Anyone else have their eclipse viewing ruined by clouds?
Was in south Ontario, the sky was clear for about an hour before totality, and then about 15 minutes before, a big dark cloud came in and ruined it.
Hamilton, up on the escarpment. Clouds were rolling through but it cleared enough to get this. Buddy used his eclipse glasses to capture this, I have a few shots without the glasses and the shots don't look half as good.
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Sometimes a little cloud cover makes viewing the eclipse even better. I wasn’t too far away from the totality last year and saw this one:
Both shot with my mirrorless cropped from 200mm.
Buddy used his eclipse glasses to capture this
If he had used his eclipse glasses, you would see nothing. Eclipse glasses are for the lead up to full totality. Once totality hits, you take them off, as well as any camera filters you might be using. The light from the fully blocked sun is too dim to see through solar filters.
I thought as much but all of my pictures were drastically brighter and I couldn't replicate what he did. We have essentially the same phone so I assumed the glasses played a role in how dark it was
Well hello there. I'm closer to Niagara but in the same general area.
We had some clouds, but otherwise it was a good experience. Nice picture.
Southern Texas checking in. I saw the sun twice for a total of six seconds. My city was within the path of totality, so I got to watch thousands of disappointed visitors block our highways.
Mine was ruined by traffic and my clutch burning out due to the +8 hour traffic. currently waiting for a tow =(
Traffic fucked us here too. Left with what I thought was plenty of extra time. An hour into the drive and another hour had been added to the GPS. Turned around at that point because we just weren't going to make it.
During the peak, clouds rolled in in the Philly area. I was able to see it on and off, but missed most of the peak except for a few second here or there. Sounds like others had it much worse than I did though, so I can't complain.
Be me, Canadian
Hear about big important eclipse
Go outside, waiting for sun to get covered
Big cloud comes and covers sun
mfw exactly what I was expecting happens
Sorry
I was outside the path of totality, but saw one during my childhood. Today I made a pinhole camera and took a quick look before my meeting started and was able to see the shadow of the moon maybe 50%-60% over the sun. When I came back out after my meeting it was cloudy.
Sorry you had clouds :-(
I was in Erie PA, which was in the totality. It was mostly cloudy until like 1:30ish. It cleared up enough to watch the moon creep up and the totality, then the clouds came back a couple minutes after. It was really the perfect window. I consider myself very lucky, because the next one that's going to come anywhere near me is gonna be in like, 50 years.
the sky was clear for about an hour before totality, and then about 15 minutes before, a big dark cloud came in and ruined it.
Yup, that was exactly my experience too (in northern France in August 1999).
In 1999 I spent a week in Cornwall (south western tip of the UK), staying in a spot right in the middle of the path of totality for the eclipse that summer. Every day, glorious sunshine, even got a bit burnt. Except one day. Day of the eclipse was thick clouds horizon to horizon. Ended up watching the BBC coverage from an aircraft via a 3" portable TV.
Did get to see the approaching shadow over the ocean, so at least that was pretty cool, but still disappointing.
Don't think I'll have another opportunity in my lifetime unless I travel internationally specifically to see one.
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While we don't have another total one in the UK until 2090, we've got a near-total one in August 2026. About 90-95% depend on where in the country you are, with Cornwall getting the best of it again. Spain and Iceland get the totality of it, so you could take a short trip to some pretty nice places and catch it along the way
Next total eclipse in the UK is 2090, unfortunately.
In Aug 2026 there's a 90% one though. And if you travel to the right part of Spain for that one it's another Total.
Yeah I saw it west of Cleveland. A little hazy at times but didn't affect the experience much
I was already on a trip, and to stay to see the eclipse in Texas was going to cost me an extra two grand in plane tickets so I left. Turns out in Texas, it was thunderstorms all day. Back home I got to see a whopping 3% eclipse instead of thunderstorms. Wowee wasn't even worth looking up.
I was in the 90% range. I tried to find the sun and couldn't, although someone who was a few miles away said they saw part of it.
Same here! The totality was still cool to experience, though. This might be the only time in my life I can say that I would have rather been in Cleveland.
Yeah, it feels better to have been with a bunch of people who had the same experience. And it was still cool.
In my area the clouds were of just right density to look at the sun without glasses. It was surreal.