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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Science
Matthew Weaver

Solar eclipse – as it happened

Live feed of views of the eclipse from Reuters

Eclipse over. You can go back to work now.

Here’s a roundup of how we enjoyed the most impressive solar eclipse since 1999 despite the clouds. And with that we’re bringing this blog to an end.

It’s the first eclipse in the UK in the social media age, and the tweets have gone off the scale. The social media analytics company Brandwatch says the eclipse was getting 10,000 tweets per minute.

It also reports massive spikes in the words “anti climax”.

Updated

The European Space Agency Proba-2 minisatellite captured this video of the eclipse.

It’s nearly all over. Fourth contact - the moment when the Sun is completely uncovered again – has been and gone in London.

Here’s a pin sharp view of the total eclipse over Svalbard in the Arctic Ocean.

The total solar eclipse seen from Svalbard, Norway
The total solar eclipse seen from Svalbard, Norway Photograph: Haakon Mosvold Larsen/AP

Germany managed to keep the lights on despite a drop in solar power during the eclipse, Reuters reports.

The initial 13 gigawatts (GW) drop in Germany was less than operators had feared and they were able to draw on alternative power sources including coal, gas, biogas and hydroelectric energy pumped from storage.

Grid spokespeople said control rooms were tense. “The mood is concentrated but confident that it will go smoothly,” said Andreas Preuss, spokesman of TenneT peer Amprion, which operates the longest network inside Germany.

“Network frequency is stable, reserve load is being called on,” one of the four high-voltage grid firms, TenneT, said in a live webfeed.

Solar power output has expanded sharply to 38.2 gigawatts (GW) since the region’s last notable eclipse in 2003, so the country - which borders nine nations - has to prove its power market and network handling centres can function under extraordinary conditions.

Forecasts for the day’s solar output had earlier risen to 22 GW - the equivalent of 20 nuclear power stations - indicating greater potential for disruptions as the eclipse cuts out the sun’s rays. The daily peak in 2014 was 23.4 GW.

Computer monitors indicate the forecasted power loss at the 50 Hertz Transmission Control Center in Neuenhagen, Germany. The transmission provider is preparing to compensate the expected power loss during the partial solar eclipse.
Computer monitors indicate the forecasted power loss at the 50 Hertz Transmission Control Center in Neuenhagen, Germany. The transmission provider is preparing to compensate the expected power loss during the partial solar eclipse. Photograph: Bernd Settnik/dpa/Corbis

Boom, boom: The Mirror claims its online readership has eclipsed that of the Sun, the Press Gazette reports.

The newspaper today ran an advert, also displayed on a digital billboard at Westfield Shepherd’s Bush, with the words: “Eclipse of The Sun. Total Audience 17.5M v The Sun 13.6M”.

The advert comes after National Readership Survey figures from last month showed The Sun’s monthly net readership, online and in print, is 13.6m, behind Metro, The Guardian and the Telegraph.

Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon gets in on the act by modelling today’s must-have item.

The Guardian has been sifting through a pile of your underwhelming eclipse photos. The competition has been intense.

Updated

London’s Science Museum has put together a great Storify collection of its eclipse related historic documents, illustrations and artefacts.

Just about the best spot to view the eclipse from in Truro turned out to be the crown court car park high above the cathedral’s gothic spires, writes Steven Morris.

Criminals, lawyers and judges paused to take in the show.

Barrister Adrian Chaplin, who came equipped with a piece of dark glass from a welder’s mask, described the eclipse as “simply stunning”. “When you see the disc sliding across it stops you short,” he said before hurrying off for a trial.

Nearby in Victoria Gardens, shopworkers Kathryn Connelly and Morwenna Davey arrived with Bucks Fizz and Jaffa Cakes to hold a breakfast time eclipse party.

“This sort of thing doesn’t happen very often,” said Connelly, “So we thought we’d make an event of it.”

The Bucks Fizz was to get the party off to a sparkling start, the Jaffa Cakes were so they could re-enact chunks being taken out of the sun.

They did well with the supplies but their methods of actually seeing the eclipse were less successful – a couple of pieces of card with pinholes pricked through and a copy of the Sun newspaper, which supplied an eclipse watching device that they just could not get to work.

Luckily a friendly park keeper had also gone down the welder’s mask route. “It’s amazing,” said Connelly after taking a turn, “It makes you stop and think and wonder at the universe.”

As the eclipse proceeded it did noticeably darken and chill in the park. Breath froze and even the seagulls quietened, even if their squawks did not completely cease. There was a strange second dawn chorus as the light came back.

Neil and Catherine Williams had arrived with a colander (a method championed by Professor Brian Cox) and a piece of white paper to try to view the phenomenon. It, too, was not wholly successful and they resorted to the park keeper’s glass.

It was worth it. “It’s beautiful,” said Mr Williams. “It’s the sort of thing that reminds you, there’s so much to wonder at in the world.”

Several hundred people gathered in Manchester’s Piccadilly Gardens to watch the eclipse including one of the city’s more entrepreneurial residents, writes Helen Pidd.

He had a Jiffy bag full of scraps of welding glass he was hawking for £2 a go.

Ben Warburton bought a bit. “He said he was a teacher but the kids hadn’t turned up yet. Unless it was a blag,” said Warburton, tailing off as the penny dropped. But nevermind: “It was awesome, worth being a bit late for work.”

On the other side of the square, a heavily bearded chap called Simon was one of the few equipped with a pair of special cardboard specs.

Proving that the hoarders of the world have the last laugh, he had saved them from 1999, when they came free with the Birmingham Post to coincide with the last solar eclipse. An eastern European lady called Gosia had also come prepared with some glasses she’d bought off Ebay for £2 a fortnight ago.

Dale Vinton, 25, had come armed with his dad’s welding goggles. “Me dad said to me this morning: don’t you be going and looking at the sun with no googles on,” he said. “It’s good, innit?”

Another Simon, a 43-year-old locksmith, was just wearing his Madchester shades and enjoying the spectacle by smoking a rollie. “I’m not blind yet,” he said, bemoaning the clouds which kept obscuring the show.

“Typical Manchester. It was lovely and sunny yesterday and today it’s cloudy. Happens every time.” A young lad walked up and said he only realised what was going on when he got on the bus. “We should have these things more often,” said Simon. “See, it makes strangers talk to each other.”

Pick your favourite in this Guardian gallery of eclipse photos.

Journalism studetn Shreya Kalra snapped some nice images in Sheffield.

Glaswegian sun-watchers have been rewarded for their patience, writes Owen Duffy. The thick grey cloud obscuring the city’s sky parted for around three minutes at the high point of today’s solar eclipse, revealing a thin sliver of sun almost entirely covered by the moon.

Student Stephen Henderson said: “It was totally worth coming out. It looked like we weren’t going to see anything and then, boom, the clouds cleared.

“I’ve never studied astronomy, I’m a music student, but I knew this was going to be the place to be and it turned out to be pretty spectacular.”

Eclipse watchers in Glasgow
Eclipse watchers in Glasgow Photograph: Owen Duffy/Owen Duffy

MPs eclipsed

Labour MP Mary Creagh reports a productivity dip across the UK.

MPs have at least been busy eclipse tweeting. Here’s a cross-party selection.

The BBC has been cheating by flying above the cloud in a star gazing plane. But the images of totality have been pretty stunning.

Totality

Totality has been reached in the Faroe Islands.

For those of us in London, it’s getting dark but there’s not much chance of seeing any evidence of the eclipse as it’s so overcast and grey, writes Mark Tran.

Here are some of the grumpy tweets from the capital.

GuardianWitness users have been sharing their eclipse images. Here’s a couple from Falkirk and Brighton.

Graeme

In brighton

Barrister Adrian Chaplin hopes his case in Truro doesn’t start before totality. He tells Steve Morris the eclipse has been “stunning” so far.

Others are planning to go back to work after cracking open the bubbly.

And welding masks are better than colanders, according to these two..

Updated

Helen Pidd has joined the eclipse watchers in Manchester.

Totality getting closer.

A partial solar eclipse is seen from near Bridgwater.
A partial solar eclipse is seen from near Bridgwater. Photograph: Toby Melville/REUTERS

The bubbly has being popped early in Bristol.

Students Greg Robertson, 19, and Sam Firminger, 20, wait for the eclipse at Clifton Observatory in Bristol.
Students Greg Robertson, 19, and Sam Firminger, 20, wait for the eclipse at Clifton Observatory in Bristol. Photograph: Claire Hayhurst/PA

And Truro ...

Updated

The Guardian’s man in the south-west Steven Morris has been donning his welder’s lens in Truro.

Updated

Osborne eclipsed

The chancellor George Osborne has been eclipsed.

Updated

Iain Maciver at one of Scotland’s most impressive prehistoric sites, the Callanish Stones on Lewis, reports:

There are about seventy of us here, and several small dogs. I can see three … four satellite trucks, a lot of media - I’ve just been speaking to a reporter from New Zealand - and many, I hesitate to call them New Age types but certainly colourful people, the kind that you get at ancient monuments like these.”

The sun has been obscured by a dense bank of cloud - but that is just beginning to break up and we are hopeful that we may actually get a good view of the eclipse by 9.30.

The best image so far comes from Bridgwater in Somerset.

A partial solar eclipse is seen from near Bridgwater, in south western England, March 20, 2015. REUTERS/Toby Melville
A partial solar eclipse is seen from near Bridgwater, in south western England, March 20, 2015. REUTERS/Toby Melville Photograph: Toby Melville/REUTERS

First image

Here’s the first image of first contact.

first contact
Eclipse beginning Photograph: Guardian

Updated

First contact over the UK

First contact in the UK has now been seen over Cornwall. Sky News is showing footage from Newquay.

Updated

First contact

First contact has been seen over Madrid as the live feed above has been showing.

Even the south France is expected to witness a 65% eclipse, and in Calvados country it will be nearer 80%.

While we wait for “first contact” – the moment when moon first starts take a bite out of the sun, here’s some background. The last times the Guardian ran a celestial live blog was for the Transit of Venus in 2012 when the tiny dot of Venus passed between the sun and Earth.

The BBC’s weather unit has a handy guide to the best places in the UK to see (with glasses) given the current cloud coverage.

News from Svalbard ... A team of scientists from Aberystwyth University are hoping to bag some of the best views by travelling to the Norwegian Arctic islands as part of an expedition to study the sun’s atmosphere.

They will use specialist cameras to photograph the sun at different frequencies during the eclipse to catch images of iron in the plasma emitted from the sun’s corona.

They have been based at the Longyearbyen observatory Svarlbard’s frozen wastes all week, as Nathalia Alzate from the university’s solar system physics group explains.

Aberystwyth’s Dr Huw Morgan told the Guardian’s Science podcast that the eclipse provided a rare opportunity to gauge the heat of the corona in the hope of explaining why it is so hot.

(Scroll forward to around 26 minutes).

Summary

Welcome to our live coverage of the eclipse of the sun. For the next fews hours this is going to be the hub of all things eclipse. As Bonnie Tyler didn’t sing it’s a total blog of the eclipse

The total eclipse will only be visible in the Faroe Islands (population 49,947) and the Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard (population 2,642) in the Arctic Ocean.

But if there’s no cloud (which is a big if) there will be an impressive partial eclipse in many parts of northern Europe. Generally the further north you are the more of the sun will be obscured by the moon. Shetland for example will see 97% of the sun blocked, in London it will be more like 85%.

But it rather depends on the weather. In the UK, if the forecast is correct, the Midlands, Lincolnshire, parts of the south-west and Wales are expected to see the best views.

Be warned: DO NOT LOOK DIRECTLY AT THE SUN. Use specialist eclipse viewers, or a pin hole camera with your back to the sun, or even a kitchen colander.

The moon should start to block the sun from between 07.30 and 0.830 GMT and a full eclipse is expected at around 09.45 GMT. It’ll all be over from 10.30 to 11.30 GMT when the full sun is uncovered again.

It is a “spectacular” thing to experience, according to Britain’s favourite scientist Professor Brian Cox who travelled to India to see an eclipse in 2009. “You see the mechanics of the solar system in action,” he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.

He explained that while the moon is 400 times smaller than sun is also is 400 times closer to earth, so it can perfectly obscure the sun given the rare alignment we are about to witness.

Lucie Green from the Society of Popular Astronomy provides a video guide to what’s going to happen plus more tips on the safest ways of observing the eclipse.

My colleague Nadia Khomami has put together a guide of what you need to know.

It is expected to be the best eclipse visible in the UK since 1999.

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