@AlexSanterne It was a strange one for me. Given that it was also the first total eclipse to cross the UK in many decades, I’d been planning to see it since childhood.
In the event though, we were stuck in Berlin north of totality, as my wife was within two weeks of giving birth to our daughter, & travelling south wasn’t an option 🤷♂️
So we had the full partial eclipse experience, with the sharp shadows & weirdly harsh low light, but no totality.
@AlexSanterne Same was the case eight years ago tomorrow, 12 August 2015, when I was in Reykjavik taking part in a big event, but while totality was visible from Svalbard & the Faroe Islands.
July 1991 was a different story though – then I was right under totality on the flanks of Maunakea in Hawai’i.
Simply one of the greatest natural phenomena I have ever experienced. Stunning.
@AlexSanterne
I did a vacation with friends in Paris and then we took an incredibly packed train to move 20km further out to enter the totality stripe. Reflex camera broke the night before so I could relax and just watch. The totality shadow reached us parallel to the border of a river along which the crowd was distributed, so we got this "woooow" wave coming to us before the shadow.
The sudden appearance of the purple (was it?) solar corona and the stars around was powerful and mystic!
@bilbo_le_hobbit@AlexSanterne it's indeed one of the thing I most vividly remember..I also think I remember the eclipse itself, but it might have been overwritten by all other pictures I have seen afterwards. Also the sudden silence of all birds around before it, some minutes before the real totality I guess.
@franco_vazza@bilbo_le_hobbit@AlexSanterne@jaztrophysicist I was in Alsace with a bunch of friends the previous day with gorgeous weather but we were ready to move since the forecast was bad. Indeed, it was overcast in the early morning so we drove to a field near Verdun. Météo France gave it one of the best chances of relatively good weather. We arrived shortly before the partial phase started and… it was raining ! 1/3
@franco_vazza@bilbo_le_hobbit@AlexSanterne@jaztrophysicist Then a large hole in the clouds appeared and reached the sun about 30 min before totality… and we estimated it would hide the sun after about 30 min ! Getting closer to totality, our prediction seemed accurate, we jumped in our cars, drove towards the hole, stopped on the side of a small road… and we saw the whole totality! 🤩
Then the clouds hid the sun right after. We were very lucky. 2/3
@franco_vazza@bilbo_le_hobbit@AlexSanterne@jaztrophysicist Total eclipses are truly magical experiences! It’s best with people around you so you can feel the tension and excitement rising before totality. The otherworldly light when only a few percent of the sun remain is also amazing. And of course, totality itself: the black circle surrounded by the corona and a few stars while it’s bright on the horizon! 🤩 Unforgettable!
Who’s planning the one in northern Spain in 2026?
3/3
My only total solar eclipse was in LaSilla (2019), behind the ESO live streaming console with some friends (after sleeping a couple hours). No way to move at all, only to cross my fingers hard for a clear sky.
Everyone was smooth and the live stream was a success. It turned out to be completely awesome: https://youtu.be/grUhpSRKc-o
@AlexSanterne Saint-Pierre en port, au-dessus de Fécamp, au bord des falaises, en compagnie de milliers de personnes tout le long de la côte. Ma première. Le soleil qui joue à cache-cache avec un cumulus qui a bon goût de s'évanouir à la dernière minute. La luminosité grisâtre, le froid soudain, et les cris des spectateurs au loin qui nous arrivent comme une vague. Le pouic rose, la couronne d'argent. Je crie, je pleure, je danse. C'était hier. J'en frissonne en écrivant ces mots... #eclipse
@bilbo_le_hobbit@AlexSanterne J'étais pas loin, sur les falaises d’Étretat. Je confirme pour les nuages, on a eu de la chance. J'étais parti la veille de Marseille. Je m'étais décidé au dernier moment en fonction de la météo. Je retiens surtout les couleurs fluo.
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