The 4th March is my St. Patrick's Day.
It marks the birthday of the late Sir Patrick Moore, patron saint of all of us amateur astronomers.
Patrick Moore was the Jeremy Clarkson of the BBC in the years before Jeremy Clarkson (minus the punching of minions, of course - unless Chris Lintott knows otherwise). He even, golly gosh, liked UKIP.
The blessed Sir Patrick, monocle-in-eye, would often warn us never to use our telescopes and binoculars to stare directly at the great sun god in the sky. And, as a result, I never did - and never will.
The BBC has been super-informative in the past few days about warning us not even to look at the Great Sun God (PBUH) with our naked eyes...and quite rightly so:
DON'T....LOOK....DIRECTLY....AT....THE....SUN......IT'S...BRIGHT...AND...HOT...
During the last solar eclipse however (whenever that was), I forgot myself and - in a moment of wild thoughtlessness - looked out and saw, for a good second or so, the sun in partial eclipse.
And, idiot-that-I-am, I might have repeated my transgression today, sitting at work in almost exactly the same place, had it not been for all the grey clouds pretty much surrounding sunny Morecambe.
Obviously, it's never normally cloudy in Morecambe.
Morecambe is, famously, Britain's sunniest seaside resort. That's why you must come here.
Our deckchairs are permanently out. Morecambe Bay sparkles in semi-eternal sunlight. The Eric Morecambe statue (restored to majesty after a local attack of vandalism) half-blinds spectators with its brilliance. (The giant statues of the two dead Kims in Pyongyang have nothing on it). Seagulls regularly faint in the heat.
The Furness Peninsula crowd over the bay, with their crappy NHS hospital, daren't even take their sunglasses off when looking in our direction. The Marbella crowd move here en masse for the summer.
Plus, I always wear shorts and cool shades (like Horatio from CSI Miami), and all of Morecambe's wonderful womenfolk - even our wonderful would-be jihadi brides - wear bikinis all year round, even in the midst of winter.
Plus, I always wear shorts and cool shades (like Horatio from CSI Miami), and all of Morecambe's wonderful womenfolk - even our wonderful would-be jihadi brides - wear bikinis all year round, even in the midst of winter.
And, if proof were needed that today was unusual, the BBC's environmentalist analyst Roger Harrabin recently moved here in order to demonstrate global warming in action. He's tattooed the words, 'Phew, what a scorcher! Thank God for global warming!' on his left arm since arriving here.
[Well, at least according to the Morecambe Tourist Board].
That said, hope you saw more of the sun and its lunar 'stopper' than we did.
And, returning to blog-related matters, the BBC has been great to watch vis a vis the eclipse. This is the sort of thing they do brilliantly.
And, returning to blog-related matters, the BBC has been great to watch vis a vis the eclipse. This is the sort of thing they do brilliantly.
