On the 29th March 2006 there was a total eclipse of the Sun that could be observed through West and North Africa, Turkey and Central Asia. From Edinburgh we were only expected to see a partial eclipse with about 20% of the Sun covered by the Moon at maximum. First contact (when the Moon first starts to cross the Sun) was to begin at 10:55 BST (British Summer Time) with maximum coverage at 11:36 BST. It was to be all over at 12:16 BST.

I met up with Graham Rule (the Astronomical Society of Edinburgh's secretary) at the City Observatory at about 10:20am and he set up the society's H-alpha solar telescope outside the Playfair building. We were very lucky with the weather as it had dawned clear and bright, but there was a bit of a breeze and the odd cloud threatening to obscure things. I had never looked through this scope before and the views of the Sun were impressive. As it shows the light of the red Hydrogen alpha line, a lot of solar structure can be seen. Of particular interest were a number of solar prominences that were around the edge of the Sun. These are where hot material is being ejected from the Sun's surface. I counted at least four of these features.

However, the eclipse was soon starting and we could see the edge of the Moon biting into the Sun's disc at the time predicted. Soon after the start, two photographer's from the Herald and Scotsman turned up and they were very keen to see what was going on. They soon turned their attention to trying to photograph the eclipse with their cameras held up to the eyepiece of the telescope. The wind was getting worse and after Graham had been doused by some water blown off the roof (he thought at first it was raining) we went upstairs to the dome of the 6-inch Cooke telescope.

This was much better as we were out of the wind and more steady images could be seen. The above image was taken with with my Casio QV-2800UX digital camera held up to the eyepiece of the telescope at 11:32 BST (4 mins before maximum coverage). It was difficult getting the exposure right so the image is a bit overexposed (and so no prominences are visible). However, it does show how much of the Sun was hidden by the Moon. It is also shown the right way up or how the Sun was seen through eclipse glasses.

Graham also used the 6-inch Cooke telescope to show the eclipse in projection. By this time curious members of the public were coming up into the dome to find out what was going on and I guess 10 to 15 people got to see what was happening.

Two other members of the society also made it up to the observatory. Meanwhile the hacks from the papers had gone outside with our eclipse glasses to see if they could get some pictures of members of the public looking awed at the spectacle of the eclipse! These were published in the Herald the following day.