please empty your brain below

I'd get that train... London is apparently entirely cloud bound until early afternoon. It is as if the weather knows what's happening!
Hope you are already on your way to the Midlands...

Solar eclipses in the UK are not very common, but there are several a year around the world so you'll just have to travel further afield. Now, transits of Venus, they are rare!
August 1999, Ashburton in Devon was the place to be... the clouds parted and we had a perfect view from the back garden of the small hotel where we were staying.

Hope the clouds don't obscure your view this morning.
Writing from South London,if anyone spots the sun today,through this thick grey cloud,would they please report just what the eclipse looked like? 👍
Should have gone to Cornwall ;)
Saw the 1999 one near Dieppe. The transition from light to dark is astonishing, like someone flicked a light switch. But a small cloud floated across just at the climax so I never saw the corona - cheated!
Hope you've used the train ticket. No chance of seeing anything in London this morning.
No chance of seeing it in London today. The sun is (as usual) eclipsed by the clouds instead of the moon
It's gone all dark 'ere. Wot's happening?
Up here in Hemel Hempstead, absolutely nothing.
Overcast and a bit grey. Didn't even get dark.
Having been out of the country in 1999 this was the first eclipse that I've taken an interest in. I didn't realise how dark it actually got, until it suddenly got lighter so quickly aferwards!
Hope you had a good view after all.

After a total miss in 1999, the sky over the upper Rhine valley is clear today and gave me a perfect view, probably the best I had so far. Thanks to your announcement a month ago, I had plenty of time to dig out my cardboard-and-foil glasses.
All I can say is I hope you left London. There was bugger all to be seen.
Here in South Norfolk the sun is now visible, only over an hour too late. At 9.30 it was just overcast and no change at all in light level was noticed.
So Oxford graduate, didn't know that before...
Thick cloud cover here too (south coast) but it noticeably murkier during the actual eclipse, which I viewed courtesy of BBC1.

Back in 1999 we were on holiday on the Isle of Wight - no overprice accomodation. We saw that eclipse!
Fabulous views up in D&G near Stranraer. Cloudy start then cleared when eclipse started, few clouds here and there but almost all clear . Light over mull of galloway incredible as sky darkened. So pleased to see it. Then soon as eclipse over the rolling clouds that had been waiting came over fast and heavy mist and rain for half hour. Now glorious albeit windy
And now it's lovely and sunny in London - shakes fist at heavens!
How *dare* it be so clear and sunny this afternoon, after being so grey and overcast this morning! Sigh; just one of the perils of observational astronomy.

Jupiter should still be very obvious in the east after sunset, and Venus and Mars in the west (Uranus is around there too, but much trickier). Saturn rises much later, if you know where to look.
DG in Oxford: http://diamondgeezer.blogspot.co.uk/2008/10/oxford-10.html
I watched the link from Svalbard. Lost it just before totality and got it back after the diamond ring effect had occurred. Sigh.
I remember the eclipse of 1954, kind of. I was 4 and that was the day my parents decided to let a lady friend of theirs take me on a trip on an Ilford trolley-bus. Not sure why they chose that day, but I remember sitting on the long seat at the back... I think we may have gone to Goodmayes? Don't recall the actual eclipse though :-) Odd what sticks in your mind at that age. And what doesn't.
Had a decent view in Manchester as clouds cleared just enough at the right time. As expected it felt like dusk and went colder just like in 99.
Interestingly there have been no eclipses in February since 1971, but eclipses in other months since this blog started in 2003. Is this why the mystery count is always at zero?
Hope everyone got a goood view of the thumbnail crescent of the waxing moon over the weekend, near the brilliant evening star and a glowering (but rather dim) Mars, Orion striding majestically across the southern sky, and Jupiter high up in the east.
Amazing how different your experiences have been from mine; I'm a few years older but..
1966: May Junior school saw a bite out of sun
1999: Stayed in NW9, had good partial views projected onto paper in my lounge.
2005: Hyde Park on TV with astronomer partner.
2006: Went to Sahara.Cloudless totality!
2008: Zilch but partner went to Mongolia.
2012: Partner went to Queensland for totalty.
2015: Stayed in bed in London...










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