Eclipse!

Finally it's Wednesday the 14th of November, the day we've been waiting for. We get up at 3h45 to start the long drive towards Bob's Lookout. I didn't get much sleep, too restless before the big event. It's still dark when we set out to the mountains, but already we see signs of eclipse fever. Quite a few cars are on the move, and as soon as we leave Port Douglas, we see people camped out in vans by the side of the road. We're getting a bit nervous too: too many clouds to our liking. If the sky is not clear enough when we get to our observation location, we will have to keep driving to find a spot with clear weather, until start of totality if need be. REALLY not what you want during an eclipse.

Fortunately the skies clear up when we get further away from the coast. We make it to Bob's Lookout just in time to set up the camera. And we're clearly not the only ones gambling on better weather in the mountains: we just barely find a spot to park our car. There are some clouds very low on the horizon, so we miss first contact. But as soon as the sun rises a little higher, we can clearly see through our eclipse goggles that the eclipse has begun. It's showtime!

This is definitely one of the stranger eclipses I've seen. It starts at sunrise, so at first you see the daylight growing stronger, and you feel temperatures rising. But soon after, it starts to get colder and darker again. The light takes on a strange quality, very unreal. It almost feels like we're on a different planet. As we approach totality, we begin to see wave-like patterns on the rock wall behind us. It looks a bit like the reflection of sunlight on the water surface of a swimming pool. The fading sunlight is diffracted when it passes through the Earth's atmosphere, and you can actually see the turbulence in the atmosphere. You only get this effect when the sun is still low above the horizon when approaching an eclipse. It's the first time I've ever witnessed this during an eclipse.

And then all of a sudden everything happens really fast. I've barely got time to see Bailey's Beads, the last rays of sunshine passing through the craters on the moon's surface, when the Diamond Ring appears: the brilliant flash of the very last ray of light reaching the Earth. And then the sky goes dark, the corona appears, we have reached totality!

The sky is not completely clear, a very fine layer of clouds obscures our view of the sun. Not enough to miss the eclipse, but we do lose some detail in the corona. But hey, what the heck, it's still an amazing eclipse! And, as always, over before you know it. This one lasted about two minutes, way too short for a detailed observation. It's a good thing Koen's got great pics :-)

Most people pack up and leave after totality, but we stubbornly hang around 'till after fourth contact. Admittedly, Koen having the car keys might be a factor, he wants to photograph the event from start to finish.

And then it's really over: the moon has completely passed over the sun, all is normal again. We pack up and leave to visit Mosman Gorge, and we end the day with dinner at the Beach Shack to celebrate a successful eclipse. By the way, their raspberry and mango pizza with vanilla ice cream is divine!