Eclipses

[DavidL]

Re-reading fictional eclipses (Asimov's Nightfall, Haggard's King Solomon's Mines) because we are planning to go to S America next year and shall try to see the December one. It's a powerful thing to read of - saw the 1999 one in London , where it was 90%, but apparently 100% is quite something else. Anyone written anything on eclipses/ know of exceptional descriptions?

 

[Robinne Weiss]

I've not written, nor read about eclipses, except in my journal. My husband and I saw the 1994 total solar eclipse in Potosi, Bolivia. Have pictures of it hanging in the kitchen still.

 

[Paul Whybrow]

I recall the solar eclipse of August 11th, 1999, when I was living out in the countryside in mid-Cornwall. The shadow of the eclipse first hit landfall in the UK at Land's End—about 50 miles from me—it was weird to see the darkness on the far horizon slowly encroach across the sky. I'd read anecdotal stories about dogs barking warnings and livestock calling out during an eclipse, and sure enough, that's what happened with farm dogs howling and yapping for miles around and sheep in a nearby field bleating. Street lights and security lights on buildings were activated by the gloom. With the sun blocked, there was a sudden dip in temperature, causing goose pimples and I felt a strange static charge too, which made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. People around me went from going "Ooh" to applauding as the eclipse faded. Cloud cover prevented us seeing the eclipse, but we certainly felt its effects.

 

[DavidL]

Thanks for that, it sounds as spooky as I've heard from others. During the 1999 one I was on Parliament Hill. The birds all flew around, then settled down and went silent. The darkness was not enough to see the stars.

 

[Rich.]

I wasn't far from Paul during the '99 one. A bunch of mates and I were camped on a clifftop in Devon at a place called Hope Cove. It was cloudy as Paul described. My overwhelming memory is of silence, an unnatural band of daylight on the southern horizon, and a feeling that – if I hadn't known better – the world was about to end.

It was like a moment's held breath as you wait to see if the child is going to fall off their bike, but then they rally and pedal off with a smile.

 

[DavidL]

I wasn't far from Paul during the '99 one. A bunch of mates and I were camped on a clifftop in Devon at a place called Hope Cove. It was cloudy as Paul described. My overwhelming memory is of silence, an unnatural band of daylight on the southern horizon, and a feeling that – if I hadn't known better – the world was about to end.

It was like a moment's held breath as you wait to see if the child is going to fall off their bike, but then they rally and pedal off with a smile.

The silence, yes, I remember that in London.
So was that totality?

 

[Katie-Ellen]

Famous Descriptions in literature: 'King Solomon's Mines', Rider Haggard.

Eclipses is the theme. It was a book of its time...please don't anyone decide to take offence and go culturally correct on it.

A Convenient Eclipse

 

[Rich.]

The silence, yes, I remember that in London.
So was that totality?

Yes, indeed. Memory can be a tricksy thing, so it's quite possible there were other things going on, but I remember totality as a deep, silent twilight, save for the bright horizon I mentioned before.

 

[Katie-Ellen]

We saw the 1990 one, waiting out in the back garden, not hugely dramatic; it was already rather grey as I recall. But it went greyer, darker and stiller.