by Chris Malicki
Five years ago,
my
wife's cousin and her family from New South Wales, Au. visited us and I
promised them that
we would come see them in Dec. 2002 for the solar eclipse. This would
be my wife Liz's
and my 9th total solar eclipse. Well, we kept our word. With the help
of
Fred
Espenak's
eclipse
circular, and with the excellent writeup of the path from Fraser
Farrell's
website, I
determined
far in advance that the best place to observe would be the Stuart
highway
near the railway
siding of Wirraminna.
Three days before
the eclipse, we set out in a van from the Blue Mountains near Sydney
through
the length of New
South Wales, Mildura in Victoria State, and via Adelaide, to Port
Augusta.
Just south of
Port Augusta, on the side of the road was a large sign advertising
"eclipse
information". It
was a cute stand where volunteers were handing out a 14-page booklet
produced
by the S. Australia
Tourism Commission entitled: "Eclipse in the Outback". It was nicely
printed
with a full page
photo of a TSE (? the 2001 eclipse).The booklet stated: "A total
eclipse
of the
sun is arguably
nature's most spectacular and awe-inspiring phenomenon ... it provides
a rare
and spectacular
experience for those lucky enough to be in the path of totality." and
then:
"directly
viewing the solar
eclipse may cause painless but serious eye damage ... there is no safe
way
of directly looking
at any eclipse of the sun ... people should not look directly at any
eclipse
of
the sun." It goes
on to say that television and projection can be used. Most
unfortunately
there
was no statement
about observing totality directly.
After spending the
night of Dec. 3-4 in Port Augusta we drove with no problems to Woomera
to pick up eclipse
souvenirs such as eclipse hats, tee-shirts, and
souvenir
stamp covers entitled
"Eclipse in the
outback, Woomera SA" The cover had a nice picture of an annular
eclipse
on it.
The visitor centre
in Woomera was inundated with eclipse tourists and had difficulty
coping
with
the crowd. After
waiting in line for half an hour, I was finally able to purchase the
items
mentioned.
We did not wish
to be dependent on the buses in the Woomera Prohibited Area, so we
drove
to
the railway siding
at Wirraminna, with the aid of Fraser's topographic maps and
descriptions
of
the Stuart
highway.
We ended up driving about 2 km. north of the railway siding. Although
there
were a number of
other vans, cars, tents, the area is so large that our nearest
neighbour
was at
least one kilometer,
or 2 trees away from us. With great difficulty, due to the howling
wind,
we set
up a tarp, Canadian
and Australian flags, and our tents. I estimate our position to be
31deg.
9.75min.
south,
and 136deg 05.5min east; i.e.2.5 km. away from the centreline and midway
between the highway
and the train tracks.
It was a fabulous
clear blue sky, windy and cool with no flies. We instructed our
Australian
relatives
on the proper
observation
techniques, observed the partial phases with a filtered ETX
scope.
I find
that most people,
esp. first timers do not witness the 1st diamond ring because they do
not
look at
the sun (or are
afraid to) until it is totally eclipsed, and only see the 2nd diamond.
However, as in
most eclipses, I
have become used to glancing naked eye, unfiltered about 15 sec. before
totality
and was again
rewarded
by seeing the corona first appear out of the brilliant crescent sun and
I
saw the beautiful
1st diamond ring at the 1 o'clock position. 29 seconds is a very
brief time to
observe totality.
The corona had four or five major streamers, fairly symetrical and
about
one solar
diameter (1/2
degree)
long. Polar brushes were evident. Prominences at 1 o'clock and 7
o'clock
were nice but not
as large as in some of the other eclipses I've seen. The chromosphere
was
dramatic due to
the apparent close fit of the moon with the sun. The third-contact
diamond
ring
appeared. A few
seconds later, Liz and I turned around and saw the thinnest lunar
shadow
we've
ever seen (only
34 km wide). Liz remarked that it had very well defined edges. We are
used
to
seeing a huge black
wall of a shadow not such a thin finger which very rapidly (in seconds)
disappeared towards
the north west.
Finally, we
watched
and photographed the setting crescent sun. At night I observed the most
brilliant zodiac
light I've ever seen, and looked for nebulae and clusters in the Large
Magellanic
Cloud.
Finally,
a we drove back to the Blue Mountains, 2000 km away seeing hundreds of
emus
and kangaroos, and
a koala close up on a tree trunk near Siding Spring Observatory.
As Fraser Farrell
aptly stated in a newspaper, the brief moment of totality is like the
finger
of God
briefly touching
the world of men. I totally agree (pun intended).
Chris Malicki