The birds may have stopped tweeting during the solar eclipse on Friday (March 20) but the people certainly didn’t.

Crowds filled Chester’s Town Hall Square from 8.30am where Chester Astronomical Society had set up telescopes and information points to view the rare natural phenomenon.

Within minutes, their short supply of solar eclipse glasses had run out and people queued to see the event on their much more sophisticated equipment.

Lord Mayor of Chester Bob Rudd and Lady Mayoress Sandra Rudd were mingling with the crowds before they attended the University of Chester graduation ceremony at the city’s cathedral.

A visiting professor at the university, the aptly-named Professor Henry Sun, also caught a glimpse of the moon passing over his namesake before the ceremony with executive dean of business enterprise and lifelong learning Professor Phil Harris.

Children from the University Cathedral Free School were wrapped up warm to witness the event as the disappearing sun caused a chill over the city.

And staff at many businesses throughout the area were allowed an extra break during the early part of the day to pop outside their workplace to soak up the atmosphere of this historic occasion.

Dozens of people armed with homemade pinhole cameras and cereal box contraptions climbed to the top of Frodsham Hill hoping to catch a glimpse of the solar eclipse and they were not disappointed.

One pair of friends used welder’s mirrors while a family had made a telescope and paper device to view the phenomenon.