Bah Humbug. Seen one solar eclipse you've seen them all.
I witnessed the 1999 eclipse outside the office in near perfect conditions in London. The newspapers had given away free solar-eclipse viewers for the occasion. Immediately after the event I sent a text message to all staffers saying: "For sale. Eclipse viewer. Only used the once. Guaranteed for the lifetime of the solar system." Pretty lame, no? But I thought it might raise a weary smile from my co-workers. Five minutes later a chap from the IT department showed up offering me a few pounds for the glasses. God knows what he wanted them for - maybe a souvenir. Today I was wondering if he'd kept them all these years and was using them now. On a more grave note: an ex-colleague (not a close friend) who had been suffering from pancreatic cancer died this morning. His wife said that she likes to think that the eclipse marked his passing. Silly sentimentalism? Rather a beautiful thought I reckon.
