Eclipse report from Ellis Beach, QLD, Australia

Wed, 11/14/2012 - 01:52 — Anik De Groof

Anik De Groof, ESA scientist for SWAP and LYRA, travelled to Queensland, Australia to watch the eclipse and present PROBA2's eclipse data at the solar physics conference "Eclipse at the Coral Sea: Cycle 24 ascending". This is her local report of the eclipse.

This morning at 5:15 am local time, I went out to the beach at Ellis Beach, a bit north of Palm Cove, QLD. It was partially cloudy, but at least the weather seemed nicer than expected from the weather forecasts. People had become quite nervous of the bad forecasts, and although some of my colleagues decided to drive inland last night, I decided to stay on the beach.

The sunrise was very beautiful but there were clouds hanging just above the rising Sun. And indeed, at first contact (around 5:44am), a big cloud was hiding the whole spectacle. People were getting upset as the cloud seemed to grow even bigger and 20 mins before totality we still had not seen anything of the partial eclipse.

But then everything changed! Clouds started dissolving and a little wedge of the Sun appeared.

The totality was marvellous, we could nicely see Baily's beads, the red chromosphere and even some prominences. The corona was quite round, not too many streamers sticking out.

I will let the pictures tell you the rest of the story!