After the hype and expectation of the past few days, followed by a forecast of cloudy skies, yesterday's solar eclipse seemed likely to prove an anticlimax. In the event, a timely break in the cloud cover over Dublin and many parts of south-east Ireland meant that tens of thousands of people enjoyed firsthand experience of one of nature's great shows yesterday morning, as the moon obscured over 90 per cent of the sun. The light dimmed creating an eerie or chores to watch the sun shrink to the shape of a crescent moon.
Although the dangers of looking directly at the sun had been well publicised, there have already been reports of eye damage and there are certain to be more in the coming days. For while some people watched the eclipse through special filters, others ignored the warnings and looked directly at the sun. More prudent souls watched indirectly through homemade pinhole projectors or gazed at the sun's reflected image in a bucket of water - reportedly a particularly rewarding method. Television images from aircraft and from areas of "totality" were memorable too - particularly the "diamond ring" effect as the sun's rays vanished and then burst back into view through the lunar valleys, and the view of Paris blanketed in pre-noon darkness.
Ironically, the eclipse proved anti-climactic for many of the millions of people in the "path of totality" - the corridor on the earth's surface, about 60 miles wide, where the sun was completely obscured for up to two minutes. In Cornwall, the focus of Britain's "eclipse tourism", many of the 600,000 visitors got a soaking. The sudden darkening of the sky was still impressive. The luckier ones searched their stock of superlatives to report the experience of a lifetime. There was cloud and disappointment for many people in France and Germany and also in much of southern Asia, where monsoon weather prevailed.
But all along the path of complete or partial eclipse, reports attested to the enduring power of great natural phenomenon to arouse curiosity and awe. In Rome, Pope John Paul cut short his weekly audience for pilgrims so they and he could watch the eclipse. In Ankara, Turkish MPs gathered in the parliament's gardens to view it, taking a break from amending tax laws. In the City of London, trading floors were deserted and telephones went unanswered as dealers and bankers left their desks. The London Chamber of Commerce estimated that the cost in lost business at £100 million.
It is greatly to be hoped that, in the coming days, countries in Europe and Asia are not left counting too high a cost in terms of eye damage to those for whom the temptation to look directly at one of nature's wonders was just too much to resist.