Millions across Britain stopped to watch the first solar eclipse of this century today, which plunged parts of the UK in to brief darkness. Britain's skies began to darken at around 8.24am this morning as the Moon started to move between us and the sun, with the eclipse peaking at around 9.30am across the country.
In the Hebrides the sun was practically invisible as the Isle of Lewis experienced a 98 per cent eclipse, while the Faroe Islands and Svalbard in Norway saw a total eclipse.
The sun's light was almost totally concealed, casting a huge shadow of the Moon across the nation turning day briefly to night, but watchers could not look directly at the sun because they risked damaging their eyes.
But cloud coverage across vast swathes of the country meant that millions across Britain were unable to see anything at all of the eclipse.
Another 'deep' partial eclipse visible in the UK will not occur until August 12 2026, and the next total eclipse not until September 2090.
Many people were left disappointed as persistent cloud cover meant they were robbed of a view of the partial eclipse.
Satellite images from the Met Office showed thick cloud covering an area of England south and east of a line from southern Devon to the Wash in East Anglia at 9.17am.
An image taken an hour later showed it had moved slightly eastwards, allowing more people to get a glimpse of the phenomenon.
But many, including in London and the Home Counties, were left unable to get a view
The last solar eclipse of such significance occurred on August 11 1999, and was 'total' - with 100 per cent of the sun covered when seen from Cornwall.
Today's eclipse produced a 100-mile-wide 'totality' shadow path that crossed the North Atlantic and covers only two land masses, the Faroe Islands between Scotland and Iceland and the Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard.
Away from this path the sun was partly obscured. A partial eclipse was visible across a large part of the northern hemisphere, including the whole of Europe, Greenland, Newfoundland, northern Africa and western Asia.
A group standing by the Clifton Observatory in Bristol took turns to look through their giant pinhole camera and a piece of welding glass.
Robin Neville, 25, said it had taken around an hour to make the contraption.
'We cobbled it together out of boxes,' Mr Neville said. 'The view up here is great and we are next to a working camera obscura too. You can see most of Bristol from here.'
In Eastbourne, East Sussex, complete cloud cover was spoiling the eclipse for dozens of people who gathered on the Western Lawns.
Some schoolchildren were given time off lessons to observe the eclipse but they were left disappointed.
Astronomer Harry Ford, retired from Greenwich Observatory, said: 'I was able to demonstrate the last eclipse in 1999 in the courtyard by the Greenwich Observatory but right now it looks like it's going to be a disappointment.
'Thick cloud doesn't look like it's lifting at all. Fortunately we have plenty of people to explain what they should be seeing. It seems that people in the West Country, like Devon and Cornwall, are having better weather than we are'.
More than 100 people flocked to the 5000-year-old Callanish Stones on the Isle of Lewis to witness the solar eclipse.
And they were rewarded most of the time by a break in the clouds - almost to the point of near totality.
Lewis had been billed as the prime place in Britain to see the solar phenomenon.
Caroline Pritchard, 58, and her partner Laurence McCallum, 50, travelled 905 miles in a 21 hour car and ferry journey - together with their three dogs - to see the event.
'This is the end of the age of Aquarius and we wanted to get here to see the eclipse,' said Mr McCallum, who works in a fine food business.
'I took the week off work unpaid and it has been worth it. It was fantastic. We arrived on Tuesday and unfortunately missed the other great astronomical event here this week - the Northern Lights. But the eclipse more than made up for it.'
Ms Pritchard agreed: 'I am a spiritual person and I was drawn here to see the eclipse. I believe in powers greater than ourselves.'
Islander Linda Vaughan, 62, from Crossbost, rang a Tibetan bowl to herald the eclipse as it created dusk - with temperatures noticeably plunging with the sun's infra red blocked out.
'The sound resonates with the stones. This is a spiritual and sacred place.. It is about creating the right harmony,' she said.
Four intrepid shadow seekers even boarded a special boat trip with Kilda Cruises from Leverburgh on the Isle of Harris at 5am to witness the eclipse at remote St Kilda.
The archipelago, 41 miles west of the main Outer Hebrides, was forecast to be cloud free at the time of the event.
Donny Mackay, president of the Stornoway Astronomical Society, said it received over 500 inquiries by email - as well as 100 phone calls - fromall over the UK as well as far away as Germany. 'I was a bit worried when I saw the cloud early this morning but it turned out as good as we could have hoped for. It was reallty memorable,' he said.
Elly Welsh and her children Tam, 10, and Dusty, 8, even made their own viewer while pupils for Stornoway Primary were allowed to witness the event. The expected influx of tourists did not reach the scale that was hoped for.
The main tourist office for the isles said it had had 'very few' inquries - and had received more about seeing the Northern Lights, which lit up the Hebridean sky on Tuesday night.
Aird Uig, on the western tip of Lewis, experienced the deepest part of the eclipse in the UK with 98 percent totality. Pupils at the local Uig primary school made eclipse viewers.
In sunny Edinburgh, around 200 people gathered outside the Scottish Parliament to watch the eclipse, while in Bristol sky-watchers standing by the Clifton Observatory took turns to look through a giant pinhole camera.
Standing stones added to the atmosphere at Stonehenge and on the Isle of Lewis, with clouds parting at both locations to allow people to witness the event.
A short break in the clouds brought gasps of excitement from hundreds of primary school children gathered at Glasgow Science Centre who managed to catch a glimpse of the eclipse.
But others were left nursing disappointment. Around 600 people gathered in London's Regent's Park for an event organised jointly by the Royal Astronomical Society and Baker Street Irregular Astronomers, only to be thwarted by the clouds. Simon Bennett, who co-founded the Baker Street group, said: "We've been unlucky, but that is what astronomy is - you can't guarantee anything."
He added: "The level of interest in the night sky and the daytime sky is quite remarkable."
In Eastbourne, East Sussex, complete cloud cover spoiled the eclipse for dozens of people gathered on the Western Lawns, including a number of children who had been given time off school.
The National Grid said the impact of the eclipse would be offset by large numbers of people leaving their homes to witness the event. As a result, it was expecting a net 200 megawatt drop in demand at 9.30am, equivalent to the typical electricity usage of Glasgow.
Jeremy Caplin, forecasting manager at National Grid, said: 'This loss of solar is entirely manageable and will be largely offset by demand suppression. We started planning for this in May last year and have a range of tools in place to manage any effects of the eclipse and balance the network, including demand side services and extra generation.'
The effect on solar power is likely to be greater in other parts of Europe which depend more than we do on the sun for electricity generation.
Solar panels feed large amounts of electricity into the power grids of Germany, Italy and France. In the summer, up to 40% of Germany's energy comes from its solar farms.
The last European eclipse occurred before the proliferation of solar power, so experts are somewhat in the dark over what will actually happen.
One of the best vantage points was in South Gloucestershire, where amateur astronomer Ralph Wilkins described the 'eerie' feeling as a chilly gloom descended and shadows sharpened.
Elsewhere there were reports of birds 'going crazy' and flocking to trees, confused by the fading light.
For much of the UK, the eclipse revealed itself as an abnormal level of darkness at 9.30am in the morning while the sun remained hidden behind a blanket of cloud. But there were pockets of clear skies over Wales, parts of the West Country and the Midlands, and eastern Scotland around Edinburgh.
Around the UK, the proportion of the sun covered by the moon increased towards the north, ranging from 84% in London to 89% in Manchester, 93% in Edinburgh and 97% in Lerwick in the Shetland Isles. Times also varied. In overcast London, the eclipse began at 8.24am, and reached its maximum extent at 9.31am. For observers in Edinburgh, it started at 8.30am and peaked at 9.35 am.
The last solar eclipse of such significance occurred on August 11 1999, and was 'total' - with 100% of the Sun covered - when seen from Cornwall.
Another 'deep' partial eclipse visible in the UK will not occur until August 12, 2026, and the next total eclipse not until September 2090.
Ralph Wilkins, from the London-based Baker Street Irregular Astronomers, who joined a group of sky-watchers outside a school in Hambrook, South Gloucestershire, to witness the eclipse, said: 'The sky started clearing just after first contact and we were able to watch the moon glide in front of the sun.
'It was a unique experience - eerie is the right word for it. The shadows started to sharpen and everything began to develop this yellowish hue.
'Whenever there's a solar eclipse in the UK you tend to get cloud, so to be treated to clear skies was really wonderful. It really was beautiful. We were all thrilled.'
