Furzehill Observatory

The Total Solar Eclipse on March 20th 2015   My wife Sue (shown here in the red coat) and I watched this from the deck of the MS Boudicca, positioned for the longest period of totality (2 min. 47 sec.) about 130 miles North of the Faroes.  The partial phases were mostly glimpsed through thin cloud but the ship was steered towards a gap in the clouds that allowed us to view the whole of totality in a clear sky.  All on board subsequently applauded our ship's captain for his excellent navigation and Pete Lawrence, one of our on-board experts, for finding the gap.

 

The Sun was quite active and several large prominences were seen around the rim during totality.  Some of these can be seen as pink blobs on the picture below, taken soon after the start of totality.

 

Earlier during this cruise we had seen many brilliant auroral displays, some directly overhead, at Tromso and Alta.  These frequently developed so rapidly that our cameras were not able to capture their finest details, so clearly visible to our unaided eyes.  A selection of Sue's 'auroral' pictures are reproduced below.