Enjoy your annular eclipse, yanks. I don't know exactly where any of youse live so I don't know who if anyone will get the full view. Someone in Texas, huh!

We had a total eclipse in Cornwall on August 11 1999 just after 11 am. Here in Bude the coverage of the sun was 99%, so we drove to Sharp Tor on Bodmin Moor (half an hour away) where we had to hike to the top. The cloud miraculously parted for a few minutes and we were just about the only people in the country to see it from the ground. The shadow rushing towards us across the countryside was scary and stunning, black as night and very chilly for a few minutes, and we saw Baily's beads, the diamond ring and the corona.

Another time in the spring of 2015 I was in hospital when there was a partial eclipse with most of the sun covered. It didn't go dark but it was strangely dull despite the clear blue sky. I made a makeshift pinhole camera out of cardboard with a safety pin, and had all the beautiful nurses in the ward crowding round me to see it . Ah, science can be so rewarding! :-)