the corner office

There was a solar eclipse on Wednesday evening. It happened to coincide with my doing what I like to call the "Hither Green Speed Run", a walk from central London to Victoria Embankment, along the Thames to and around Canary Wharf, via the tunnel to Greenwich, then through Blackheath before catching a train home.

I'd not yet walked the route this year, and I was especially keen to do it before summer was over because an FT article about the UK entering an official drought had been accompanied by an aerial photo of Blackheath Common, the grass completely brown and dead, stark and slightly depressing, and I wanted to see it for myself.

My timing wasn't great though, because the eclipse being a once in a very long while event, there was barely a stretch of the Thames Path or a patch of ground in Greenwich Park or Blackheath Common that wasn't covered with people armed with glasses staring up at the sun, or with colanders or pinhole boxes or tripod cameras doing the next best thing. And it also goes without saying that I had failed to procure reliable eclipse viewing glasses ahead of time and wasn't keen on chancing my eyesight with last minute trust-me-bro specials from Amazon or from corner shops.

So in short: I spent the evening unable to see the eclipse myself, but passing and hearing lots of other people who could, and did. Some child "it's like a little man's eating away at the sun" (cute), another, "it's like Pacman" (jeez, I thought, Pacman is older than your parents). Some fellow at an outdoors restaurant at Canary Wharf, stepping out from under the trees "oh yes, there it is", and then stepping back to his table.

My favourite was a young woman, handed the glasses by her friend. "What am I looking for? ... oh, wooooooow".

I had read the warnings that camera sensors could be damaged by the sun, and photos of the eclipse should only be taken with a proper filter. But I've taken plenty of sun snaps with my phone over the years, and my phone is old and tired and due to be replaced anyway, and I decided I'd chance it. So I'd occasionally pull out my phone, take a quick snap of the sun, and then carry on.

No damage to the camera from what I can see, but getting home, I was disappointed to find that the sun was too bright and even though the eclipse was well underway, my snaps didn't show the eclipse at all.

Except... when I looked a little closer at my computer screen, and noticed that quite a few of them had an interesting lens flare.

Not what I'd been aiming for, but I got some pictures of the eclipse after all.