to think the eclipse is a bit of a let down?

[liveloveluggage]

It has gone a bit darker, but I was hoping for something more dramatic. AIBU?

Although hazy cloud here, it got very gloomy and eerie, like an early dawn. Enough to make you realise that you are a very small thing in a massive universe...
So, who should all the disappointed people write a letter of complaint to? God? Surya, the hindu goddess of the sun, or straight to the top man himself, Professor Brian Cox? ffs...

It was under whelming in 1999 too

if you were under cloud, you won't have seen or noticed much. If you weren't and didn't notice the big temperature drop, you must have been asleep. Great shadows too.

It was a bit of an ant-climax here too.

I'm down south, thick cloud here. It went a bit "rainy afternoon in November" dull

I remember seeing the last one, it went very dark and bloody freezing

Devon here and the glimpses we got through the quite thick cloud were pretty dramatic.

It was ok here we viewed it through the car sunvisor with extra 'into the sun' square. We also had sunglasses on and had a petty good view!

I'm in Essex, total anti climax, too cloudy to see anything and it got a little bit dark but I didn't even have to turn the lights on.

Too cloudy here (South Coast) it did get very very chilly though - so interesting from that POV. fond memories of 1999 here though

I think people have had some unrealistic expectations.

Unless you are in the zone of totality (which most of UK isn't), it was just going to get a bit darker. Which it did.

If you were lucky enough to be in an area without cloud, then you could have watched (with glasses or a viewer of some sort like pinhole camera) the shape of the moon move across the sun. It was cloudy where I was. Just down to luck.

That's it. No dramatic middle-of-the-night darkness should have been expected. No-one can do anything about clouds blocking view of sun.

Scotland - 98% area - found out yesterday the school not doing anything! (council had told them the primary children couldn't watch it live - some older ones were watching a web feed/video - but my DD was doing PE!).
Yesterday the HT and main sec more or less told me it would be ok to keep DD off -I was in two minds but it was lovely and clear here (1999 one where I was it was thick cloud) so decided I would. Diff sec this morning gave me a hard time and DD heard it ...don't know if that made her feel nervous/scared she would be in trouble but she said she was unimpressed with the whole thing and kept asking to go into school now . Took her in just gone 10, expecting grief but main sec was there and no problem... (thankfully - I was more than a bit annoyed - DD has 100% attendance for the last 2 yrs - it isn't as though I keep her off regularly!)

Anyway we had a pin hole camera...and kept looking at it every 10 mins or so.
It did go dark and cold - you could see your breath - but not as dramatic as I was expecting ...but still quite eerie...the birds did disappear...worth experiencing....doubt I'll be around for the next one ...

NONE of the UK is in the totality zone - that's why people have hoiked off to The Faroes and Svalbard.

I was more impressed than I expected - I joined the small crowd at Queens University Belfast. After a cloudy and rainy morning, the skies cleared, and were all able to safely view the diminishing crescent of the sliver of sun through the glasses being handed out. The scientists there had set up a few pinhole cameras and colander view stations, and did a 10 second countdown to maximum coverage. It was very dusky, and the street lights came on.

Viva100, no, you're not alone in that

Bit rubbish in south wales but i think we missed the po8nt at which the light really dimmed. Good sense of community up on the hill though and I got my rubbish attempt at a pinhole camera fixed by a terry pratchettt lookalike next to a bloke flying an African Grey parrot on a lead so that made it worth it

DD1 was singularly unimpressed so I'm not sure it made the bollocking I'm going to get from school worth it.

Here in Devon there was lots of cloud at the actual totality bit, but for nearly an hour before and after it was fantastic. We used welder's goggles which made everything green, but showed it so so so clearly. It was great.

My contractions started during the one in '99. We lived in London then, and had come to Devon especially for the ecipse (I had hoped to have dd down here as I loathed my local hospital. So dd is Devonian).

Brilliant timing for DD's assembly on space! Pupils and parents gathered on the playground with pin-hole cameras and an assortment of Y5 aliens. Cold and dark, but not sure if that isn't a normal March morning in Derbyshire. Best Mum quote of the morning: 'What would make this moment really special for me now would be a cappuccino.'

Was rather cloudy here, near Durham, but we got the odd glimpse, through the thinner bits of cloud. Managed to get a fuzzy just before and just after shot. I was underwhelmed in 1999, but I caught sight of today's out of my kitchen window while I was glumly making a cup of tea, in the murk and got far more excited than I thought I would.

It was pretty good here in NW Wales... there was a light covering of cloud so it was possible to get some good images of the sun. It went from being bright and sunny to being dark like dusk, and the birds went crazy. The cat was confused too

East Anglia, epic fail!!!!

Our birds stuck around. There were a few Jackdaws huddled together on a telegraph wire, facing where the sun should have been and looking right confused.

had a break in the clouds so managed to see the eclipse for a couple of minutes and take some photos hurray!

Has been amazing here. Watched it in my £2 glasses for a full hour with a cuppa. But also loved the coverage from the Faroe Islands. sorry that sounds so smug

We got fab views in Cumbria!

It was fantastic near Bristol. As good as it could be. Totally cloudless sky. Plus I still had my eclipse goggles from 1999 and my kids had an INSET day so 2 of them were around to watch it with me. Photo for those who missed it.

West lothian...watched the run up to it through glasses and then a big cloud came, but that meant you could just watch it normally.

I thought it was pretty cool actually

To get night time like darkness you would need a total or even annular eclipse.
This was only partial from the UK.

It still went darker and cold here. Edinburgh.
Cat tried to convince us it was time for his night time feed.
Greedy beggar.

In spite of the cloud we got some good viewing, some nice photos.
So Im pleased.