Eclipse

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Viewing event

Solar Eclipse Viewing

19 March 2015
There’s a 90% solar eclipse this Friday morning, 20 March Maximum extent occurs at around 9.30am. Various methods of viewing the eclipse will be available in Trinity College outside B2 Great Court from 8.30am on Friday. All welcome!    (bring a small mirror if you can) To get an idea of how to view the eclipse safely take a look at what we did in 2004 for the Transit of Venus <http://www2.eng.cam.ac.uk/~hemh/transit.htm> You’ll see what the mirror is for.  Hopefully the weather will be OK!

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The above announcement was sent to all of Engineering.  Mark and I still remember seeing a similar level of eclipse back in NJ, so we were very psyched.  Of course, the weather forecast was for clouds until 11am, which was after the eclipse would be over.  Nonetheless, we  went over to Trinity College around 9 to see what was up and there was a hardy group of fellow revelers there despite the clouds.  The event was hosted by some random Engineering professor who apparently does this sort of thing as a hobby.  We waited around for the 30 minutes until peak, but since it was already cloudy it didn't seem to get much darker.  

Trinity College Library

Inside Trinity Library

The Trinity Library is very famous and was opening early with a special eclipse exhibit, so we decided to go over to that and hope that some clearing of the sky would happen.  Unlike Emmanuel College (my college), Trinity scores high on the wow factor.  You walk through a corrider and emerge into a courtyard, with the library straight ahead.  Gasp worthy. The ground level is a covered cloister, while the actual library is on top.  When you actually go into the library it is time for more gasps.  The pictures don't do it justice.  In addition to the eclipse things, we got to see various possesions of Isaac Newton (including his own Principia copy) and a handwritten Winnie the Pooh book.

Trinity College Main Court

Happy Spring

At 10:00 we reemerged back to the cloudy outdoors.  The crowds at the event viewing had really thinned, but our host kept encouraging people to stay as the clouds were thinning.  And we were rewarded for our patience about 15 minutes later when the cloud cover was light enough that we could actually glimpse the eclipse for a teeny bit now and then.  And because it was so so cloudy we could look directly.  Or so he says, and I haven't lost my vision yet.

Just as predicted, the sun did come out around 11 and it turned into a beautifully clear day.  I was very taken with the daffodil cupcakes that I saw in a window - it was also the first day of spring.

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Cambridge Colleges

Master's Lodge, Christ's

Entrance to Christ's

We haven't been at all good about trying to achieve our goal of seeing all thirty-something colleges in the University.  So we knocked 4 off the list last weekend, getting up early to take advantage of the nice sunny morning before the rainy afternoon.  We didn't realize it was the half-marathon so didn't think we could even cross the road to get to most of them, but eventually we found the crossing spot and managed to execute our plan.  The colleges are like cloisters.  You enter off the busy road through a big gate in a wall (the Porter's Lodge), and when you enter the college it is like going through the rabbit hole and emerging in another world.  Typically you enter through the oldest "court" which is a square of very old buildings with green space in the middle (those famous lawns).  Then you go through more gates to progressively newer courts, passing various gardens and standard buildings like the Master's Lodge, Chapel, Library, Tutorial Offices, Residences and (Dining) Halls.  Many things are not open to the public. Eventually you end up in the newer parts of campus which have modern buildings.  Some of the colleges front the river and in fact span over to the other side.  Their age and who studied there is truly amazing.

We saw:

• Christ's College: Founded 1505.  Alums include Charles Darwin and John Milton.



Entering G&C



G&C towards Senate House

• Gonville and Caius College: Founded 1348 (4th oldest). Alums include Francis Crick and Stephen Hawking.

• Trinity College: Founded 1546 by Henry VIII.  Alums include Isaac Newton, Niels Bohr, Ludwig Wittgenstein, Bertrand Russell, and even Prince Charles.
 

Trinity Gate

 



Entering Trinity

 

• St. John's College: Founded 1511.  Alums include William Wordsworth.

St. John's

St. John's across the Cam

We've also been to

• Emmanuel College (my host college, founded 1584)
• Queen's College (noted in a prior post, founded 1448)
• King's College (founded 1441, visited most recently last night for the following concert)

Foundation Concert: Haydn Celebration

Saturday 14 March 2015, 5.30pm

The Chapel

John Wallace, alumnus, is a well known and virtuoso exponent of Haydn’s ground-breaking trumpet concerto. Haydn’s Mass in Time of War is one of his celebrated late mass settings.

• Haydn: Te Deum
• Haydn: Organ concerto in C
• Haydn: Trumpet Concerto in E flat
• Haydn: Paukenmesse – Missa in Tempore Belli

The Rest of the Week

Winter Jasmine

Geranium

Snowdrops

It is amazing how many things are in bloom here, although this weekend we are under a "cold weather alert" (level 3!).  This seems to just mean it might get below freezing.

We have a very nice walk to the Engineering Building through a pretty residential neighborhood.  Although someone told us that our flat is in a bohemian area, it seems to get pretty ritzy a block or two away. Here is a house for sale for over 2 million US $.  Most houses have nice front gardens as shown in the photos above.  It is a bit of a treacherous walk though as the pavement (sidewalks) are sloped and very slippery when wet which is most of the time.  And the street lighting is really poor for our walk home in the dark.  Even at midday the sun never really gets high in the sky.

I went to the cinema to see The Imitation Game.  Turing in fact was a student at Cambridge.  At least in the theatre I went to, you buy a ticket with an assigned seat.  The pre-movie trailers and ads were quite different than at home.

Today we went to see a free organ recital by Jack Spencer, with a program that was unusual and varied and which we both enjoyed:

Litaize - Épiphanie
Karg-Elert - Wie schön leuchtet der Morgenstern (No. 64, Op. 65)
Buxtehude - Wie schön leuchtet der Morgenstern (BuxWV 223)
Messiaen - Desseins éternels, Les mages (Nos. 3 and 8 from La Nativité du Seigneur)
Dubois - Marche des Rois Mages
Reger - Fugue from Fantasia and Fugue on the Choral ‘Wie schön leucht’ uns der Morgenstern’ (No. 1, Op. 40).

The Chapel

The Organ

The concert was held in  Queens' College Chapel, which also gave us an excuse to see that College.  Mark had the excellent idea that we should attempt to visit all 29 colleges of Cambridge University in our 3 months here. Queens is quite lovely and spans the river.  The Cloister Court has a really old timbered building (the oldest building on the river), and Mark found that he has a namesake (a Sanskrit expert it turns out).

After the concert we went to the Fitzwilliam Museum to see Silent Partners - a show about mannequins that is about to end.