I discovered astronomy when I was a young boy. I and a like-minded friend, Bob Snell, used to star-gaze from the top of the dormer windows we both had outside our bedrooms. Bob and I saw a partial eclipse of the sun at school in 1966. We were taken out of the classroom to watch it in the playground. We could clearly see that the Sun had a large piece missing. We were fascinated. Reading further we discovered other types of eclipses including the spectacular total eclipse of the Sun. Many books said that the next total eclipse of the Sun in England would be in 1999 in Cornwall. Even as 12 years olds we made plans to see it together. We would be in our mid-40s.
My cousin, Adam Adamou, had travelled around the world helping set up conservation projects. He has always been fascinated by my eclipse trips. I had attempted to get him to join me on previous trips, especially with his large knowledge of wildlife, but work commitments have always precluded this. The 1999 eclipse seemed the perfect opportunity for us to share this phenomenon together.
John Mears has been a friend since the early 1970s. We have seen many musical bands and football matches (at Arsenal) together. John is the lynchpin of many school friendships that are common to us, often organising reunions and meals out. In 1994, John was best man at my wedding. John is a relative eclipse veteran. He had seen two with us (Mexico 1991 and Chile 1994) with a total duration of 9m 57s.
After leaving school I was a civil servant for six years. David John Mitchell and I were far too eccentric for a staid government job. We gravitated together to alleviate the boredom of the work. I went to college and entered the computer industry while Mitchell disappeared to Africa to teach. Every week letters would come full of gossip, surreal observations and science questions to be answered by return of post.
The 1999 eclipse was to be the only one visible in my own country during my life time. Eastern Turkey or Iran were expected to have the best weather but I had dreamt about seeing the eclipse in Cornwall since I was 12 years old. Talaat and I invited Bob (and wife, Angie), Adam (and wife Emma), John and the Mitchell family (wife Sylvia, son Paul) to join us in Cornwall after renting a house for the week.
During the early part of the year I had been approached by a film producer from the Discovery Europe TV chanel. He had seen my previous eclipse accounts on the web and asked if I would be interested in shooting a four minute film about my eclipse chasing. I agreed and spent three days being filmed while talking about my adventures and hopes for the 1999 eclipse. This was added to a haunting soundtrack and the final product was shown on TV for a couple of days around eclipse time.
During the week, we went to a talk given by the BBCs Patrick Moore in Truro. His books had been an important influence since I was young.
Later, I gave a lecture with slides about my past eclipses in a hall at St Agnes. I was enjoying the build up. However, the weather forecast for eclipse day was getting gloomier by the day.
On eclipse day, we all awoke to a reasonably clear morning. Clouds could be seen in the west. Jupiter and Saturn were still visible in the twilight.
Our eclipse site was 8km away and we convoyed to a small car park that we had discovered earlier. The site was over a spectacular cliff face dotted with ruined tin mines at a place called Wheal Coates near St Agnes. A series of rocky coves swept along the north coast to an island light-house and the bay of St Ives about 20km away. The cliff faced west from where the Moon's shadow would approach.
The Gill-Cary family (including our host Dorothy, sister-in-law, Alice, and nephiew and niece, Midnight-Ray and Rosie Lee) were among the few dozen people who joined us. These included some work friends from London, Sidh and Tina. We passed the time with tea, coffee and biscuits. The sky became greyer. We waited for the eclipse to begin.
A patch of blue sky appeared in the east. The Sun was almost due south. I could see the sky colour deepening as the eclipse progressed. Around 10:55am the eclipsed Sun appeared through thinner cloud. It was a crescent. Everybody whooped with delight. The mylar filters and glasses we had were too strong for the semi-hidden Sun. Without the filters the Sun was still too bright. The Sun kept disappearing behind cloud.
The rain over St Ives had moved away from us but more had arrived. Only a few spots fell on our site. Around 11:10am we saw the Sun again. It was disappearing towards totality. As the last bit vanished, a large grey cloud covered it.
In the west it had been getting darker for the previous ten minutes or so as the Moon's shadow approached. It was travelling at 900 metres per second and was visible from 20km away. It resembled a huge explosion in reverse, with darkness instead of light spreading out from the centre. It darkened dramatically, much darker than I'd ever seen before.
At 11:11am, totality arrived. A black blanket sat over us. Everybody was amazed at the speed of events. The horizon was glowing orange. It was especially pronounced in the west beyond the rain over St Ives. Clouds hid the totally eclipsed Sun. The lights of St Ives had come on. The lighthouse on Godrevy Island switched on and we could see the beam rotating. Thousands of camera flashes were visible all along the coast for several kilometres. It was the first time I had ever seen this.
Eclipse Morning before First Contact |
Totality Approaches |
Totality Out to Sea - Only a Lighthouse is Visible |
Totality Looking Inland |
The TV coverage showed that the corona had been very symmetrical. Three huge pink prominences had been seen around the rim of the Sun. Most of Cornwall had been clouded out apart from a few lucky spots.
Photographs:
Wheal Coates and setting up panoramas by Sidh
Totality scenes by Emma Adamou
Coastal views by John Mears
Partially eclipsed Sun by Bob Snell
Patrick Moore, newspapers, children's drawing and people by Kryss Katsiavriades
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