruda", at Gorran Haven, near St Austell, Cornwall.

The journey down to Cornwall was easy. It appears that the scare stories of gridlock and not enough food to go around scared plenty of people away. The weather on the day was poor too, so few people travelled at the last minute.

Throughout the entire morning we couldn't see the sun at all, and had no idea whereabouts in the sky it was either. We resigned ourselves to the likelihood that we were not going to see the eclipse, but just the darkening. It got gradually cooler, although we couldn't see the sun we knew it must be obscured by the moon quite a bit, it was about the right time too. The wind picked up and we could see squally areas on the sea, where the wind was rippling the surface of the water. It had got darker and darker, then all of a sudden, you could really notice the light drop away rapidly. It was at this point that we knew the sun must be totally obscured. The bright horizon was really beautiful. You could see a narrow band of light where the sea was out of the shadow area, we were amazed by the whole atmosphere. That was good enough for us, and we were really pleased to be within the area of the shadow.

Then......... we heard some cries and clapping, people were starting to whoop and cheer. You could then hear people shout "There it is!". We looked up and saw through a window in the cloud, a totally eclipsed sun, with the corona easily visible! It was a glorious sight. I grabbed my video camera from the tripod and pointed it towards the sun, zoomed in, and held it as steady as I could. We probably had about 30 seconds to view it before the cloud covered the eclipse again. I filmed for about 20 seconds (see download below). The cloud then cleared again, and we could see the Diamond Ring effect as the moon moved away from the sun. That was beautiful, and we could look directly because of the thin cloud filtering out most of the harmful rays. From then on it got lighter very quickly. It is amazing how much light can penetrate to the earth with such a large amount of the sun obscured.

The day continued with no end of chatter about what we'd seen. Seeing the sun during the eclipse was a real surprise in the end.

We never saw the shadow sweeping across the ground at 1500mph, but a friend of mine witnessed the effect from Brixham and described it like this:

"Even though it was very cloudy, it was amazing and very emotional.  We stood down on the marina near the breakwater and looked back towards the town.  There is a church up behind the pub, which is right in the centre of the valley with houses rising up each side.  We stood absolutely speechless as we watched the moons shadow start behind the church and then rush towards us blanketing us in total darkness.  All of the street lights came on and as we turned towards Torquay there must have been hundreds, if not thousands, of camera flashlights going off.   Everything was silent..no cars...no talking.....then suddenly all of the seagulls rose into the air making a big comotion.  Within minutes, the light began to appear, again from behind the church and everything was back to normal.  It was absolutely amazing and I wouldn't have missed it for the world."

If you want to see the effect of the darkening sun on the surroundings, I have made a time-lapse video. You will see at 10x speed the three minutes right up to totality, condensed down into 20 seconds. From within the darkness, you can see a bright band on the horizon. This is where the sun is shining in the area outside the shadow. It in itself was truly spectacular, although the video doesn't do it justice. You will also notice a camera flash from the peninsula, there were hundreds during the eclipse all along the coast.

THIS IS A VIDEO TO DOWNLOAD - view with Windows Media Player

to in 3 mins
(Click either image to download... mpeg movie 1.3 Mb, about 5 minutes at 56k)

I also managed to capture the sun whilst it was totally eclipsed, with the corona visible behind. It came as a complete surprise to me that we could see it due to a lucky break in the cloud, so it is hand held and a bit wobbly, but you'll get the idea!

THIS IS A VIDEO TO DOWNLOAD - view with Windows Media Player

(Click image to download... mpeg movie 1.0 Mb, about 4 minutes at 56k)

The following pictures are stills taken from the video that I took during the eclipse. Although they are not particularly wonderful quality, they are a reminder for me of what was an amazing experience.

If you are lucky enough to ever be close enough to the path of totality of a solar eclipse, I urge you to go. It is the most amazing sight you will probably ever see. To see the moon up in the sky, just hanging there in front of the sun is awe inspiring. You won't regret it.

The next date for your diary is June 21st (summer solstice) 2001. The total eclipse of the sun will be visible from Angola, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Mozambique. I will be there if at all possible.

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My thanks must go to the official UK eclipse site. I gained much information from it. You will find it interesting.

www.eclipse.org.uk

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