{"id":568044,"date":"2026-08-13T18:20:08","date_gmt":"2026-08-13T18:20:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/568044\/"},"modified":"2026-08-13T18:20:08","modified_gmt":"2026-08-13T18:20:08","slug":"kent-surrey-and-sussex-crowds-reflect-on-incredible-eclipse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/568044\/","title":{"rendered":"Kent, Surrey and Sussex crowds reflect on &#8216;incredible&#8217; eclipse"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Eclipse watchers gathered on beaches, hilltops and parks to watch the Moon pass in front of the Sun on Wednesday, describing the rare event as &#8220;incredible&#8221;. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">People across Kent, Surrey and Sussex brought out solar glasses, improvised pinhole cameras and kitchen colanders to watch the celestial event. Many turned the occasion into a picnic or party in the sun as temperatures climbed into the 30s.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Between 18:20 and 20:10 BST, the Moon caused a near-total eclipse of the Sun, giving people across the UK their best chance to witness the phenomenon since 1999. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Cars queued on coastal roads as eclipse enthusiasts gathered on beaches from Whitstable to Goring-by-Sea. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Spectators also flocked to the South Downs, and people turned up to witness the moment at beauty spots from Tunbridge Wells Common in Kent to Ockham Common in Surrey.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Eclipse watchers gathered on beaches, hilltops and parks to watch the Moon pass in front of the Sun&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":568045,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[111,139,69,147,392],"class_list":["post-568044","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-space","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-science","tag-space"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/568044","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=568044"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/568044\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/568045"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=568044"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=568044"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=568044"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}