There's a little black dot on the sun today

[tamaranth]

... and luckily I remembered where* my eclipse-viewing glasses were. Knew they'd come in useful some day! (Hmm: it says on the back 'not to be used after August 12th, 1999'.)

A little black dot. But a little black dot that has not been seen in living memory.

::goes off to have another look::

*being used as a bookmark halfway through The Year 1000, of course.