Eclipse from the beach

Infernally hot, which made me feel better about not seeing Mum today.  Also seven very itchy mosquito bites from somewhere. Otherwise I had another brilliant morning's work, until in the afternoon it was too hot to do much. Lorraine taking Pat off to Eastbourne this morning. He was sick on the way there and on the way back. Otherwise Maureen lurked with us in the back garden for a while, and enjoyed it there. At five thirty I made my way to Seaford Beach and went off to the Martello, where a large crowd had gathered, around a stand for Lewes Astronomical Society. Apparently they had a few safety glasses to look at the sun, but there were literally hundreds there, so some of the people giving them away was shouting in alarm due to the press of people. This sudden popular uprising of astronomers, seemed mad to me. 

I sauntered along to Frankie's where I bumped into Steve and his friend Francesca. As I'd been walking along, I began to conceive of the idea of a cold drink of lager. But when I bumped into Steve, moments later, he immediately handed me one. I felt as if I had manifested it.  Steve, enjoying himself immensely, demanded I take a photograph of the solar eclipse being eclipsed by his head. 

Mandy from the rebooters with some of her pals. Mandy keen to photo the sun somehow. Francesca had special glasses and so I was able to look up at the sun from time to time. It was remarkable how much of the sun was covered: 91%. The light became quite eerie, but still seemed quite bright with no cloud cover.  However, after a sweltering day it became noticably cooler. 

On Mars the sun is only 44% as bright as here, so brighter than it was during this partial eclipse. 

After this I made off home, where Lorraine had cooked some supper. Walking along I was thinking about the light of the planet Charn, which had dull red light, in C.S. Lewis's The Magician's Nephew.

Of these, I think the top one captures the eerie light of the sun being about 91% occulted, at the bottom are Steve, eclipsing the eclipse,  where I accidentally caught the shape of the sun on a flare near his nose. And Mandy, who took a shot that was used on local BBC the next day.