‘I stood outdoors watching the photo voltaic eclipse – I ought to have simply watched it on TV’
Despite all they hype, chaos, warnings and more, the Daily Star’s Adam Cailler (and friends and family) were all left a bit underwhelmed by yesterday’s Solar Eclipse
I looked right at it – we all did
The entire UK came together to collectively not-really look up but look up at the sun – to watch nothing happen. The hype was real – every news outlet (ourselves included), news channel, and even The One Show on BBC went eclipse mad to make sure every second of this monumental occasion was covered.
We, as a country, might as well have launched Solar Eclipse News showing 24-hour rolling news coverage of it. But let’s be honest . . . it was a bit naff. Ok, I get it, it was a 90-something per cent eclipse, not a total eclipse.
And yes, it went a bit dark outside, and it was funny to watch everyone in the streets collectively trying not to look directly at it, but it looked no different from a typical grim British day. Despite warning after warning telling us all not to look directly at it because we’d go blind or mad, we all know we tried it briefly.
Underwhelming
Anyway, back on topic, there I was – outside, alongside my wife and daughter, and everyone else in the street who had on specialist glasses while holding colanders – when I heard a collective sound of confusion and disappointment.
One neighbour questioned whether the eclipse had started yet. She said: “I can’t see any difference . . . is it actually happening?”
Another came over to me, as I was filming it on my phone, and asked whether or not we’d all got the time wrong – we had not, as it was 7.10pm, which was pretty much peak time.
Many people tried the selfie-camera idea, while some used a cereal box . . . but nobody could really see anything going on despite the fact the sun was, as they say “RIGHT THERE”.
Pants
It felt like we were all back in Covid times, standing on our doorsteps and clapping in unison for one minute every night for no reason other than we were told to do so and had apparently lost our own self-awareness.
Anyway, off we all toddled back inside, to watch this big momentous occasion on our televisions, because Sky News had thousands of pounds worth of specialist equipment pointed right at the sun that no mere mortal could afford.
So there we go, it was all a bit over-hyped, a bit naff, and we could have just watched it all on TV. A good life lesson, I guess.
