Quote:
Originally Posted by FNQView
What an amazing experience!! Did anyone else notice the strange " Shimmer Shadows " on the ground either side of totality ?? Does anyone know the name of this phenomenon ? Was it caused by the the event occurring at such a shallow angle to the horizon or was it shadows of reflected radiation from the upper atmosphere? Amazing stuff !!
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Saw the whole thing from 9,500 feet above Maitland Downs. 3 other planes up there milling around to the south. Very quiet on the airband radio until someone said "Look to the west". Just as totality started, a bunch of fireworks erupted from around nearby Adams Dam.
From where I was sitting, the approaching shadow looked like a dark swarm with no defined edges. Just a little bit spooky, like you see on the movies.
One of the passengers saw the shimmering/tunnel effect and someone else in a western suburb of Cairns reckon they saw it too.
Here's a link to the video recorded on a mobile phone which was taped to a window looking to the west. Any shimmering effect on the video seems to be from the auto-aperture and/or auto-white balance trying to cope with the low light. Just before totality, watch for the sunlight reducing in size on the wing strut (green-tinted light is through a window, and white light is direct from the sun):
https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/phot...eat=directlink
For the record, the following URL has our flightpath - when the page opens, click on the
here link, and then the
view link for
13/Nov/2012:
https://app.spidertracks.com/Home.mv...UFZ83hNK0sLx42
Somebody said: "You don't usually see a sunset in the east, but today we did." We landed at Cairns at 7.30 and got to Palm Cove at 9.30 but it was back to normal tourist mode by then. Must have been the last person in Palm Cove wearing an IIS t-shirt. Where was the party?