La Jornada: After the eclipse, the Perseid meteor shower illuminated the sky in Europe

Astronomy fans in Europe enjoyed a night marked by the peak of the traditional Perseid meteor shower, which came after the best solar eclipse seen in decades.

The Moon covered more than 90 percent of the Sun, the highest percentage observed in the British sky since the 1999 total eclipse.

Crowds gathered in different parts of the United Kingdom to observe the phenomenon. Among them were the Royal Greenwich Observatory, in London; Stonehenge, in Wiltshire; Calton Hill, Edinburgh, and the surrounding area of ​​Queen’s University, Belfast.

Spectators wore special glasses and homemade visors made from cereal boxes and strainers. Others brought their own chairs, while photographers came with their cameras to capture the eclipse.

Videos shared on social media showed a long queue of people in Goring, West Sussex, apparently waiting to receive glasses to view the eclipse.

After the phenomenon, searches for “eye pain” on Google increased 650 percent in the United Kingdom compared to the same time on Tuesday.

The increase came after experts recommended viewing the eclipse only with ISO 12312-2 certified lenses, as sunglasses did not offer sufficient protection.

The English Heritage organization reported that the eclipse peaked over Stonehenge around 7pm on Wednesday. In Greenwich Park, southeast of London, spectators reacted with expressions such as “wow,” “Oh my God” and “this is incredible” as they watched the phenomenon.

Thousands of people also gathered on Crosby beach in Merseyside. When the eclipse reached its peak, a mother installed on a bus in the open-air space The Bus Yard reproduced Here Comes The Sunde The Beatles.

In Cardiff Bay, hundreds of people flocked to the seawall to watch the eclipse. In addition, there was heavy traffic in the Penarth area as members of the public tried to arrive in time to observe the peak coverage.

The eclipse also marked a wedding in Alpheton, Suffolk. Jerry and Jamie Bone, ages 30 and 25, had planned for more than a year to get married that day so the ceremony would coincide with the phenomenon. The couple provided special lenses and filters so their guests could observe it.

Hours later, astronomy fans in the United Kingdom were able to enjoy another spectacle: the Perseid meteor shower illuminated the night sky. The phenomenon reached its peak during the early hours of Thursday and rural areas offered better conditions to observe it clearly.

The Perseid meteor shower occurs when Earth passes through a stream of dust left behind by Comet Swift-Tuttle. Each small fragment enters the Earth’s atmosphere at 60 kilometers per second and burns up in a brief flash that looks like a shooting star.

For their part, stores, national parks and the Royal Greenwich Observatory sold out of their special lenses before the eclipse, which was the one with the greatest coverage the country will have for the next 54 years.

The Royal Observatory in Greenwich reported that it sold about 15,000 pairs of eclipse glasses last month and sold out of its entire stock.

John Lewis reported that sales of colanders increased almost 40 percent from a year earlier after NASA recommended the kitchen utensil as a way to track the eclipse by the shadows it casts on the ground. However, to look directly at the Sun, experts recommended using only special eclipse glasses with ISO 12312-2 certification and warned that sunglasses do not offer sufficient protection.

The risks to sight had already become evident after the total solar eclipse of 1999, when the Royal College of Ophthalmologists recorded nearly 70 cases of people with vision problems after observing the phenomenon. About 40 percent had looked at it for less than a minute.