20th March 2015 at 9:33am was a day long remembered in Leeds for me, as we had a near total Solar Eclipse…another ‘Bucket List’ photography moment. It was an event I’ve had on my radar for a quite some years, ever since I discovered it on the Nasa Eclipse website, where they had a great map showing it’s path across the UK with its totality over the Faroe
Islands and the Yorkshire region enjoying a 90% eclipse. I had looked into travelling to the Islands and also the northern tips of Scotland but decided I wanted to witness it in my hometown, which I’m so glad I did as Scotland and the Islands had dense cloud cover. Instead I opted for finding a high vantage point within the city and having done quite a few scouting missions to find the right spot and angle for some nice views across Leeds, I found the Leeds General Infirmary was that ideal spot for me and went about getting permission through lots of emails to use their Roof Garden which I’m greatly thankful for.
On the actual day I’d got in work quite early, allowing me to take a few hours break of my own time to capture the event, but like Scotland, Leeds also had a cover of cloud, but it wasn’t thick enough to stop us getting a great view of the solar eclipse through some lovely breaks in the clouds. As 9:33 approached the skies greyed and a dawn-like chill came into the air as the moon crossed in front of the sun, and just at that moment the clouds thickened with only a few glimpses of the eclipse through breaks in the cloud.
…A day long remembered
Hello sunbeam! Sorry it had to be done, it did look like a vast smile radiating across the heavens of Leeds
Geek Carl 