A projection of the sun, showing the progress of the moon across the disk, using a Tal 1 telescope. (Photo: Angus Self)
I was in Nethy Bridge, not far from Aviemore, on holiday with my family during the week of the eclipse. We even got some skiing done! I sometimes take my Tal 1 telescope with me as it is quite portable and the skies there can be beautiful (if the clouds keep away).
On the morning of the eclipse I was most disgruntled as my iPhone Aurora Watch app had been showing red alerts for aurora, but after three clear nights from Saturday to Monday, the sky had been grey each night. And I had missed a whopping great meteor that had been seen near Loch Ness. Typical! However, the sky was really quite clear around 8.30am and I trundled out with the Tal 1 to set up for some solar projection. I managed to get some quite good pictures (and my daughter tried our Spaniel Stella with the eclipse viewers). Then as mid eclipse was approaching the clouds rolled in. And stayed…
The Tal 1 set up to project an image of the sun, Angus watching the eclipse through eclipse glasses, and a rather unimpressed Stella the paniel trying out eclipse glasses for the first time. (Photos: Angus Self)
But! There were a few gaps in the cloud, and the lighter cloud cover acted as a solar filter so that, with the naked eye, we could see the slither of sun that was not covered by the moon. I snapped away with my Nikon D-90 and got some quite nice photos once they were cropped. I was really quite happy to see what we could see, as in 1999 in South Devon I saw absolutely nowt, except for the enjoyment of darkness at totality.
The eclipse, as seen through cloud, at various points of the eclipse. (Photos: Angus Self)
The dimness during the eclipse of 2015 was quite strange because it added to the dullness of the cloud cover, but with a certain eeriness. Then it rained.
Angus Self