Eclipse non-event

Today there was a solar eclipse, they say.

We were told that the sun would be 85% covered in London at 9.30am. But the clouds were so thick that nothing was visible, not even a dimming of the light. So we went home and watched the streamed video from Longyearbyen in Svalbard.

I think the last solar eclipse in London was in January 2011, when the sun rose partially eclipsed. We got up early and walked down to the Thames path to watch it over the river. But, as I reported here, clouds hid the sun, although an eerie quality of light was noticeable.

I do count myself very lucky in having had a good view of a total eclipse. In 1999, we were in Paris at the time. Plotting the line of totality on a French railway map, we decided that Grandvilliers would be a good place to go to see it. We took an early train from Gare du Nord and walked out into the countryside until we found a comfortable spot. This was possibly the only place in western Europe that was cloud-free; we were able to watch the entire thing without interruption. An experience to which the over-used word “awesome” really applied!