Goring and the Eclipse 11th Aug

The Eclipse
The most dramatic natural event for 300 years!

On 11th August, the eclipse should be well visible from Worthing. The sun will start to be eclipsed at about 10am and is expected to be 97% eclipsed here at about 11.20.

To see the full eclipse you can go to the middle of the Channel, about 60 miles out. Or take a trip to northern France where the path covers places like Dieppe, Beauvais, and Reims. But remember to reset your watches because the French are one hour ahead of us: Cherbourg at 12.16, Strasbourg at 12.32 French Time.

The eclipse moves across the earth at 1771mph and lasts for 2.25 minutes on the centre line, only seconds at the fringes.

The Often to be Repeated Warning
Do not look at the sun with the naked eye, and certainly not with telescopes or bins. What you can do is to have your telescope focussed on a white sheet of paper. Looking direct then use smoked glass, or on the very dark aluminised mylar filters that will be handed out with all the newspapers just before the day.

Or make yourself a pin-hole camera. Two sheets of card, the one nearest the sun with a very small pinhole in the centre. The image of the sun will come through the pinhole onto the second piece of card, smaller or larger depending on how close the cards are from each other.

To be more sure of seeing something, BBC1 has a Hercules aircraft flying above the clouds, the program starting at 9.45. Channel 4 starts at 11 am.

 
There is a 45% chance of missing the whole thing due to clouds! As usual the best view will probably be on TV who have hired an aircraft to fly along the route above the clagg.

Websites on the eclipse include:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/eclipse
http://www.met-office.gov.uk/eclipse
http://sunearth.gsfc.nasa.gov/eclipse/
http://www.btinternet.com/yarner.press
http://www.hermit.org/Eclipse1999
http://umbra.nascom.nasa.gov/eclipse/990811/rp.html
http://www.discoveryeurope.com
http://www.eclipse.org.uk/
http://www.eclipse.net.uk/