The Eclipse is over, but the memory lingers on.

So do the thousands of eclipse viewers which people purchased to watch the event in safety.

But rather than chucking them in the back of a drawer, you could put the viewers to good use, and Dr Francis Podmore hopes you will.

He has launched a collection of eclipse viewers for Zimbabwe children so they can watch the next eclipse in 2001.

Dr Podmore, a professor at the University of Zimbabwe, came to Cornwall to watch the eclipse and is already looking forward to the next totality over Southern Africa in 20 months' time.

He has also been struck by the attention paid in Cornwall to public safety with the emphasis on eye protection.

He is worried that few children in Zimbabwe will have a clue about safety and will just see something going on up in the sky and look at it. And because it is Africa, the skies are likely to be completely clear.

He points out that although the glasses only cost a pound or two here, that will translate to a huge amount in Zimbabwe where wages are very low. Local people have no hope of paying for them.

Now that nobody will need the viewers in Cornwall until our next eclipse, which is some 90 years away, he hopes the public will hand them over.

He went to Radio Cornwall to launch his appeal, where staff handed all their viewers in.

Now he hopes that Cornish Times readers will be equally helpful and send their leftover viewers to Laurence Reed on BBC Radio Cornwall, Phoenix Wharf, Truro, Cornwall TR1 1UA.

All the viewers sent in will be checked for damage and scratches, so they will be completely safe for the children of Zimbabwe to use.