Dawn off the Eastern sea-board of the United States of America on August 11th 1999 will be a strange dawn indeed. A dark dawn, a dawn without the sun. The sun will rise, but so too will the moon, directly with it in total eclipse , carrying the night on with it, into the day.

Thereafter the totality will race across the Atlantic with the turning of the Earth, finally striking land again at the very tip of the United Kingdom, in Cornwall. Just after eleven o'clock on the morning of the 11th of August a total eclipse will visible across the county of Cornwall.

The path of maximum duration of totality, just over two minutes, will only be seen in the very south western tip of the county, a line running roughly between Falmouth and Penzanze. But a total eclipse will be visible as far north as Port Isaac and as far east as Teignmouth, where it will last no longer than thirty seconds.

Thereafter the earth will turn on, with the path of totality racing onwards over France, bringing its unnatural darkness to central Europe, to the Middle and Near East, to India, before finally disappearing over the Bay of Bengal in sunset as dark as the sunrise was.