Partial to an Eclipse

Did you see the eclipse? Yesterday we experienced a cloud-obscured partial one. My camera caught an artefact, a reflection of the sun's true shape, but I never saw it myself. 

10% sun and Pentlands:

After all the build-up in the media, a partial eclipse can seem like an anti-climax. For anyone who hasn't seen totality, it can seem like a fuss about nothing. But the difference between a total eclipse and a partial, even 99% one, is literally the difference between night and day. I know, because I've been lucky enough to experience both. 

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11 August, 1999. I'd just gotten off the train from Paris to Rethel, a village in NE France, and was walking a few miles along the canal to rendezvous with a group of people I had corresponded with but not yet met. They had gathered in the small community of Seuil to view the total eclipse. I wasn't too impressed with the chosen site in a hollow at the bottom of a hill, and when a fruity Englishwoman asked where I was from - Glasgow - and replied "I pity you," I decided that rather than hang out with these trumpets, I would explore the village. I was hungry and thirsty after all, and hadn't brought anything with me.

As I was looking for a shop I came across two grey-haired women chatting and asked in my terrible French, "Il y a ici un magasin pour pain et l'eau?" There wasn't one, but one of them took pity on this young man, said that her son was going to watch the eclipse, and to follow her. She took me to her home, gave me a baguette and bottle of water, refused payment, and her son - who spoke good English - led me up the hill in the village, chatting as we went. He had been in the French navy and visited my home town of Helensburgh next to the Faslane submarine base, and was amused by the fact Scottish people hated the English. Nothing I could say to the contrary would persuade him otherwise, though I didn't mention my encounter minutes earlier.

We walked up a track above the village to a modest hill boasting a wide view. This was a much better spot to see an eclipse! The whole village seemed to be up here, picnic tables laid with lunch, a real party atmosphere. I set up my camera and watched the light dim, a strange sensation of evening with the shadows coming from the wrong direction. I wasn't going to look at the sun though until it was safe. The shadow of night rushed at supersonic speed across a prairie of wheat... 

"Ooh la la!" someone said.

I looked up. Hanging improbably in the sky was the most beautiful jewel I have ever seen. A disc of pure black surrounded by a living halo in a midnight blue sky. A veritable eye of God. I tore myself away long enough to take a picture, but photographs don't do justice to the experience. A moment of genuine awe. And then it was over, Bailey's beads appearing, signifying the time to look away before blinding myself. 

There can be few more awe-inspiring experiences in nature than a total eclipse. I imagine a volcano up close, or being in an earthquake might be up there, but for a safe spiritual hit, it has to be the eclipse. No wonder people travel all round the world to chase the experience.

Photo by Luc Viatour, Wikipedia: