Could you see the eclipse?

On July 18, 1860, there was a total solar eclipse. It was the first eclipse to be photographed, by British astronomer Warren de la Rue, in Spain. (Being Victorian, he wrote a whole book about it.)

I am writing a scene of bonding between two characters: the 10-year-old Tommy Jones and recently fired Sergeant Slaughter. Tommy is interested in all sorts of things, and the eclipse has caught his fancy. He has forced Slaughter to explain it many times before it happens. And now the day is here.

Because I am the author, the scene must be set with historical accuracy. We are in the City, in London. Checking the calendar, July 18 is a Wednesday, so most people are at work and the area would be fairly busy.

So would Tommy be able to see the eclipse at all in the UK? The newspapers report that all the European astronomers went to Spain to view it. In America they went to Oregon, Washington, and Alaska (apparently Secretary of State William Seward’s first trip to the place he would later make part of the U.S.).

What was its trajectory? Here’s a graphic by Fred Espenak of EclipseWise:

I am not an astronomer. How far away is that from London, in big sky terms? Harpers Weekly’s anticipatory map (Saturday, June 14) makes it look like it might be visible.

I go looking for latitude. London is 51.51 N. The eclipse at its height (about 2:30pm London time) was at 52.28 N. Is that close? Is it not? What would the partial look like from there?

Then there’s the weather. I know from here and many eyewitness reports that the summer of 1860 was one of the UK’s coldest and wettest on record. What if it was clouded over or raining and Tommy couldn’t see anything? Unfortunately, the Met Office didn’t keep daily records until September of that year. So that’s no help.

Often in desperation I turn to the Illustrated London News, a publication so fine I’ve had one of my characters work there. And there were all the answers. It reported this in its July 21 edition:

And pictures! They drew diagrams of how it looked from London.

Why didn’t I start my search here? Good heavens. Now I can write the scene.