Partial solar eclipse on the beach
We had bought our solar eclipse glasses after the partial eclipse in April 2025 but then we thought we lost them in the water leak damage, so we bought some new ones in July. And when packing up for De Panne, I had marked it on top of the list of things to take: the solar eclipse glasses because we'd have a 90% eclipse during our vacation there. And while packing up , we found both sets of glasses so we left well equipped. No hours-long queing for us to find some last minute for us.
Since we were near the beach we were also guarenteed of a nice viewing spot to see the sun in the west.
A friend came over to visit us and after a quick rushed dinner, we headed to the beach in the flow of many other people. Funny to see so many people on the beach in the evening.
Some eclipse pictures we managed to take
The eclipse above the sea before sunset
So what was it like? Quite different than I expected to be honest. This seems like a once in a lifetime experience, even though it's not a full solar eclips. We had one in 2011 in Belgium but I was in Canada at that time. And there's been in North-America when we were in Europe. This is a 90% eclipse and the next one in Belgium of decent size is in 2090 when I won't be alive anymore. So...a once in a lifetime opportunity not to be missed (unless I start travelliung the world and hunt for solar eclipses in the coming years eg southern Spain and Marocco in august 2027 already).
I knew it wasn't going to be a full solar eclipse and that makes a huge difference. The darkness, coldness, ...doesn't happen.
But now it was weird that it stayed as clear and sunny as it was. I had assumed that it would get more obscure anyhow. But it didn't.
And the solar eclipse glasses are funny too. Without glasses, it seems like a regular light evening. You can't look into the sun as always so just glaring a bit that direction as you'd dare to do on a regular evening doesn't show you any eclipse at all. You can't notice anything safely without glasses on. So I can imagine you'd be outside offline disconnected from the world , press and media and not. know in that case there is an eclipse happening.
With the eclipse glasses, you see total darkness with only the sun that gets eaten and gets smaller and then bigger again. But in darkness, so it feels more like staring into the moon and getting a full moon cycle in just one hour. Which is still a spectacular quick movement within an hour. The sun (seeming the moon) did get like a banana, as the children were yelling all the time.
I also had no idea that you can't take a simple picture of the sun. I know that you can't look into it, but I had the foolish idea you'd be able to point your camera to the sun and just click and get that eclipse visible. Nope, since it's not a full eclipse and the sun remains very bright without darkness, the camera just makes a big light blurr of the sun as on other days when you'd point into the sun.
We actually had to mess with extra eclipse glasses in front of the camara lens or Jan got a camara lens into the set and then stick it really closely without any air against the lens and be sure not to move at all for a long time (as it treats it as a night , trying to grasp as much light as possible...so the slightest movement if holding the camara in your hand blurrs everything too).
But we got some that worked out. In fact I like my last ones most, when we were already walking off. Then the sun was so low already, preparing for sunset, that I managed to get some sea reflection in the same shot.
Anyway, still glad I've seen it. But it makes me realise that a full eclipse must be way more spectacular anyhow.
I knew it wasn't going to be a full solar eclipse and that makes a huge difference. The darkness, coldness, ...doesn't happen.
But now it was weird that it stayed as clear and sunny as it was. I had assumed that it would get more obscure anyhow. But it didn't.
And the solar eclipse glasses are funny too. Without glasses, it seems like a regular light evening. You can't look into the sun as always so just glaring a bit that direction as you'd dare to do on a regular evening doesn't show you any eclipse at all. You can't notice anything safely without glasses on. So I can imagine you'd be outside offline disconnected from the world , press and media and not. know in that case there is an eclipse happening.
With the eclipse glasses, you see total darkness with only the sun that gets eaten and gets smaller and then bigger again. But in darkness, so it feels more like staring into the moon and getting a full moon cycle in just one hour. Which is still a spectacular quick movement within an hour. The sun (seeming the moon) did get like a banana, as the children were yelling all the time.
I also had no idea that you can't take a simple picture of the sun. I know that you can't look into it, but I had the foolish idea you'd be able to point your camera to the sun and just click and get that eclipse visible. Nope, since it's not a full eclipse and the sun remains very bright without darkness, the camera just makes a big light blurr of the sun as on other days when you'd point into the sun.
We actually had to mess with extra eclipse glasses in front of the camara lens or Jan got a camara lens into the set and then stick it really closely without any air against the lens and be sure not to move at all for a long time (as it treats it as a night , trying to grasp as much light as possible...so the slightest movement if holding the camara in your hand blurrs everything too).
But we got some that worked out. In fact I like my last ones most, when we were already walking off. Then the sun was so low already, preparing for sunset, that I managed to get some sea reflection in the same shot.
Anyway, still glad I've seen it. But it makes me realise that a full eclipse must be way more spectacular anyhow.
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