Today I
had the morning off and after a leisurely breakfast I was in time to catch the
beginning of the solar eclipse.
Last minute
preparations
As I
had not realised until last night that this natural phenomenon was taking place
today I was unprepared. But late last night I found a video showing me how to
produce a pinhole camera in a few minutes.
This
morning with only minutes to spare till kick-off I grabbed myself a cardboard
box, a piece of tinfoil, a square of white paper, some sticky tape and a knife.
Watching together all across
Europe
I was
communicating with a friend while I was preparing to watch the eclipse and
having built my viewing camera in less than two minutes I recommended it for a
fast, last-minute viewing, but my friend preferred a bowl of water on the lawn.
I tried this but with the sun not reaching the floor of my balcony it was
impossible to arrange.
I also
phoned my Dad, who I thought would be smoking a piece of glass as he did for me
in the mid-sixties to take to school, but there was no sun to be seen in
Norwich this morning so he was indoors and had no need for my pinhole-camera
instructions, he was however very pleased to have a call from me so early in
the morning.
I
thought that I would only be able to view the sun from my balcony for part of
the eclipse but it was so well timed that it was only after the last part of
the moon had passed by that the sun disappeared behind my neighbour’s house.
A contemplative two
hours
I was
so thrilled when I saw the first image on my pinhole-camera screen that I just
had to take lots of photographs.
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| It works! |
Most noticeable
was that I was experiencing an evening sunshine on my balcony where I never
have sun in the evenings. The light had that evening quality about it that
makes all the colours more vibrant. It was really exciting.
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| Evening atmosphere |
Gradually it got
colder too
I have
had mornings off work all this week and I have spent most of them sitting on
the balcony working. Sheltered out of the wind the sun has had a warming
quality but this morning that warmth disappeared only to return when the moon
had passed by.
The
atmosphere was very still and the birds certainly quietened down for a while. They
did not go totally silent as they did in 1999 but today at the peak of the
eclipse they certainly quietened down for a while and they were less active.
Back to conductive
reality
I was
sorry to pack up my camera and jump on my bike to go to work. By the time I was
out in the countryside on the cycle path the midday sun was make to its normal
strength again.
The sun looked like
the moon
The eclipse
had been the favourite subject at lunch yesterday. One little boy had said he
was afraid of the eclipse, others were worried about whether mum would have
managed to buy some special viewing glasses to take to school or whether they
would have to borrow Dad’s welding glasses.
Today the
little boy who had told us that he was afraid had lost his fear and happily
described to us – ‘The sun looked like
the moon today and we will be able to see it again in a thousand years’ time!’
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| A rainbow in my coffee cup! |
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