From Vale Church to Vazon, every single legal parking space, and plenty of illegal ones, including bus lay-bys, were grabbed by people hungry to capture a glimpse of just a sliver of the sun, with the rest blocked by the moon, at about 7.15pm. The eclipse was 94%.
The coastal car parks had started to fill from around 5pm.
In places at Cobo the crowd was three-deep on the sea wall, while Vazon seemed to have even more people in the area.
‘The vibe at Vazon was great,’ said one onlooker.
‘A really good evening and an amazing spectacle.’
Hospitality businesses did well, especially at Cobo, where the Cobo Bay Hotel, Rockmount and La Reunion were all packed.
Elaine Mahy, secretary of the astronomy section of La Societe Guernesiaise, was involved in hosting an event for friends, family and enthusiasts at Pleinmont.
She said that she was delighted by how the eclipse turned out.
‘It was a very viewable eclipse,’ she said.
‘It was nice to see the phases pass through, that was something I had been looking forward to.
‘It was really lovely to observe all these moments.
‘Nice to see that everything you hoped was going to happen did so. The pinhole projector actually worked, you could really see the crescent, so I was really pleased with that.’
Ms Mahy went to Alderney to view the total eclipse of the sun in 1999, and stood on the Breakwater with hundreds of other enthusiasts.
‘Everything then was focused on Alderney, but this time you had a similar experience across the country.’
She said that the advance of the digital age this time around had also made the experience much different.
She also hoped that the widespread interest show in the eclipse would bring some new enthusiasts into astronomy as a hobby.
‘For some people it’s just a phenomenon and tomorrow or next week it will be forgotten.
‘But I hope that some people we invited who we know are fairly keen will want to develop their interest and that some people we don’t know will pick up an interest too.’
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