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

[powercats]

I was 14, in South Wales. If you look at the news coverage and videos recorded in 1999 it seems to get as dark as night. But I don’t remember that at all - the sky was still blue, it just went dim, like it would in heavy rain or as if it was 6pm instead of 11am.

Is this how other people remember it?

It's because in general people have the memory capability close to that of a goldfish.

I'd like to say that I am better but no.

My big weakness is Mcdonalds. Every 6 months or so I go past and see one of those pictures of really nice juicy burgers. It tempts me in and I buy the burger.

To me it looks nothing like the picture and I am disappointed. But 6 months later I am always back repeating the experience. This is the time it takes for my brain to erase all knowledge of the previous unhappy experience.

Eclipses seem to be pretty much the same process.

The December of 2010 is another one. Boy was that cold. But when you talk to people, they seem to think that last or the current winter is/was the coldest ever.

Well I was in Cheshire, so a bit further South than Manchester, and I definitely don't remember it getting all that dark, not really.

What I do remember is that we all trooped out from the office in to the car park opposite to watch and I noticed somebody in really weird garb. They were wearing a black cape and a silvery thing on their head. At first I thought it must be somebody in to New-Agey bollocks or a sun-worshipper or something. I eventually realised they had come out of the hairdressers next door and were presumably mid-perm!

I experienced the 1999 full eclipse from a clifftop ovetlooking St Austell bay at the back of my then home in Mevagissey.
The sky was maddeningly overcast and we got just a glimpse of the sun through a cloud break as it was coming out of the eclipse.
At full eclipse the sky went dark purple, the birds were silent and street lights automatically came on in the towns & villages around the bay.
It wasn't the incredible experience that it would have been during a clear sky but it was still a fascinating one.

I was in London zoo. Very spooky. All the animals were freaking out. It was lunchtime ish and pretty dark.

Pitch black for me, I lived on the Dover cliffs.
I was very young but remember it

No it didn't get dark, just dimmed a bit. I remember seeing the crescents as the sun shone through the leaves of runner bean plants I had, that was the best part!

I was in Cornwall and I remember the birds going a bit mental and the street lights coming on.

It depends where you were. People were going down to Cornwall for the full effect.. I on the other hand was at work by Birmingham airport. It went cold and quiet and dull and all the birds stopped singing.

I was in south wales as well and I remember it going really dark!

Haven't forgotten it. It was completely underwhelming. As I said upthread, I have by luck, been in the path of totality twice. In contrast, 2015 it just got a bit more grey than it otherwise was that day.

1999 and even more so 2024 were proper awe inspired by the universe events.

East Anglia - was cloudy, so we didn't really see it. Went dim, not pitch black.

I guess if it goes dark very suddenly then it feels pitch black because you've not had time to adjust to it.

I was also 14 but in Yorkshire

I vividly remember all the fuss and excitement leading up to it. We all gathered in the garden with the glasses. And I absolutely remember after thinking 'oh is that it' 😆

So no I don't think it did go really dark!

It was pitch black in Kent. Even the birds stopped chirping.

I was in Scotland and I don’t remember it being all that dark either. It certainly wasn’t pitch black.

I was in Pembrokeshire and it was seriously underwhelming.

I was in London & don't remember being wowed by it as it was cloudy.
There was definitely a darkening & it got to be maybe like dusk..
Didn't have the glasses then but have some now.

I remember the 2015 one 🙋🏻‍♀️ DC were in primary school and lessons were postponed so they could "watch" in the playground. We'd made pinhole viewers and I took this photo around the maximum.

Now DC are nearly adults and are making their own pinhole viewers for this evening.

The interesting thing about the 1999 one was that the photo actually looked like the eclipse I saw.

Many of the photos before that didn't look anything like it. I don't know whether that was because eclipses are really difficult to photo, or some other reason.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_eclipse_of_August_11,_1999#/media/File:Solar_eclipse_1999_4.jpg

I’m in the NW and was 9 for the full solar eclipse - I also remember it only getting a bit darker. I had my free eclipse glasses on and everything and was very disappointed 😂

I agree.

Same. I was at a festival on the Lizard point. It went a bit grey. The end! Very disappointing (not least as it took us 5000 years to drive all the way from the north to the very tip of Cornwall!!).

Same, it went a bit gloomy from what I remember but that was it. I wasn’t impressed as a teenager!

I was in Cornwall for the 1999 eclipse and in the US for the 2024 eclipse, both total.

In Cornwall it was cloudy and a bit meh. It got quite dark, enough that the birds stopped singing. But you couldn’t see what was happening to the sun.

In 2024 there were no clouds where I was, and it was amazing. The streetlights came on, but it wasn’t pitch dark. But the moment when the sun broke through was just incredible.

I’ve also been in the path of a partial eclipse and it was fun for the kids, and interesting to see, but nothing like as amazing.

I was in the south east and it went grey and chilly, definitely darker than any daytime light I've experienced. The birds stopped singing and it was quite spooky.

I'm not expecting today to get so dark, but it should be very noticeable.

We were in London and we all went outside to watch it although we had nothing like full totality there. It was sunny where we were though and I remember looking down on the pavement [isgusted with my failed pinhole camera] and seeing hundreds of tiny elipses where the tree was acting as a pinhole camera 🌳 🌙