FEATURE: Brian May on “The Sky At Night” – 4 July 1999

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PART 5

*** Brian the Astronomer ***
“Absolutely, don’t go to Paris”

And More…….
The Sky At Night -  Briah May

 PATRICK: And of course, you’ve got to be at just the right place at just the right time, and as far as England is concerned, down in the West Country.

The Sky At Night - The West Country
The West Country

BRIAN: I think it’s worth saying here there’s not a lot of point in seeing a partial eclipse, even if it’s a 99%, because you’re missing all the fun, basically, you know, so don’t be in London, and you can see from this map exactly where you ought to be. I mean, even Bournemouth is not going to get a total eclipse. Even Exeter is not going to. It’s much better to be on the centre line than to be on the edges, because you get a longer totality.

PATRICK: About 2 minutes.

BRIAN: Absolutely. I think Penzance and Falmouth you are up to about 2 minutes, but if you happen to be for instance near Torquay, in Teignmouth, you’ll get about 10 seconds of totality only, so try to be as near the centre line as you can, and we hope it’s clear.

PATRICK: Then of course, it goes across Europe.

BRIAN: Yes. If you’re lucky enough to be on holiday in Munich or Bucharest the view should be pretty good from down there I guess.

PATRICK: I know some people actually booked to go to Paris. Well look at Paris. It’s outside the line, therefore Paris is a total non-starter.

The Sky At Night - Path across Europe
Path across Europe

BRIAN: Absolutely. Don’t go to Paris.

PATRICK: No – go somewhere where you’re right in the middle of the central track, and preferably where the weather is good.

BRIAN: Absolutely.

The Sky At Night - Brian May

PATRICK: Right, now, the um, our great day is approaching us. Let’s take our viewers through what they are going to see, starting with first contact.

BRIAN: First contact looks a lot like this, doesn’t it Patrick? Wer’e seeing about 9.57 am.

The Sky At Night - Eclipse
Eclipse
The Sky At Night - Eclipse
Eclipse
The Sky At Night - Eclipse
Eclipse
The Sky At Night - Eclipse
Eclipse

The Moon is just beginning to move across the Sun’s face. And over the next one and a quarter or one and a half hours, the Moon of course just takes up more and more of the Sun’s light and eventually you’ll be down to a little crescent. A thin crescent of sunlight.

PATRICK: And as for the first half hour or so, its amazing how much you don’t notice.

BRIAN: Yes, not much happens to begin with. But by around 10.30 am things will start to feel very different.

The Sky At Night - Brian May

The Sky At Night - Brian May

PATRICK: Oh yes.

BRIAN: It’s starting to get dark. It’s starting to get cool and er, all sorts of weird things are happening, like with animals……

PATRICK: Yes, the animals notice it.

The Sky At Night - Brian May and Patrick Moore

The Sky At Night - Brian May and Patrick Moore

BRIAN: Yes, birds decide it’s time to go to sleep, and you’ll notice a very strange quality about the landscape. Shadows start to be very sharp.

PATRICK: What other things to see to? What about if you’re near a tree?

BRIAN: Absolutely. If you’re under a tree you may see something like this.

The Sky At Night - Under a tree
Under a tree

A whole collection of little images of that crescent Sun. Its something very unusual. You can actually hold a pencil up as well and, and look at the shadow, and you’ll notice the shadow is completely different, depending on which way you’ll turn your pencil. A good idea to look around because when it gets near to the time of totality, you know we’re a couple of minutes before now, everything starts to happen, doesn’t it?

The Sky At Night - Brian May and Patrick Moore

PATRICK: And when totality comes, it comes with amazing suddenness. Baily’s beads first.

BRIAN: Yes.  I guess the first thing you, you notice is probably, the planet Venus will become visible – that very often happens, doesn’t it?

PATRICK: At least half an hour before very often.

The Sky At Night - Brian May

The Sky At Night - Brian May

The Sky At NIght - Brian May

The Sky At Night - Brian May

BRIAN: Yes, I think so – and then probably if you’re looking over your right shoulder you’ll see the shadow of the Moon come rushing towards you over the landscape.

The Sky At Night - Shadow
Shadow

PATRICK: A lovely Douglas Arnold photograph there.

The Sky At Night - Douglas Arnold photograph
Douglas Arnold photograph

BRIAN: A wonderful picture of it there and, and of course a few seconds later you will be in the shadow completely, and all the light will be in the distance. It’s a very eerie sight indeed. 

The Sky At Night - Patrick Moore

PATRICK: And then suddenly the skylight fades, the Sun disappears and then you have the corona in all its glory in the Sun’s atmosphere.

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