The solar eclipse on Wednesday 12th August

Very striking here in the Périgord where we have had the hottest day yet. Clear blue skies and bright sun gradually got greyer and (phew!) a tiny bit cooler. We watched it from the top of the garden where we had an uninterrupted view and the cheapo Amazon eclipse glasses worked brilliantly.
2 SILs got some great pics which I am waiting for them to share with me.
I’m so glad we saw it here- 3 generations together making it a really meaningful occasion.

I don't know what many of you expected. We bought the correct glasses to watch it properly and found it awesome. I give up.

We watched it with the same glasses we used in 1999 that I’d kept in a cupboard just in case! We won’t see another so it was a special occasion and pleased we could see it in a cloudless sky.

Yes the glasses we used were from 1999 Abitbarmy, they’d been carefully stored in their original packaging. So pleased I remembered where to find them!

We shared our eclipse glasses with a neighbour sitting in our backyard, didn’t know it had started until we put on the glasses, it took a while until we thought we noticed the light growing dimmer, but it probably wouldn’t have occurred to us that anything dramatic was happening if we hadn’t known there was an eclipse. I had prayed it would get cooler but it didn’t.
I suppose you need a total eclipse to notice it.

I fell asleep on the sofa around 5pm and woke just before 7, by the time I got outside 10 minutes later I think it was all over!

I enjoyed the pix, but enjoyed more the BBC news at 10pm presentation. It was truly wonderful as it went around Europe and Iceland and showed lots of people in the UK who did get the best.
Wonder from kids - "Awesome". Reminded us of our joint humanity.

Me - I was indoors dealing with a temporary crisis ..and forgot 🙄.

It didn't get as dark as we expected, but it was still a significant occurrence and enjoyable to spectate in a group.

Sitting above the coast looking at the sun across the water we were mesmerised by what we saw. The light gradually changed, the sky changed colour, we watched the sun appear to change shape and almost disappear before the process reversed. New glasses kept our eyes safe. So many people around with a shared purpose, all very relaxed.

The only fly in the evenings ointment came from people parking inconsiderately and illegally causing gridlock. We sat in the car eating our picnic waiting for the chaos to clear wondering ‘why’.

srn63

I don't know what many of you expected. We bought the correct glasses to watch it properly and found it awesome. I give up.

Srn63 I expected sonething even if only a little bit of different Literally nothing happened for us in Suffolk it stayed exactly the same The birds were still calling it neither went dusky or quiet
You must accept that different parts of the country may have had different experiences but nothing at all changed for many people

srn63

I don't know what many of you expected. We bought the correct glasses to watch it properly and found it awesome. I give up.

I’m sure you’re correct, having the proper glasses must make it so much better.

As usual, I was late to the party, only realised it was all going to happen the day before, too late to get any.

Life carries on though, whether you witnessed it or not.

The fact is that for us in the North of England very little happened, proper glasses worn or not.

Exactly usedtobeblonde and in the east of England nothing really changed either There was no darkness, no stillness it was a normal evening and it’s very frustrating that some people have to argue and say we are being curmudgeonly and expecting too much
I ll tell you what I expected, I expected it to go quiet the birds to be silent and a little dark stillness to happen … that’s all I expected, but for many parts of the country nothing at all changed, the birds were still flying around calling to each other there was no dimming, to all intents and purposes it just carried on as it was. So to all those doubters and mockers it was a different experience depending where you were living, please do accept that.

If it hadn’t been all over the news I wouldn’t have even know there was an eclipse - didn’t notice anything.
Where we were it went ever so slightly ( and I mean slightly ) dark for a few minutes and that was it.

And I’m down south where it’s blue sky’s and sunny all day. Still didn’t notice ( and I was outside )

The problem was I think we were led to expect more than we got by the hype from the media. In our part of Berkshire I couldn’t believe it had actually happened : the sun on the lawn receded a little but soon returned.

To all of you saying nothing happened, something did happen, there was a near total eclipse of the sun, a once in a generational happening, the last one most of us on here will see. Just because it didn't happen as you expected or just because you weren't properly prepared doesn't make it a non event. It played out as it played out, not the same as the 1999 one and the next one won't be the same either, but to say nothing happened is wrong. We had a partial eclipse, it happened.

srn63

To all of you saying nothing happened, something did happen, there was a near total eclipse of the sun, a once in a generational happening, the last one most of us on here will see. Just because it didn't happen as you expected or just because you weren't properly prepared doesn't make it a non event. It played out as it played out, not the same as the 1999 one and the next one won't be the same either, but to say nothing happened is wrong. We had a partial eclipse, it happened.

You’re wrong srn in some parts of the country nothing WAS SEEN to happen, we all know it happened, but for many there was no changes SEEN
Where I was it didn’t get any dimmer, the birds still flew and squawked , if it hadn’t been for the hype I would not have known anything about it
Why can’t you accept that although we all knew it happened in some parts of the country there was nothing to ‘see’ outwardly the evening was the same as any other but that is not saying it didn’t happen it wasn’t SEEN to happen for many

Lucky you people who had that experience, many of us didn’t.

Here in East London, we were watching it but the sun was setting anyway behind the trees.
I raced along to the end of the road, found some neighbors trying to look through crisp packets!!??
I had made cereal viewers and that worked! I was almost more interested in how the light rays formed this image.
My DGD was with me and I pointed out to her that for the next eclipse, she would be 79.

Good post BlueBelle.

Kandinsky

If it hadn’t been all over the news I wouldn’t have even know there was an eclipse - didn’t notice anything.
Where we were it went ever so slightly ( and I mean slightly ) dark for a few minutes and that was it.

Same here in East Surrey.

Even if I’d not heard all the hype, I would’ve known something was going on because of all the cars lined up at the top of our hill to watch the event across the bay.
I have some pictures using my phone in the prescribed manner, but one gentleman came across the road and offered me a loan of his cardboard glasses which gave a much better image. The picture on the TV of the total eclipse viewed in Spain was amazing..

But it did happen, just because you didn't see it happen or see any changes doesn't mean it didn't happen. The sun was eclipsed.

I'm quite sure it happened. The media certainly made sure we knew about it.

I was at choir practice but we took our break a little earlier and all went out to watch. I was one of only two who had thought to bring the special glasses! (Saved from the last eclipse in 1999)

In 1999 the eclipse was total here in Southern Germany and colleagues from the English branch of the company I worked for came over specially to see it unfortunately it was cloudy that day over the office. I was at home and had a perfect view. We lay on the lawn and watched. It went dark and silent. Unforgettable.

Last night we had 82% coverage and, yes, to the naked eye, it didn't go dark, and there was no visible change in the sun. At least not much, and some of that was due to the fact that the sun was going down anyway.

Through the glasses though, you could clearly see the crescent sun getting smaller and smaller. We passed the glasses round so everyone got a glimpse. That was enough as you don't really need to watch the whole passage across it. Towards the end, the sun disappeared behind the trees over to the West but it was certainly definitely worth seeing.

On the building behind us the sun cast a shadow of the fir tree beside us, decorated with lots of little half-"moons" like a Christmas tree. This was probably a version of the colander effect. I took a photo but it's not easy to see them in that.