Yes, we were living in Leeds at the time. (so a couple of hundred miles? as the crow flies from the area of totality)
Hazy cloud IIRC, it when quite dim - yes probably similar to a dark cloud, but there was a different quality to the light.
I also remember noticing the temp drop.
Zoom in to where you are and it will give the exact times and % obscuration.
I went to France for it and at the last moment had to drive at 900mph to get to where there were no clouds. So I got to see it properly. The colour of the light was weird, just being darker daylight rather than the reddish light we expect to see when it's that dark (as at dawn and dusk).
Yes. Although the premise of having nine suns doing predictable orbits so that once every 250k years there's total darkness on the planet is unlikely.
That's the nice thing about SF, though. One unlikely prenise and then you can observe a completely different social/evolutionary/whatever arrangement.
The distance from the earth to the moon varies so sometimes the moon isn't big enough and we get an annular eclipse rather than total. There is a few percent variation so its not perfect as it would be if it were designed.
Well done sir - I had not noticed that. 83% at 9:30 in Sussex/Kent area.
And a strip of sea starting near the south of Greenland, passing west of Iceland and curving up towards the pole, if you have a boat.
Could have been interesting when the Moon first formed and was a lot closer to the Earth. Tides were hundreds of feet high (at least), too.
As it is the Moon is receding at some low rate, and eventually will no longer be able to perform one of what is (to us on Earth) its key tasks: that of stabilising the orientation of the Earth's axis. After that, there is quite a non-zero chance that gravitational interactions with other planets (principally Jupiter) could cause the axis to move round to 90deg rather than the 23deg we have at present. That will
*really* mess things up.
Just a bit of climate change, that's all.
I read it and most of his other books too.
Good job Charles with his hi-vis jacket and speed gun wasn't around...
Pack a rifle if you decide to paddle to Svalbard. More polar bears than humans and the rifle is mandatory outside of settlements.
Plenty of realism and discouragement at
I'm assuming it means as viewed from the area of the eclipse.
Bill
We also have retinas that adjust their sensitivity.
Bill
I was lucky enough to be given a ticket for a ship that got to the best viewing point between England and France. (Also had Uri Geller on board...)
I was also bobbing about down that way. Nearly shat ourselves when a sudden loud bang occurred followed by a succession of thoughts as to what caused it, collision, mechanical failure ,gas cylinder exploded ? Then we remembered that Concorde was doing a tour down there as well.
G.Harman
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