Tonight Zoë and I were looking at "Prisoners of the Sun" in which Tintin escapes being sacrificed by employing the hoary old "darken the sun" plot device.

August 11th 1999 saw a solar eclipse here in England. Totality passed across the most southern most tip of Cornwall where 100% cloud cover spoilt the view, but at least gave revellers the experience of being plunged into darkness for a couple of minutes. Here in Berkhamsted we had a spooky morning where close to midday we were bathed in a silent, dusky gloom. The picture above is the shadow cast by my colander on a piece of white card. Each hole appears as partially obscured sun.

I'd really like to experience a full eclipse and looking on the NASA Goddard Eclipse Atlas Turkey in 2006 looks favourite. Unfortunately i doubt i'll be with us when it next hits the UK again in 2093.