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?

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

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

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!'

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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! 😁

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

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

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.

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.

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

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

We were in Grays Inn Fields!

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.

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.

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

This. A total eclipse is an absolutely spellbinding thing to experience, it’s a shame that people are writing off the only proper one we’ve had just because they were in the wrong area!

Well to be fair even if you were in the right area in Cornwall for the UK one the experience might not have been that good because most of it was clouded over.

I think a very few people managed to get a brief glance of totality, but for most even those in the zone it just got dark. Then light again 2 minutes later.

It's only if you are in the very narrow zone of totality plus you have clear skies to see the sun over the moon that you really get the full experience.

I saw the 1999 one in France, and it took a bit of moving around from place to place to find clear skies. If I was chasing one in Northern Europe I would always want a car because clear skies can be more rare, and a car gives you the ability to move quite a few hours in the short time before the eclipse when you start to know what the weather will be with more certainty.

I was in Alderney for the 1999 eclipse and experienced totality. It was absolutely extraordinary.

I remember it went very dark, cold and the birds went quiet. It was really eerie