We happened to be on holiday on the Isle of Wight when the moon decided to drift in the way of the sun. It was bloody amazing to see but there were a couple of other things I took away from the evening.
It struck me that, as we watched the eclipse, I’ll be long gone by the time the next full eclipse happens across the UK.
We took Ellie, our granddaughter down to the Ryde Hoverport. We already knew that’s a great place to see the sunset. I reckoned it would be a good spot for the eclipse.
I felt like she must see it. Not least because she’ll be 75 years-old by the time the next one turns up.
My instinct burned bright in my mind. It helps that I love space science. I’m not educated in it as a subject, but I research as much as I can. Then, I share what I can with Ellie.
One explanation for the eclipse I liked was the Pac-Man sun. I explained that the Moon wouldn’t line up perfectly dead-centre over us.
Instead, it would take a huge “bite” out of the Sun—covering roughly 93% of it. I told her if we could look, we’d see the Sun looking like a bright, thin glowing crescent.
But I made a mistake. With all the excitement of taking her on holiday I forgot to order the protective glasses.
And I gave her the lecture about not looking directly at it. About six times. But as I was about to discover, my faith in humanity got a boost.
There we were enjoying the light fading and turning golden. Loads of people turned up with a variety of viewing contraptions — quite a few with the solar eclipse glasses.
Didn’t I feel the idiot? But I did a spot of people watching and noticed two ladies sharing glasses. I left it for a while. Until the time rolled to 19:00. Everyone ooh-ed and ah-ed.
I took Ellie over to the two ladies and asked if she could try the glasses. They were more than happy for her to take a look. And her gasp of pleasure made me very happy.
Grandad got to have a go with them as well. My own gasp was genuine. Bloody hell, what a marvellous sight. I’ll remember it for as long as I’m able.
Here’s what I hope. Ellie will as well, and is able to show her own grandchildren the next one.
The ladies who owned the glasses came over as they were leaving and handed theirs over to me and Ellie. What an amazing gesture. A moment of humanity that made me feel proper chuffed.
Once we’d had our fill and the spectacle looked mostly over, we set off back to our digs. We passed a young lady struggling to use a home-made pinhole camera to view the eclipse.
The choice was obvious: Pay it forward. I handed her my glasses, which made her day by the look of it.
We walked back to our B&B, with me and Ellie chatting about the eclipse like we were both excited children.
I’ll be 125 for the next one. Hmm, yep, over to Ellie for that one.