I'm pretty sure that wherever you are in the world you will have heard that there has been a solar eclipse in the UK this morning. I am based in Yorkshire about half way up the country so we didn't see a total solar eclipse and it was pretty cloudy here unfortunately so the views weren't brilliant. Here's a snap of the event:
But what I did record and am pretty pleased with is the ambient light and temperature throughout the event. I used a little device I picked up from Silicon Labs at Embedded World called the Sensor Puck. By downloading a simple App the Sensor Puck allows you to monitor temperature, relative humidity, ambient light, UV index and heart rate.
I placed the little device outside for the duration of the eclipse and the results were what I expected but still dramatic. I have converted the results onto a couple of graphs below. I am sure you will agree with me that the dip in both temperature and ambient light is fascinating to see tracked. The temperature didn't return to its starting figure of 14 degrees until around 10.15am.
It shows how much we rely on the sun. It made me feel very humble witnessing such a phenomenal event! We won't see another eclipse like this one in the UK until 2090 and who knows what kind of equipment we will have for monitoring its effects then.