Across East Anglia, folk turned out to experience the eclipse. For most it marked 90% coverage of the sun occurring at 19.11 on 12 August 2026. Some had parties, some picnics, others celebrated with champagne. Over 100 sat on Sheringham’s Skelding Hill looking westward across the beautiful North Norfolk coastline.
Unlike the previous eclipse visible in the UK, when eclipse glasses were freely distributed with newspapers, this year they were rare. Amazingly some had their glasses from August 11, 1999. This meant the other ingenious ways of watching were tried with various degrees of success. The colander being a favourite with some reporting better success than with a pinhole.
While Jenny in Essex produced a wonderful array of colander images, Sarah in Norwich found her straw hat was equally successful.
Nature surprised us by getting in on the act to reveal the eclipse. Tree leaves filtered the sun’s image similarly to a colander, producing views on walls.
At it’s pinnacle, when viewed through eclipse glasses or using a colander, the partial eclipse looked as though the dark sun was wearing a shining tiara. The North Norfolk eclipse might not have the majesty of that experienced elsewhere, but the landscape rivals anywhere. Another partial solar eclipse will be visible from the UK on August 2 2027. Sadly we will have to wait until September 23, 2090 for the next total solar eclipse. Totality will be best viewed from Cornwall and the south coast. Until then, we can marvel at the eclipse totality seen from a mountain in Cullera, Spain.
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