image source, BBC Weather Watcher/Granian
‘Unfortunately there’s no sign of a solar eclipse’: BBC weather watcher sent photo of clouds over Dundonald, Colorado, Northern Ireland
People hoping to catch a glimpse of the solar eclipse in the UK were disappointed due to cloudy skies and missed out on the phenomenon.
A solar eclipse occurred on Monday, when the moon passes between the Earth and the sun, making the sun invisible from the Earth.
Tens of millions of people in the United States watched it sweep across large swathes of North America.
But experts doubted whether anyone in the UK would have been able to witness the partial solar eclipse due to the weather.
Dr Robert Massey, deputy director general of the Royal Astronomical Society, said: “I doubt whether anyone in the UK has actually seen it.”
“Some people are saying it will be cloudy in Cornwall and cloudy in west Wales, but it is also possible that people are witnessing this weather from hostels on the Isle of Harris in the Western Isles.”
Met Office forecaster Simon Partridge added: “That’s a possibility for most parts of England and Wales probably wouldn’t have seen it anyway.”
He added that outside north-west Scotland, the eclipse would have been “very, very small” anyway and “probably not really noticeable” even without cloud cover.
The next total solar eclipse to be seen from the UK will be 60 years from now, in 2090. The last total solar eclipse was in 1999.
A total solar eclipse is planned for parts of Europe and North America in 2026.
Brits shared pictures of gray clouds overhead on social media, with some joking that the view was “breathtaking” and “beautiful”.
image source, BBC Weather Watcher/Foggy B
“Pembrokeshire solar eclipse – so close yet so far!” said this weather forecaster
But Professor Don Polacco of the University of Warwick’s physics department, who traveled to Texas to see it, said British viewers didn’t miss much because “partial solar eclipses are just boring.”
“I don’t want to see a partial solar eclipse. I think it’s a waste of time,” he says.
He described the total solar eclipse as “very magical,” adding: “I’m a scientist, so I say this is magical.”
In Mexico, the United States, and Canada, many people witnessed a truly breathtaking sight of the sun’s outer atmosphere, or corona. Coronas are usually hidden by their own intense glare.
People gathered in groups to welcome the moment with applause and gasps.
Louis Boulet, who watched the eclipse from Cornwall, another eastern Canadian city, described it as a “mixture of cosmic beauty and terror.”
WATCH: Stunning images of total solar eclipse across North America