Eclipse

I was lucky enough to be in America for the Solar Eclipse last month. We were on a family holiday in California and on the day in question were in Yosemite. I had planned ahead and bought five pairs of solar viewing glasses. Amusingly/irritatingly depending on your point of view, one of my daughters dropped hers into the river about 3 minutes before the eclipse was due to start, the best laid plans and all that, so I made do with my 10x ND filter combined with a  circular polarising filter and sunglasses! This provided just about sufficient protection to allow decent views, and also when stuck on a lens, a few photos. Yosemite wasn’t quite far enough north, the best nearby views would have been up in Oregon, but nonetheless we enjoyed about 75% coverage. It didn’t get dark per se, just rather dull for about an hour – even 25% of the sun is enough to provide a lot of light! Our views were somewhat stymied by clouds for a large part of the event – that day in Yosemite and the previous day in San Francisco were the only days we even saw a cloud, so not the best timing, but at least we were there and gave ourselves a chance. And to see it whilst stood underneath the Half Dome is something we’ll all remember for a long time!