Total eclipse of the Sun

11 August 1999

Our adventures on the cross-channel car ferry Pride of Le Havre ... (click thumbnails for full size pictures)

08:15		We set sail from Le Havre (having sailed over from Portsmouth the night before), with encouragingly clear blue skies
about 09:00		Well out to sea, we see clouds bubbling up back over the land
about 09:10		our Lightline Solar Projector, a clever inexpensive rugged cardboard contraption we bought from Green Witch , designed for safely projecting an image of the sun
09:34		The crowd builds up on the viewing deck, as clouds begin to bubble up on the horizon -- but it's still clear overhead
10:07		Just after First Contact, as seen with our Solar Projector. We can see two sunspots with it (but they haven't photographed).
10:26		About 20%, projected. The projector is a real hit with all the other people viewing -- we even have a short queue at one point!
10:52		The clouds start to thicken, and we all start to worry
		The cabin key provided an excellent source of multiple pinholes, for a regular "sun crescents through tree leaves" effect
11:00		About 80%, projected -- it's getting a bit cloudy overhead, but the sun still projects.
11:11		About 90%, projected
11:14		About 95%, projected -- but it's still cloudy. A change in the quality of light begins to be noticeable. It's very weird -- the light is definitely dusky, yet it's coming straight down from above. The crowd grows quiet.
11:18		Totality! The sun pops into a small hazy hole in the clouds, and we get the full two minutes. Too hazy to see the corona or Baily's Beads, too cloudy for any dark sky stars...
		... But we get the starting diamond ring ... several bright red prominences ... (the photographs are over-exposed -- reality was much more impressive)
		... and then the ending diamond ring the other way round. An utterly mind-blowing, indescribably amazing experience -- nothing at all like seeing a partial eclipse; nothing at all like watching one on TV.
		our approximate position at totality
11:21		And it's all over, until 2090
about 11:30		This part of the Channel, under that hole in the clouds, did get a little crowded...
about 14:30		We sail back into Portsmouth, under full cloud, past ships old (HMS Warrior) ...
		... ships older (HMS Victory) ...
		... and ships modern (aircraft carrier)

(All times are British Summer Time)

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• Animation of the path of the eclipse
• A multiple exposure photograph from the famous Blue Mosque in Istanbul, Turkey