J. Brit. Astron. Assoc., 110, 2, 2000, p.102

UK solar eclipses from year 1 to 3,000 (2nd edition)

by Sheridan Williams

Clock Tower Press, 1999. , PO Box 5010, Leighton Buzzard, LU7 0ZZ. ISBN 1-85142-093-2. £11.95 (pbk).

reviewed by Hazel McGee

With August 1999 behind us, Sheridan Williams has fully revised his uniquely enjoyable guide to solar eclipses visible from the British Isles. As well as a redesigned and greatly improved cover, the new edition includes more Web addresses, and a number of new photographs. Partial eclipse circumstances for Dublin (in addition to London and Edinburgh) are given for the period 1900-2100. There is also a coloured extract from the Ordnance Survey map of the English West Country with eclipse track details for 1999 August 11.

The most significant additions are two chapters on the African eclipses of 2001 and 2002, which of course break the author's own specification in writing the book. But who can blame him - as he comments, 'excited viewers of the 1999 eclipse will be desperate to see another total solar eclipse, and this is their next opportunity.' (Those who were clouded out in 1999 are even more desperate!) Part of the chapter on the annular eclipse of 2003, which will be visible at dawn from Scotland and has a very complex track, has also been rewritten and extended.

If you already possess a copy of this book, you will know what fun and how useful it is, and may well feel that the African eclipse chapters make it worth buying an updated copy. If you have not already seen it, seek it out: you have a treat in store.


Hazel McGee is editor of the Journal, and has been chasing eclipses with her husband's travel company since 1983.

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