Well, we had two years of hype about going to Cornwall for a once-in-a-lifetime Eclipse Experience, but what everyone forgot to mention was that it's often cloudy and rainy in Cornwall during August. Here's our simulation of what actually happened on the morning of August 11th 1999.
It's not uncommon for a mid-August day in the far west of Cornwall to consist of a bright start, followed by cloud rolling in from the sea.
On the morning of August 11th the entire West of England was, in fact, covered by thick cloud, including St Michael's Mount near Penzance (shown here). As a result we saw absolutely nothing at all during the first hour of the eclipse.
er, boring, isn't it?
At ten minutes before totality, the light had faded appreciably, although it was no darker than during a heavy thunderstorm.
Then, as totality approached, it faded very quickly indeed, dropping to near-darkness in around 30 seconds. The effect was as if someone was operating a giant dimmer switch.
It was pretty dark during the totality, but not as dark as night, mainly because there was light sky over the horizon throughout the period (not shown here, for technical reasons)
The effect was like an extreme version of being under a very heavy storm cloud with brighter weather in the distance - a familiar enough experience if you live around here.
It became light again as quickly as it had gone dark, and then it was over.
Had it been a magical, life-changing experience? Not really. It was certainly interesting and worth seeing, but perhaps we know too much about how it all works to find it mysterious.