SKY NEWS ON CALTON HILL

Hundreds gathered on Calton Hill this morning to witness Broughton's astronomical event of the decade.

With only minutes to spare at 9.26am, clouds which had been distant and well dispersed over the capital up to that point, joined together to partially obscure the partial solar eclipse.

Legions of excited young Italian EFL students oohed and aahed repeatedly in advance of the once-in-a-blue-moon phenomenon, ensuring that there were no birds present to fall silent and create an eerie hush.

At the crucial moment, a collective sense of awe was broken only by the click of camera shutters, and the sound of Italian EFL students phoning each other to say how magical it all was.

Spurtle detected no particular change in light levels. The pin-hole camera we had constructed earlier and artfully arranged against the backdrop of the old Observatory blew away. 

The next eclipse invisible in the UK will take place in 2026. A total eclipse is predicted across swathes of the US in 2017.

Spurtle is no expert on astronomical matters. We were therefore grateful for yesterday's enlightening scientific coverage in the Edinburgh Evening News.

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 Broughton Spurtle ‏@theSpurtle 

Scotland: Unable to see solar eclipse? Just cut Vitamin D tablet in half. Sorted. #SolarEclipse

 New Town Flâneur ‏@NewTownFlaneur  

@theSpurtle In the New Town, the birds remained vocal, the light level certainly dropped, & adjacent Italians were inaudible.

NewTownCleanStreets ‏@NTCleanStreets 

@NewTownFlaneur @theSpurtle Clouds perfectly-timed, allowed those of us prepared with Heath Robinson-esque pinhole equipment to peep w/eyes!

The LHTD ‏@TheLHTD 

@theSpurtle I used the time to visit the deserted shops in the St James Centre. Hopefully I'll try and catch the repeat showing.