I just want to say thanks to my website sponsor Extravision Australia, for making possible today’s total solar eclipse webcast live from Cairns (or to be more specific Clifton Beach which is slightly North of Cairns). I used a iOptron Solar 60 computerized telescope system sold by ExtraVision Australia and streamed my video live to Ustream.tv (using the name Nightskyonline).
It wasn’t all smooth sailing (or should I say web casting). For starters the horizon view from my rental house wasn’t clear (lots of beautiful palm trees) which meant that I had to go for plan B which was web casting from the beach. Unfortunately my laptop battery no longer holds a charge meaning that I had to quickly order a new battery on Monday. It had to arrive the next day from Sydney (the day before the eclipse) or I was going to ‘Plan B’ which was buying a new laptop (any excuse will do). Fortunately it did meaning that I avoided spending more money and wasting a day installing all the software which you have to with a new computer. The next problem was cloud. I was hoping for a clear horizon to lock the telescope onto the Sun before the partial phase of the eclipse occurred. Unfortunately that didn’t happen and the eclipse was well under way before we started to get glimpses of the partially eclipsed Sun.
Unfortunately, our views of the eclipse were extremely impacted by significant cloud. If you look at the video I saved on my Ustream.tv account, the Sun often disappeared from view due to the thickness of the cloud. Near the end of the video, you will see a thin crescent fade away to nothing. That is when totality occurred Unfortunately we only saw about 20 seconds view of it before the cloud moved in and the Sun was lost from view. At that point, the light from the solar corona wasn’t bright enough to be seen through the solar filter and I didn’t have time to take the filter off before cloud covered the Sun.
A final word. If you haven’t seen a total solar eclipse, try to. It was an ‘out of this world experience’ watching day turn to night (well, more of a bright twilight) and to be able to briefly see the Sun’s atmosphere streaming away from it.
