To remember that it didn’t really get dark in the 1999 eclipse?

Also South Wales and my memory is it just went a bit dull, as if cloudy. It didn't really get dark.

I was on Dartmoor and it went properly dark, and strangely silent. And all the streetlights in Princetown came on.

It was cloudy though, so couldn't really see the sun being eclipsed.

Manchester too and that was exactly how I remember it. There was all this build up of how the birds would stop singing etc etc and it was all very underwhelming.

We were in Grays Inn Fields!

We had a brief dusk, then dark, then sun back again where I was in Devon. The birds were very confused.

I was in St Ives, it went pitch black - I thought it was incredible and well worth a long journey to get there.

Because the experiences are completely incomparable and a lot of people don't understand this.

Partial eclipses make barely any difference to the visual experience even if they go up to a high % coverage.

Many people might see the 90% eclipse here and from the media hype believe that a total eclipse is just not worth seeing because they have seen one that is 90% and that was meh. In my opinion that is absolutely not the case.

I would also strongly point out the dramatic difference between totality and partial to encourage people who are able to go that extra mile to try to get to a place where they can view totality, because the quality of experience is hugely improved.

It was my third solar eclipse. DC1 was a baby and we watched it reflected in a window while sitting in the garden. I guess having seen them before meant I wasn't expecting darkness at 90-odd % but it was still a cool thing to witness.

I remember nowt. Stood in the park and noticed nothing.

In west London it was dark grey twilight rather than night dark. I remember all the birds falling silent.

I was taking the thread in good humour, tbh. In 1999 the internet was very young, and so (relatively speaking) were we. It was really overhyped on
the news but took place mid-morning on a weekday, so it was almost inevitable that people like me, carving out time to view the phenomenon while relatively ignorant of what would happen, were bound to be a bit disappointed! 😁

I was in Oxfordshire, it got a bit gloomy but it was the drop in temperature that was most noticeable.

Watched from the cliffs in North West Cornwall..pitch black..

I was in either Cardiff or Bristol that day (can’t remember which, as I regularly worked out of two offices) and remember it going a bit dark like when a bad storm is coming, definitely not pitch black.

Why can't people appreciate the interesting celestial phenomenon without kvetching that it wasn't dramatic enough because they hadn't gone to totality?

If you want the drama, travel to the path of totality. The difference between 99% and totality is huge because of how our eyes work.

If you don't want to travel, just enjoy the weirdness of the moon slipping in front of the sun because of a crazy coincidence of size and distance. The telly will have the images of the full eclipse.

Huge difference between 100% totality and anything else.

I remember it being quite bright still until that magic moment it became a full eclipse. I saw it in 1999 in Devon.

It’ll only be 90% where I am for today’s one so I know it won’t be anything like seeing the one in Devon but it should be interesting still as it is sunny here and in Devon it was very overcast through the rest of the phases so possibly we will notice more of the gradual dimming effect today.

I was in Cornwall and it became night in the middle of the day, the weirdest thing was the birds going silent then all squawking like mad when it passed. Very very cool thing to see. Tonight I’ll watch it from my garden up north, but it’s not going to be anywhere near as good.

I remember the eerie, crescent-shaped shadows under the trees. It got dusky, not dark. Newgate Abbey in Nottinghamshire.

I was at Arthur's Stone, Gower (South Wales). There was an eerie sort of twilight but there was lots of hazy high cloud and not much view of the sun, so I would have missed the actual moment of the eclipse entirely if someone hadn't shouted 'There it is!'

A lot of these comments are making me see Dom Joly and the mobile phone man: 'Eclipse? It was RUBBISHHH!'.

I find it fascinating how nature responds to it too - dogs barking, birds stop singing. It’s quite something.

We were all allowed to leave work and head to Greenwich park. Everything went very still - it was quite eerie. It was like twilight.

Yorkshire. It was cloudy anyway but got slightly dimmer for a bit. 2/10

Same. I was in a very high open space and remember it was a bit of an anticlimax. It felt like a brief dusk, rather than nighttime darkness. And it seemed a bit like an average New Year anticlimax - a lot of fuss and anticipation, and then incredible logistical difficulty when everyone wants to get home across town at the same time!

I was in the north west (England) aged 17 and remember it going dim, cold and weirdly quiet! I think the birds all stopped singing or something but it felt eerie.