Did you see the near-total eclipse earlier this month?

On Radio Woking, I spoke to Martin Rooks, who has an interest in all things space-related. Martin had identified the Sports Box in Woking as a good location to watch the eclipse, and he had managed to get hold of ten pairs of glasses, which were very much in demand in the lead-up. Compared to the last eclipse of this nature in 1999, this time the sky was clear, and we were set for a perfect view.

I went along to the Sports Box to meet Martin and members of Woking Phab, whom he had invited along. After a safety briefing and a reminder not to look directly at the sun with the naked eye, we headed to the viewing platform. We watched the sun being eaten away as the moon passed over it. Luckily, there were just enough glasses to go round for us all to have a view. One of the other members also brought along a pinhole camera made with a cardboard box, which we had a go at. There were also special filters available to go over our phone cameras. Sadly, that didn’t prove very successful for me, although others managed to get a decent photo of the eclipse.

The peak time of more than 90 per cent coverage was just after 7pm. At that point, it felt much darker, very quiet, and there was a bit of a chill as the sun was obscured by the moon. After that, we watched as it all slowly returned to normal, thankful that we had the chance to see it. I have put the glasses safely in a drawer, ready for the next near-total eclipse in 2090, when I will be 107. I hope I remember where I put them!

Bonnie Tyler’s song Total Eclipse of the Heart enjoyed a surge in streaming around the eclipse as everybody looked for the perfect soundtrack. What a perfect tribute to Bonnie and her musical legacy! I was on the radio that morning, so had fun searching for sun- and moon-related songs.

Elsewhere, in a land not so far, far away, I went to G Live in Guildford to see the Summer Youth Project production of Shrek the Musical. This is the fifth annual production put on by a group of young people through the Creative Learning Department, a registered charity within G Live. Shrek had a massive cast of young people and was such a high-quality production that it’s hard to believe it was put together in just two weeks. It was a brilliant night of theatre, despite the interruption from the Government’s emergency alert at the start. That curveball was handled very well by the team at G Live.

You can listen to my shows on Radio Woking every Sunday from 9am until noon, and on Wednesdays from 7am to 9am. Tune in via www.radiowoking.co.uk, on DAB Digital Radio, or ask your smart speaker to “Play Radio Woking”.

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