Leaderboard

Do you know the difference between Abu Dhabi residents and Dubai residents? People from Dubai don't like The Flintstones. People from Abu Dhabi do.

Did any of you manage to see the Transit of Venus across the Sun on the 8th June 04 . I was on Holiday at the time in Derbyshire and I was lucky enough to get a very short gap in the clouds . I managed to take this picture through the glass of my welding helmet .

I just asked my wife to put on a nurses uniform. She said "Are you feeling frisky?" I replied "No, we need bread."

Can't beat the 'John McEnroe tenner'

Mike, I wasn't far away from you back on 11th August 1999. I was at the castle on the head at St. Mawes. It was a beautiful clear day on 10th August so a pity it clouded over on the 11th, but it was nevertheless quite an experience.....especially listening to the birds rushing back up the estuary to roost in the middle of the day! As far as 12th August 2026 is concerned, if you are not shooting grouse, then I would suggest Palma Majorca (or nearby) may be a better option than Iceland. It will be a total eclipse, albeit not for very long, and you can have a G&T whilst watching early evening before dinner......very civilised. The 2nd August 2027 (my wedding anniversary) could be even better in Southern Spain. Easy flights to Malaga and I reckon there's no better place to be than the Parador at Ronda, brilliant place with excellent views...……. not on the central eclipse line but still just over a minute of totality.

Great news - I've just had this email from the Ingrams "We are still operating, and as long as health and circumstances permit, we will carry on doing so."

Yes..clear as clear. Amazing......! On the way up the interstate from Vegas we stopped to fill up, and I got talking to a Japanese tourist who'd come over for the eclipse. He asked me whether I was worried about the crowds. I said no, since we were going to be in a field in the middle of nowhere, and he replied " No...not crowds - crowds!!! Crowds across the sun.." Honest. I genuinely misunderstood.... I was at Munich Observatory for the 1999 one, and I took a small medium wave radio with me, and the night before I tuned it to a music station a long way away. I switched it on before the eclipse, and it was just producing quiet static, but when we got totality, the music blasted out!! A nice little experiment that the science-minded Germans around me liked.

Me, the day before the 2017 total eclipse, waiting for service at the gas station in Gonad, Idaho.

Nah, there's only one place in Wyoming worth mentioning - Armpit. See image from 1982. It's still there, but looking at recent pictures the walls of the sheds have been upgraded in the interim. When I was there, a guy lived in one of the huts over the summer, then went down into the valley during the winter to work on the oil wells at Lovell. As guests, we dossed in the other shed where he kept his dynamite and ammunition! The mining bucket in the right distance was inscribed 'Welcome to Armpit WY. The threshold of a new reality'. The place was one of three uranium mines from the 1930s, the other two being Groin and Earwax, both sadly no more.

I got bored this week, and made this, and posted it to a mate, and he was rather concerned at first...