Well, one happened, apparently. Cloud cover was near total. But bear in mind the whole thing takes an hour and a half to get to Totality, and I defy anyone to watch something avidly for that long. Only most of you do exactly that with the CappsCam. . . So effectively, we were provided with a series of snapshots of the whole process. Not actual snapshots, for while cloud cover meant that Mylar filters weren't necessary, it wasn't possible to get good photographs.
So why did I bother going all the way to cloudy Cornwall when I could have seen most of it from sunny Sussex? The key word here is most - you were only able to achieve Totality, when you're totally in the moon's shadow, down there. And, boy, was it worth it! My brother watched it from Brighton beach, and while he had a clear view, it didn't get dark.
Meanwhile, in the West Country, things progressed. First Contact was at around 10 am, and immediately all the cockerels started crowing (I was watching from a field on Dartmoor). By 11 it was distinctly cool, and the light had taken on a twilight feel. Then things really took off. Have you ever been in a cinema and you've immediately noticed when the lights started to dim even though it's barely noticeable? It was like that, but then the light dropped really fast. The overcats sky meant you couldn't see the ashafow approach, but that added to the effect.
Then it was dark. Cows were mooing, kids were ooh-ing, sheep were baa-ing, adults were aah-ing. Think Dr. Seuss doing 'Old McDonald' on acid. Over to the west (from where the shado had approached), daylight was visible, and again it didn't approach as the shadow in reality sped eastwards, it just. . . got lighter. Really quickly - unbelievably quickly. Ten minutes later all was normal, even though above the clouds the sun was still mostly blocked.
Lastly, two comments, one overheard, the other from a news report. The first was heard in the field at about 11, said by another spectator:
quote:
"It's not going to get dark because the sun is behind the clouds."
Fortunately we had this self-same bright spark to illuminate us. . . The second comment was from a local zoo curator, who summarised observations of their nocturnal animals thus:
quote:
"We expected the puma and the other nocturnal creatures to display nornal behaviour, but they just slept."
Hmm. These animals would have been asleep already, and they just. . . stayed asleep, right? With someone as dim as this around, they're probably used to drops in illumination. . .
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"S`io credessi che mia rispota fosse
A persona che mai tornasse al mondo,
Questa fiamma staria senza piu' scosse.
Ma perciocche` giammai di questo fondo
Non torno` vivo alcun, s`i`odo il vero,
Senza tema d`infamia ti rispondo."
- Dante`
"The Caaatt INn Thhe Haaat Hatt haaattt".
For the first time, I'm really interestd in seeing a total eclipse.
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Outside of a dog, a book is a mans best friend. Inside of a dog, it's to dark to read. Groucho Marx
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Elim Garak: "Oh, it's just Garak. Plain, simple Garak. Now, good day to you, Doctor. I'm so glad to have made such an... interesting new friend today." (DS9: "Past Prologue")
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Saving the world: $50.
Saving the universe: $1,000,000
Saving your marraige: Sorry, I don't do that.
Well, I hope you trouble-makers learned your lesson. Your Moms always said don't lok at the Sun, but did you listen? noooooooo.
Seems Mom was right after all, huh, Carl Sagan?
Oh, don't run with scissors, either.
[why aren't solar eclipses made with a warning label? someone could get hurt and sue. "Your Honor, my client was looking directly at an eight-hundred-thousand mile wide ball of fusing hydrogen and burned his retinas. He is therefore entitled to ten million dollars in damages."]
She'll have a permanent white dot in the central line of her vision in the right eye which is a shame but what is wrong with people?
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"It's all around us!" - Blair Witch Project
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"Hey Mr. Boo, fly away home. Your house is so lovely, your children so nice."
--
Hello (The Band)
*bumbles into doorway on way out*
*WHAM!*
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"When we turn our back on our principles, we stop being human." -- Janeway, "Equinox"
Thus concludes today's lesson in theology.
Let's all take a break now and go stare at the sun, shall we?
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Who is General Failure and why is he reading my hard disk?
www.geocities.com/Area51/Shire/8641/
[This message has been edited by Baloo (edited August 14, 1999).]
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"Elevator to hell, going up." - What Dreams May Come
However when I woke on the morn of the eclipse it was very overcast and grey. The partial eclipse progressed, and the cloud layers thinned to occasionally allow the sun's ever-more crescent disc to appear. Whilst some others in the park where I was observing it in were happily peering at the disc through the clouds, I was playing it a bit safer by only glancing at it, and using the filter goggles when the clouds parted.
As totality approached it got noticably darker; a kind of bluish-brown twilight worsened by the cloud cover. We could see the crescent fade away to a thin sliver, (I did see the crescent being projected a hundredfold under a tree!).
Totality arrived just as one of the clouds moved over the sun. It got dark as night within seconds. Everyone cheered and clapped, and those with cameras willed the cloud to move away to reveal the corona.....
It moved after 2 mins 30 seconds, several seconds too late to allow the corona to be seen. The lights trurned up again, and slowly things returned to normality.
No totality, but at least I got the shadow.
When I returned home my sister gave me the tape of the BBC live show. I saw Phillipa Forrester seeing nothing in Cornwall under heavy cloud, I saw Patrick Moore grumpy in Falmouth, I saw that Aldernay in the channel had seen something. Then Michael Burke comes on and says, "Well, of course the skies weren't cloudy everywhere. In the French city of Reims they had a lovely view!"
Cut to shot from Reims town centre, about a mile from where I was. A huge crowd shouting with joy and a totally eclipsed sun with corona visible above them.
It was at this point my language lapsed into rather colourful metaphors. But like the Murphy's; I'm not bitter.
....Grrrrrrrrrr!!! 
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Taking foxiness to the rim of the final frontier....
I shall return.