Unexpected joy
I wasn’t expecting to see the partial solar eclipse as we had 100% clouds. However, past experience made me do six ambitious circles to accommodate a series of h-alpha drawings. Around 8 pm, the sky suddenly became very Turnerish. So, I abandoned my dinner and took the PST outside. As the sun lowered below the main clouds, I had a look. Not enough intense light for the PST. The sun dropped a bit more. So, through the thin haze, I drew the moon as it was over the solar disc naked eye at 8:04 local time (19:04 UT). Then, more lumpy clouds obscured the view till 8:20 local time (19:20 UT). That was it; the action ended in beautifully light-rimmed clouds on the horizon. To the eye, through haze, the sun was white. Because I’d prepared for a h-alpha view, the drawings are orange. Pastels / Killadoon Co Mayo Ireland. The surrounding black pastel was to capture any prominences that might be on view at the time.
Partial solar eclipse memories
One of my best astronomy memories was sharing a 92% partial solar eclipse with hundreds of children and their teachers in March 2015. It was a 70% cloudy morning, but with minutes to go, a gap appeared. Everyone present saw it via the three eight-inch dobs with white light filters onboard, the eclipse glasses I enjoyed distributing, or the naked eye through thin clouds. I did not expect to feel a drop in temperature, but everyone did, which added to the experience. I know that witnessing a total solar eclipse is on another level. However, sharing a partial or even drawing a partial is memorable.
In 2006 and 2008, I was lucky to have witnessed and recorded partial solar eclipses. A more straightforward approach on those occasions was sets of pencil circles waiting for their piece of the moon. One done with an EXT 70mm telescope and a white light filter. The other was produced using a PST with some aspects drawn by the naked eye. My 2006 drawing sequence here below.
Ancient Irish Eclipse in stone
About forty years ago, I remember visiting a place in Ireland called The Loughcrew Cairns. It had the feel of being very ancient indeed. We were the only people there at the time. It was an undeveloped hilly area with monumental historic importance. I remember feeling the shapes in the stones and wondering if they might be solar in nature. It turned out to be a place where astronomical phenomena like solar eclipses were etched into stone by people who noticed these things. People who had no paper but yet felt it so important an observation that they recorded these events through the difficult medium of stone.
Since then, NASA has cited that Loughcrew has the oldest recorded eclipse in human history, November 30th, 3340 B.C.E.
