That Solar eclipse in 1999
I was in Cornwall, had phoned in sick while sitting on a cliff overlooking the sea, in one of my first uses of a mobile phone. It was perfectly quiet there, apart from the wind, and the lapping of the water.

Yes, the sky was cloudy, and the sun could not be seen clearly. However, from this vantage-point, I could see a great expanse of sea to my right and the water of Porthkerris Bay below me, and a large strip of green land behind the bay and to my left.

When the shadow came, it shot across the clouds from right to left, the light level dropped and dropped. When it seemed that it was night, the waters of the bay a very strange deep-blue, the whole darkened land behind the bay suddenly erupted into a mass of sparkles - I hadn't realised, as I was almost alone, that every few metres of the land I could see had a few eclipse-watchers on it, too far away to notice. There really were many thousands of people there, and it was the flashing of their cameras that I could see. It was a truly beautiful, unique, unexpected, and very big effect to witness.

The sparkling land lasted for the whole two-minutes or so of the totality, ended with the sudden panicking of the many gulls, who belately realised something odd was up when the second line swept across the sky, this time a line of advancing sunlight.

I spent the next few weeks telling everyone that my journey from London had not been wasted, despite the clouds. - That was tiring, but thanks for the chance to tell the story again. I might see other eclipses, but I don't think I will ever see those sparkles again.
(brainburger, Tue 15 Mar 2005, 0:24, Reply)