Letter: Eclipse picnic

Sir: There has been so much advice about how to watch the solar eclipse and it's all so safe, prosaic and unromantic.

Go into a wood where there will be dappled light. Each ray of sunlight projected through the leaves will make a myriad pinhole images of the sun, which will overlap and shimmer in the breeze.

Place your tablecloth with a splendid brunch under small-leafed trees such as ash, silver birch or most fruit trees; the higher the leaf canopy the bigger the images. Have a camera ready to take photographs every five minutes as you see the circles of light on your tablecloth become crescents.

When it is totally dark, step into a clearing and observe the corona for a minute with a glass of champagne.

Return to your picnic and watch the crescent images swell until once again there is full sunlight. Finally take your last pictures of the smiling picnic party.

Umbrellas should be carried to ensure the sun shines.

NICHOLAS GAUNT

Leeds