Solar Eclipse 2015

Today I have witnessed a 90% solar eclipse in Cardiff. I believe it's cool enough to be ranked among the amazing things I have done?

My friend, Amra, even went to hear an open lecture about the eclipse at the museum last night. So she gave me the best information about the exact time and visibility.

Solar Eclipse 2015 Cardiff, Wales, United Kingdom
The picture above is during the end of the eclipse cycle, as I was too busy staring at it and not taking pictures when sun was 90% covered

We decided to go in front of the Cardiff museum at 9:30 am when the peak was supposed to be, but I was late and when I left my home I could feel the weird darkness falling over the city. I grabbed my high UV protection glasses and while walking towards the museum I stared at the sun for three minutes without worrying a single bit about the several warnings of not staring without special glasses... It was almost hypnotizing.

When I arrived in front of the museum, I saw loads of Cardiff University students and media. Amra and I managed to find high protection eclipse-staring glasses and we even created our pin hole projector. Some guys offered us binocular projection, and we even used the dark box I was carrying as a projector.

I have always loved physics, and while I was staring at the eclipse, I felt once again amazed by physics and its fundamental laws. I also recalled this drawing I have painted done when I was only six:

Instead of the smiley sun, there is a creepy eclipse going on.

It is unbelievable how our sun is four hundred times bigger than our moon and the moon at this particular time is four hundred time closer to us than to the sun so they appear the same size. There is no other planet in our solar system that experiences an eclipse like this one!

Afterwards Amra and I headed to the Natural Museum and we saw the dinosaurs and fossils, stuffed animals, stunning gem stones and minerals, just to remind ourselves how rich and wonderful our world is, and how much we don't know.