Yorkshire crowds gather for 'incredible' eclipse

Image source, Aisha Iqbal/BBCImage caption, Crowds at Top of the World in Shipley gather to view the eclipseCrowds have gathered across Yorkshire to view the most significant solar eclipse since 1999.An eclipse happens when the Sun, Moon and Earth are in alignment. The Moon casts a shadow on the Earth as it passes between the two, completely or partially blocking out the Sun.At Beetle Bank Farm in York, the York Astronomical Society had telescopes set up, while families made pinhole cameras and donned their solar glasses.Brian Jones from the astronomical society said it was "lovely" to be among about 200 people sharing the rare event."The universe is there to be shared. I've been interested since I was about five, and it gets you," he said."You're made of star stuff - everything in your body comes from a star, so you're looking back at family history."Image source, Dan Bater/BBCImage caption, People gathered with homemade devices at Roundhay Park in LeedsRory, 11, said it was "incredible"."It's really a once-in-a-generation experience," he said.Brother Max said he felt it "had gone really cold". "The Sun generates all the heat and the Moon is blocking out the Sun," he explained.Their mum Tracey said she felt "really lucky" to see a second solar eclipse in her lifetime.Ash, 18, said she was fascinated by astronomy."I like the fact you don't know what's out there. You don't really know how everything works, it's just really fascinating to me."I've never seen anything like it before, it's really exciting."Image source, Emily Marsh/BBCImage caption, Ron Cooke Hub at the University of York set up telescopes to share the experience with the communityAt Roundhay Park in Leeds, hundreds gathered and queued to get a look through a telescope set up by Leeds Astronomical Society.Meera Daby and her family were using a colander because the glasses had sold out."It's the summer holidays. We have a lot of family staying over so we thought it would be a nice experience to come and watch the solar eclipse with our family," she said.At Top of the World, a popular viewing spot above Gaisby Lane in Shipley, Mazzy Khan was watching the eclipse with her nine-year-old daughter Mehrun and husband Sej."We saw it in 1999 when we were young so it was something we wanted to share with Mehrun," said Mazzy.Image source, Dan Bater/BBCImage caption, Meera Daby used her trusty colander to watch the Moon pass over the SunMeanwhile, at the Ron Cooke Hub at the University of York, physicists gathered to view the eclipse through five telescopes set up to see the Sun safely."We have five telescopes set up, perfectly safe to look at the Sun, in the particular wavelength that we call H Alpha, so that blocks out a lot of the energy of the Sun so we can view it safely," explained Mark Laughton.PhD student James Metcalf, 24, said the experts were tweaking the telescopes to follow the passage of the Sun."It's lovely to get involved with people in the community - it's all about introducing people to physics in a safe-ish environment," he said.Get in touchMore on this story