| The August 1999 Eclipse from Truro
A lavishly illustrated narrative |
Arrival at Truro school at 8.00am on Sunday morning was greeted with a torrential downpour though the weather brightened up by 11.11am, the crucial time three days hence - so our enthusiasm wasn't dampened even if our clothes were.
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The school is in a very nice setting up a very steep hill and has a wonderful view looking Northwest over the town to Truro Cathedral and then on to the spinning wind turbines on the hills in the distance.
We look forward to some interesting sunsets. |
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Accommodation in the school was fairly basic, as expected, and the bunk beds particularly difficult to get up into and even harder to get down from due to the ladders being nailed to the bunks with hardly any "toe-room" between rung and bunk. |
After a walk round the shops of Truro to see how eclipse fever had grabbed them, many of which planned to close for the eclipse...
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...we headed out South to Falmouth.
The trip resulted in a tour round Pendennis Castle, though we didn't realise it was there until we passed it but since we had tickets that got us in for free we made the detour.
Once inside it was clear that the TV stations were monopolising key areas for broadcasts, and among these Westcountry TV were doing their lunchtime "eclipse live" broadcast with none other than our very own BAA eclipse expedition organiser, John Mason, or "Dr John" as the TV folks seem to call him.
We hung around a bit in "rent-a-crowd" fashion before moving on.
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Being in Falmouth, which sits on the centre line of the eclipse, we wondered if they would commemorate the event with a sign like the 1927 eclipse road sign showing "the centre line of totality" but we were out of luck. The only sign found was a blackboard notice at Swanpool Beach car park announcing the presence of the centre line - perhaps we looked in the wrong place. |  1927 centre line |
Driving around Cornwall highlighted how busy the camp sites weren't. One, near Padstow and clearly sponsored by Evian, was about 250yds long by as much wide and was deserted. Indeed this seemed to be the case across the county.
Meanwhile, back at Truro it's time for John Mason's evening lecture in the Cathedral. He played to a full house and was on top form presenting an interesting, lively and highly entertaining lecture. This was just as well because his introduction by the Dean/vicar/rector/whoever was entirely based upon how much they were hoping that Patrick Moore would have given the lecture and how disappointed they were that he couldn't make it, because he really wanted to come and give the lecture - but here's John Mason, anyway.
Eventually 11th August 1999 came and it turned out to have the worst weather of the week - we woke up to thick grey cloud (which was expected having seen the satellite weather maps the previous evening). Undaunted, we optimistically set up our cameras along with 500-600 other members of the BAA on Truro School rugby field and waited.
The cloud only seemed to get thicker! Then about 5 minutes before totality there was a small break and we saw just a few seconds seconds of a 90% eclipsed Sun (still with some cloud covering it) before it got covered up again.
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Totality came and it got very dark - darker than experienced at other eclipses (but they have been in clearer skies - could be the cloud causing the extra darkness). We did get time to look around to the horizon as there was no Sun to look at! and saw that there was brightness still on the eastern horizon which gradually darkened as the moon's shadow travelled the path. Village lights came on in the distance. |
We had a hand held TV and had "Westcountry live" on, with John's narrative being broadcast from 75 yards away, so were able to see an image of totality, from the RAF Hercules, on the small screen in front of us!
This seemed a bit surreal really - experiencing the atmosphere and effects of totality (temperature drop and light drop) while watching it on the telly.
Then, as totality passed, the light rapidly returned to us.
We have to admit to being disappointed not to see the Sun during totality and not to have seen the corona, so the post eclipse refreshments were not so much eclipse celebration, more eclipse commiserations.
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About 10 minutes after totality there was another small break in the cloud and we saw about 2 minutes of about 95% eclipsed Sun (still with some cloud over it) - very reminiscent of the 1927 eclipse pictures.
We managed to get a few photos before the cloud rolled over once more.
Our intention to stay watching till 12.30pm just in case there was another break was thwarted when it started to rain about 12 o'clock, resulting in us having to pack up the equipment.
 One Falmouth shop got it right! |
 Andrew tries to keep the equipment dry |
The only consolation is that we were in very good company and the rest of the BAA members didn't see totality either!
The evening meal was an outdoor grill where we had to join a line of 30 or 40 other people to get served - is this where the expression "barbie queue" comes from?
The last couple of days were spent touring round Cornwall some more and hearing eclipse reports from fellow travellers - Newquay saw all totality, Lizard saw some bits of totality, Penzance saw nothing, Falmouth saw nothing and so it goes on. Sadly more people didn't see it than did in the UK - what a pity.
 Drink anyone? |
 Food for thought |
 Who put the lights out! |
 Blackthorn cider ad - Official sponsor? |
 Glass and coasters |
 Eclipse bix |
 BAA eclipse day postal cover |
 Post office eclipse miniature sheet |
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Here's to clear skies in 2001 over the plains of Africa (or wherever you chose to view) - we'll be there!
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Photographs and text Copyright © 1999 Val & Andrew White
Permission is granted for the British Astronomical Association to reproduce with acknowledgment