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What happened to this alleged eclipse, then?

· Science & Technology · Sui generis

Either astronomical phenomena don’t apply to Essex, or the guys doing the sacrificing to Huitzilopochtli were really hard at work.

March 20th, 2015 |

11 comments to What happened to this alleged eclipse, then?

  • Sam Duncan
    March 20, 2015 at 10:34 am

    It looked like it would be a washout here in Glasgow, but at almost exactly the moment of full extent – around 9:34 – there was a tiny gap in the cloud. Then a few more, later, which really gave the full impression of the thing (or as full as it gets without totality): just as dim light as when it was cloudy – it didn’t really get dark; it felt more like an impending thuderstorm – but sharp shadows on the ground and what little sun there was glinting off the cars and windows. Quite eerie, if not maybe as impressive as it might have been.

  • Perry de Havilland (London)
    March 20, 2015 at 10:39 am

    or the guys doing the sacrificing to Huitzilopochtli were really hard at work.

    Indeed, apparently the eclipse was cancelled in Essex when the priests of Huitzilopochtli discovered there was not a single virgin there to sacrifice.

  • Jeff Evans
    March 20, 2015 at 1:19 pm

    Lunchtime now, and the sun is shining here in London. The 1999 eclipse was a bit of a washout too, although we did get to see some of it at Portland Bill. I remember an excellent partial eclipse when I was at junior school in the 1950’s. They obviously don’t make them like they used to. I blame Global Warming. 😉

  • Dr Evil
    March 20, 2015 at 3:11 pm

    We had a clearish view on the eclipse in Huntingdonshire. It was a bit cloudy which meant we could look directly at the sun and not get blinded. Saw the moon occluding a lot of the disc of the sun. Did you know that ancient Chinese astronomers used a similar method to see sunspots on the sun’s disc a couple of thousand years before Galileo reported on them?

  • wh00ps
    March 20, 2015 at 3:16 pm

    Just got a bit darker here in Kent. Not even the eerieness I remember from the last one.

  • Mr Ed
    March 20, 2015 at 5:33 pm

    I saw it clearly driving in Staffordshire, the sky was mainly clear from the start of the partial eclipse, with a bit of mist forming, birds singing as if dusk, and and at the greatest extent I stopped under a sky of slightly broken cloud, and saw the partially-eclipsed sun poking through. The air was noticeably chilly as per 1999, and there was a gloom to the sky under the cloud but not enough to put car lights on. Noticeable, if not dramatic.

  • RAB
    March 20, 2015 at 6:06 pm

    Did I watch the Eclipse? Did I hell! You can fool me once but not twice. I turned out for the last one in 1999 and it was about as spectacular as a damp grey afternoon in December.

  • Runcie Balspune
    March 21, 2015 at 3:34 pm

    This is three out of three failed eclipses for me, 1999 was a grey out but at least it went dark and spooky. I was on a Florida beach on Christmas Day 2000 when minor partial eclipse happened but it was so bright you could not notice it, I did observe it using a pinhole shadow. This one was a complete waste of time, didn’t even get dark.

    In the evening there was a special look at the sun in Stargazing Live, after describing how billions of tons of red hot plasma get ejected thousands of miles into space on a regular basis, I could just imagine Brian Cox thinking “ey oop, wonder if that effects the earth at all?”, but on the BBC narrative not a mention of climate lest it disturb the Gaia God in the control room.

  • Malcolm Coghill
    March 23, 2015 at 1:01 am

    I watched the partial eclipse and mightily enjoyable it was too, even though I could hardly focus on the sun as it was so dazzling. But I seem to have contracted some sort of virus that affects my sight as now I can’t see a damn thin and my eyes ache

  • Nicholas (Natural Genius) Gray
    March 23, 2015 at 4:57 am

    It seems that normal British weather is so dismal that it eclipses solar events, and solar eclipses are dismissed as ‘weather as usual’. Can’t you just outlaw bad weather?

  • ns
    March 24, 2015 at 7:37 pm

    Jeff Evans – “I blame Global Warming” – nice one, sir! Luckily, the priests of Huitzilopochtli averted the catastrophe, not doubt with Frankie singing ‘I Left My Heart In San Francisco’ (or Tenochtitlan, whatever).
    Albert: “How do you pronounce Huitzilopochtli?”
    Howland Owl: “I don’t.”

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