This morning hosted one of the most exciting events of the year ... or it was supposed to. I rose early and gazed to the east to view the rising sun. Alas it was cloud covered, though the high level stratus began to burn off after a while. Meanwhile, I went on-line to see how the expected event was progressing in Cairns 2000 km to the north. It was then that I realised I had mistimed my tracking of the solar eclipse and had risen an hour too early, a mistake due in part to the fact that NSW is on summer time but Queensland doesn't the clocks forward. So a solar eclipse timed for 6.40 am Qld time really occurs at 7.40 am in NSW.
In Cairns, the eclipse was total, like the one I saw a decade ago standing on Dartmoor in SW England. Further south, in Armidale NSW, it only reached 60% or so and barely darkened the landscape. Certainly the birds inhabiting our garden failed to fly home to roost and we had the usual constellation of rainbow lorikeets, king parrots, galahs, crimson rosellas, and others. I managed to make out the moon taking lumps out of the sun whenever the cloud dispersed momentarily, but the show was muted. I even tried to take photos of the vent, though again with little success as I don't have the right filters. The picture below is the best of the lot, but unimpressive. It was taken from our garden close to the maximum 60% occlusion at 8 am (AEST + 1 = summer time), but the sun still seems to be shining with its usual brightness. Perhaps the misty high level cloud is hiding the 60% of the sun that's missing!
Oh well. Better luck next time. Meanwhile the eclipse's track means that the Cairns region is just about the only spot on the planet to see 100% version. The remainder of the track is across the South Pacific and barely touches any land before reaching Chile close to dusk on that side of the ocean.
AS
In Cairns, the eclipse was total, like the one I saw a decade ago standing on Dartmoor in SW England. Further south, in Armidale NSW, it only reached 60% or so and barely darkened the landscape. Certainly the birds inhabiting our garden failed to fly home to roost and we had the usual constellation of rainbow lorikeets, king parrots, galahs, crimson rosellas, and others. I managed to make out the moon taking lumps out of the sun whenever the cloud dispersed momentarily, but the show was muted. I even tried to take photos of the vent, though again with little success as I don't have the right filters. The picture below is the best of the lot, but unimpressive. It was taken from our garden close to the maximum 60% occlusion at 8 am (AEST + 1 = summer time), but the sun still seems to be shining with its usual brightness. Perhaps the misty high level cloud is hiding the 60% of the sun that's missing!
Oh well. Better luck next time. Meanwhile the eclipse's track means that the Cairns region is just about the only spot on the planet to see 100% version. The remainder of the track is across the South Pacific and barely touches any land before reaching Chile close to dusk on that side of the ocean.
AS
No comments:
Post a Comment