The Eclipse in August 2026 - and Preparing & Storing Solar Glasses For The Next Eclipse

 

Sharot family photo from a cruise ship.

My own photos of the eclipse are eclipsed by those from other people. The eclipse in August 2026 started conveniently early evening in the UK and Europe.

We were warned not to look at it directly because it can damage your eyes. Instead look through special glasses.

 Or see the reflection in a bowl of water

 Or create a reflection by creating a pinhole camera by making holes in two pieces of white paper, one held in front of the other. You stand with your back to the eclipse and the sunlight should shine through the pinhole in the nearest piece of paper. Creating a picture on the further piece.

I plan to check Wikipedia and Wikihow on creating a pinhole camera ready for next time.

 My whatsapp and Next Door apps were full of messages from people asking where to buy glasses enabling you to see the eclipse safely.

I am awash with eclipse photos from family and friends, in the UK and overseas, from all the people on a conference, everyone in my street whatsapp group. Including photos from my extended family from a cruise ship near Spain.

If you attend an event at a hotel or restaurant or cruise ship you are likely to have access to distributed free or on sale items. Or enough people for one of them to share instructions. Or to let you look through their glasses for a moment or two.

Alternatively, you can prepare for next time.

The next one seen in the UK will be in August 2027.

You can get a list of future eclipses seen around the world from websites such as time and date.

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Share links to your favourite photos and posts from my blogs on travel, clothes, and comical poetry. You can also read my past posts on learning German and Spanish and other languages. And look at my books about etiquette, speeches. quotations, comical poetry. And how to write poetry. 

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|The Wikipedia article goes into detail about fake eclipse glasses, some reassurance about Amazon, how to identify a fake, and links to sources of information.

Is it worthwhile ordering glasses for the next eclipse so as to allow time for rearch and delivery, and not miss out, and to have them with you even if you are away on holiday where you cannot be sure of delivery?

Only if you can remember where you stored them. Possible solutions. Tape a packing list behind your wardrobe door. List on that the location of vital items such as passports , first aid kits, insect repellent, sting relief, and eclipse sunglasses. Email yourself a note. Keep one top or bottom drawer for foreign coins, passports, eclipse sunglasses. Keep one suitcase clearly marked and labelled, with labels which won't fall off, the contents, written large in felt tip pen. 

Check on the location of this suitcase the first or last weekend of every month, in case somebody else decides to put the suitcase in a top cupboard, to empty for a trip, store in in the attic, garden shed, garage, top cupboard, under the bed, behind gloshte s in a wardrobe, or in a store room.

Useful Websites About Solar Eclipse Sunglasses

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_viewer

https://www.amazon.co.uk/s?k=amazon+solar+eclipse+glasses

Recording Animal Activity Before, During and After the Eclipse

Eclipse. From Wikipedia.

Across the world people have been recording the reactions of animals to the eclipse. Pets, animals in zoos, and animals, in the wild. Casual observers and anecdotal reports, citizen observations. Careful analytical studies.

My summary is as follows:

Nocturnal activities

Creatures of habit react to darkness as normal. Many creatures think it is night time so they show bedtime behaviours such as going back to bed or home ready for bedtime and sleep. 

Some of them chirp as they would do at dusk, birds, and insects. When it goes completely dark they go silent.

A few organized groups which have leaders and guardians and fighters and are intelligent, keep watch, group lookouts, either out of curiosity, or presumably alert for possible danger. These include gibbons and champanzees (not sure I remembered the right species - better check) which climb trees for a better view of the sky. (Watching for activity, changes, enemies, invaders, space ships, eagles, hail stones, whatever?)

The giraffes in Dallas zoo race about.  They were surrounded by excited humans. That was taken into account by scientists, who compared activity the day before and the day after an eclipse.

Some are destructive. Spiders destroy their webs. They stop hunting for food. (Is this just packing up and moving on?)

The last fun fact is the Galapagos tortoises which start mating. Evolutionists think this is to procreate before disaster, like soldiers' farewell. But I think the explanation is simpler. Animals which copulate at night in privacy just think it's an opportunity, not realiszng that humans have set up cameras. (To be humorous and anthropomorphic, maybe one says, I think we are being watched. The other replies, No, dear, take no notice.)

I was interested to read how much effort had to be put into observation. To find out whether behavious was different, scientific observers compared data from previous eclipses with later ones, from one area to another, and from previous days and later days with the days of the eclipse, to be sure that behaviour was not simply usual in high summer.

Some kinds of siders destroy webs. The next question is, are any of these behaviours bad for the animals or us, or good for us. 

Protecting Animals and Wildlife and Zoo Animals From Eclipses

Can we take action to help animals, to survive, to be stress free? (Like keeping pets indoors during Fireworks Night in the UK and New Year's Eve Fireworks worldwide.)  

Does stress affect pregnant animals? Should we keep them indoors, to protect the pregnancy? Or play soothing music? Or keep lights on?

Do the primates damage their eyes looking at the sun? Can we protect them?

Imitating Eclipses

Or could we simulate an eclipse to encourage endangered tortoises to mate?. 

Or to get rid of unwanted spiders? Or encourage them to build new webs?

 Useful Website

https://

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7222787/

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More memories of the eclipse

Total Eclipse

Cards84664 - Own work in Wikipedia under eclipse 2024 in Wikipedia Commons
 

I went to a newly formed Toastmasters International group called travelmasters. One of the prepared speeches started with memories of the eclipse. This year the speaker saw a partial eclipse from his area. Those in the New Jersey and New York area saw more.

India

He had previously been to see an eeclipse in India. He was with a local society which was studying wildlife. They went to the forest to see the effect the eclipse would have on animals, incects and birds. They were looking at bats and monkeys. 

Prepare For Dark & Cold

As the eclipse progressed over half an hour the sky grew darker. You need a torch to get around in the dark. 

As it got dark, the weather grew chillier. So this year he was prepared for the drop in temperature and took a jacket.

Camera Ready\

You have your camera ready. Not just for the sky and the eclipse. Also for the reactions on the ground. Your astonished friends. 

Animal Reactions

But also the wildlie. As the sky grew darker during the daytime, which was unusual, the animals stopped foraging for food and hunting and went back to their homes, their burrows, or nests. For their own safety? To protect their amilies. For comfort. I dont suppose they even thought about it. Just instinct.

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The Eclipse - questions and answers

From Britannica. Out of copyright. Early photo of an eclipse.

1 Don't Look With Naked Eyes

When my huband was a child in primary schol October 2nd 1959, the children were told to use completely black neatives from rolls of film, one over each eye, to see the eclipse.  You just saw a ring of light. We worked out the date by the dates a total eclipse was seen over the whole of the UK. He rememberd which school he was at. That narrowed down the date.

Take a photo. But don't look at the eclipse. I remember this advice from last time. I know to wear sunglasses in sunny weather, even when not looking directly at the sun. I once read it can cause or accelerate cataracts in older people. I know you are supposed to wear goggles when skiing even on overcase days to prevent snow blindness. 

You can buy special glasses online, if you have time. Or attend an event where you see a projection. Or make up a pinhole camera device, which is either difficult or dangerous in my view. 

However, US TV channel Fox news has been running demonstrations of making a viewer from a cereal box. One important thing is to stand with the sun behind you.

2 Don't drive

The sudden plunge into darkness can cause accidents. 

UK

Cities in the north of England are in luck. Fortunately, for risk aversion types like me, London does not get a view, only the north of England Although there are annual partial eclipses, a full moon eclipse won't be in the UK for another 60 or so years. Although I was hoping to live beyond a hundred years of age, that timing is rather challenging for me.

My late father was an optitican. But he is not here for me to ask. I went to Wikpedia. As usual, I found an enormous amount of highly technical information. But lots of links to sources, plus useful and engaging articles on related subjects. 

I could try Simple Wikipedia, but I got sidetracked by the number of solar eclipses, and moon eclipses, full partial eclipses, partial eclipses, even triple eeclipses or ratter two items hidden behind a third. If you miss this one, there will be another.

USA & Mexico

The eclipse is appearing in a line down the USA and Mexico. We have friends in the UK who went to Mexico especially to see the eclipse.

Debate

We were debating hether the eclipse is always in the day, or night, or sunset. 

'You don't see the sun at night. So it can't be at night.'

' But what about countries which have midnight sun?'

Types of Eclipse

Basically, an eclipse is a bigger object hiding a smaller one. It happens all over the universe as everything moves around. You can have solar exlipses, lunar eclipses, whole eclipses and partial eclipses. Eclipses of moons and planets, all sorts of things. 

The Word Eclipse

The word eclipse comes from the Greek, like so many scientific terms.  The metaphor to eclipse somebody is related. If I stand in front of somebody smller on a stage, I am eclipsing them. If my win in a speech contest gets more publicity than somebody else's entry, my win eclipses theirs. (Or vice versa.) 

I now have more questions than answers about solar eclipses. But I know more now than I did before.

In olden times people feared it was the end of the world.Now we know it isn't.

Animals in zoos are spooked out. Then go silent.

USA

I was on my computer watching on the large screen live from Fox. 

The commentator said that in Mexico people were clapping, cheering and crying. Next stop was Texas.

How to make A shoebox Viewer

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tTi-6-NSxNo

Hints on safety, and making a pinhole camera and how to hold it, and safe use of covered mirrors, except for a pinhole, here.

https://www.today.com/health/how-to-watch-eclipse-without-glasses-rcna146875 

More Information From

https://www.today.com/health/how-to-watch-eclipse-without-glasses-rcna146875

https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_eclipse

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eclipse

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-13283203/Solar-Eclipse-rare-UK-tonight-9-towns-cities.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_solar_eclipses_in_the_21st_century

World Tourism Day 27 September

World Tourism Day 27 September was established by the United Natons. It is on Sept 27 every year because that is the end of the summer holiday season in the northern hemisphere and the start of the Spring season in the southern hemisphere.

So who benefits most? The southern hemisphere (spellcheck turns that into mis fire) with the holiday season ahead, or the north with the season over and therefore the need for a tourism  boost?

What happened to world tourism day?

Flag of Lithuania.

VILNIUS, LITHUANIA

 I was alerted to World Tourism Day by Vilnius, Lithuania, which emailed me a press release.

Full marks to their tourist board.

I marked the date in my calendar. I planned and scheduled a blog. But then the world went quiet. What a missed opportunity.

Slogan:
One billion tourists; one billion opportunities.

http://www.un.org/en/events/tourismday/

World tourism day was eclipsed by the eclipse of the moon.

INDIA

However, after the event I learned that tourists got in to see the Taj Mahal in India for free.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/On-World-Tourism-Day-30000-tourists-to-see-Taj-for-free/articleshow/49121352.cms

Vilnius was famous for the Vilna Gaon or genius. Now tourists can enjoy self-guided tours listening to the city's 'talking statues'.

Vilnius Tourism and Convention Bureau
Vilnius g. 22
LT-0119
Vilnius
tel: +370 5 262 9660
www.vilnius-tourism.lt/en
www.vilnius-events.lt
You need the word en on the end to get the website in English.

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer.