Our 1999 Eclipse Trip to England -
Total Eclipse at 11:11 AM on August the 11th

Background

I have been an amateur astronomer for the last 10 years. It all started when I saw a total lunar eclipse back in August of 1989. (A total lunar eclipse is much more common to see than a total eclipse of the sun.) After a little reading, I learned that one could be an amateur astronomer without having to spend thousands and thousands of dollars on telescopes and other various equipment.

A total eclipse of the sun is something that is almost impossible to describe in words. One really has to experience it to understand. Seeing the pictures in a magazine or on TV does not do the event justice.

So, what is the big deal with a total eclipse of the sun, and why do they occur? Read here for more information - http://sunearth.gsfc.nasa.gov/eclipse/SEnovice.html

One year ago

My sister had recently moved to England, and she emailed me concerning the total eclipse of the sun. She said that there were articles in the local papers forcasting huge traffic problems. At that time, my wife and I considered traveling to England to see my sister and to see the eclipse. Even though there would be a relatively good chance that the two minute total eclipse might be clouded out, we figured we would have a good couple of weeks visiting with my sister and seeing the English countryside.

So, I started surfing the web to find out information about the eclipse in England. There is some great information authored by Fred Espenak from NASA's August 11 Eclipse Website. (http://sunearth.gsfc.nasa.gov/eclipse/TSE1999/TSE1999.html)

I also found information from http://www.hermit.org/Eclipse1999/ to be of good use.

I also tried to find accomodations for staying at a hotel or bed and breakfast in Cornwall, but the prices were outragious, some into the thousands of dollars to book a room for the week. The eclipse was occuring about a 5 hour drive from where my sister lived. I decided to wait until later to make arrangements.

Four months to go

We made our airline reservations in April, and I started looking into a place to stay for the eclipse.

Two months to go

We decided that camping out would be easier to do than paying lots of money for a room at a bed and breakfast. After some more web surfing, I found a "highschool" that would take in campers at 5 pounds (roughly $8) per person per night. I arranged for the three of us to camp at the Helston School (http://www.helstonschool.swinternet.co.uk/) in the town of Helston.

This school was more than just a place to just view the eclipse, they also had workshops and speakers from organizations such as the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (Central Laboratory of the Research Councils - http://www.clrc.ac.uk/).

One of the speakers from the Rutherford Appleton Lab, Chris Davis, is the webmaster for the UK Solar Eclipse Information Website - http://www.eclipse.org.uk/.

ECLIPSE DAY - August 11, 1999

For most of the day, it is cloudy. The partial phases of the eclipse began around 9:50 AM and there was not a thing to see. Then at 11:00 AM, with just 11 minutes to go before totality, the clouds broke enough so that a partial eclipse could be seen. I was able to take several photos of the partial phases. But, with the clouds moving about, we did not see the beginning of totality. It did get VERY, VERY dark. We could see a little bit of light on the horizon where other parts of England were not quite in totallity. Then, with about 20 seconds left in the total eclipse, some of the clouds broke just enough for us to see the disk of the eclipsed sun, with some coronal light and red solar flares. Boy, was that an eery, yet beautiful sight. I took a couple of quick pictures, and then we saw the "diamond ring" effect.

Seconds later (and for the rest of the day), the clouds completely obscured the sun. We packed up our campsite, and went back to my sister's home.

What did we do other than the eclipse?

Conclusion

All in all, we had a fantastic time over in England. We visited with my sister and brother in law that we had not seen for one and a half years. I got to see my first total eclipse of the sun. We went to London to see many of the sights there. We even visited a 15th Century pub to imbibe some of the local beverages.

There are so many historical sights to see in England, that a two week visit was cram packed with activity. We wish that we could have made the visit longer - but now this gives us another reason to come back in a couple of years to visit again.

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This page was last updated on 8/26/99 at 9:33 AM.