Not looking good for the 7th Feb Partial Solar Ec.

[Outbackmanyep]

Bloody CLOUDS!

Looking at BOM maps, its not looking too promising for any kind of sunshine on Thursday arvo!

This is depressing!!!!! :sadeyes:

[h0ughy]

yep your not wrong - we were forecasted with the next 5 days rain and storms

[OneOfOne]

Prediction is "few showers" for Melbourne. Fingers crossed.

[iceman]

Not looking good :( not happy :(

[sheeny]

It just doesn't look good.:(:rolleyes:

Al.

[CoombellKid]

Yup!!! as it goes the weather has been pretty lame for some months up
here. I think we have had two partially sunny days since the start of
December last year, with a good 85-90% of those days it rained. We were
flooded in yesterday with one of our bridges into Coombell going under water.
Wasn't much of a school holiday for the kids being stuck inside for most of it.

But I'm still hopeful of a reprieve from this weather :help:

regards,CS

[DJVege]

We've got rain clearing on Thursday...so hopefully the clouds will part. I might just duck out of the office early on Thursday. ;)

[Glenhuon]

Looks like I'll be 90kms away from home on Thursday. one of the girls has to go to Wagga and have the braces removed (an all day job). I might just find a corner in the van to put the 80mm, solar filter and a tripod, just in case it clears. :)

Bill

[OneOfOne]

Hmmm....Melbourne is now "mostly cloudy" :mad2:

[mlcolbert]

and this is unusual? :lol:

[Sausageman]

The clouds are breaking up west of Brisbane and the Sun is shining.
The eclipse might be on the cards.

Having not had any clear skies for what seems like months, I am looking forward to this event.

Mike.

[Outbackmanyep]

Sun is shining ..... clouds still around but its clearing, ooooohhhhh, fingers crossed!!!!!!

[ving]

clouding over now... typical!

[erick]

Just had to close the curtains so I don't get sunburnt in my office in NE Melbourne! This is going to be an interesting day. Scope is in the car ready to set up this afternoon. :prey:

[RB]

:sad:

Hope we get a glimpse at least. :(

[ving]

not looking good andrew... hate to rain on ya parade (pun intended) :(

[RB]

Photoshop is my friend Ving, I'll have to "Milli-Vanilli" this one.......:lol:

[ving]

:rofl:
good one :P

[Ric]

I've got rain, rain and more rain.

[bizarro]

It was looking promising in Sydney this morning but now it's cloudy and has started to rain where I am. Not looking good for us.

Greg

[AJames]

These are negative waves, man...
Perhaps we should all instead collectively think...
"It gonna be clear, Its gonna be clear..."

Perhaps we should all try Zen astronomy...

[matt]

It's looking like we'll get to see this from Brisbane...

Which is a minor miracle after all the cloud and rain we've had for weeks...and weeks...and weeks!!!:rolleyes:

Unfortunately, we'll only get about 14% of the sun obscured.

Hope some of you guys further down south get some great pics/viewing:thumbsup:

[erick]

NE Melbourne update:- :rain: :sadeyes:

[§AB]

Its overcast and drab here but I'm not fussed, the magnitude of the eclipse is simply too small from Melbourne.

If it was a total solar eclipse however, this would definately be another "typical Melbourne weather" moment. I'd also be suffering from extreme hypertension right about now aswell.


By all means not! And neither is the sub-zero temps that come as part of the package :lol:

[jjjnettie]

It's definitely looking good for us here in South East Queensland.
I've packed the scopes and tripods in the car and I'm ready to go.
I'm having an eclipse viewing in one of the car parks in town.
Unfortunately I have to be at work by 3.30 (I'm supposed to start at 1pm) so once it reaches maximum, I'll have to pack up and go.

[OneOfOne]

It cleared in old Melbourne Town around 12:00...then it clouded over. It is now nearly 1:30 and it is 100% cloud, with a smattering of drizzle. We need the rain, but not right now!:mad2:

[citivolus]

Looking good here, too bad my solar filters for the current batch of scopes are still on back order. I'll have to stick to binoculars and the camera lens this time around.

[ving]

news flash! the skies have cleared over rockdale and its a perfect day for solar observing!!!!








not...

[Terry B]

Clear enough here but I have to keep working.

[CoombellKid]

A bit touch and go here, but I'm sure we'll get to see some of it. I made
some filters for my 20x80's : )

Afternoon astronomy, nothing like sitting down and having a few cold
ones and watching the sun.

Good luck ppl

regards,CS

[AJames]

How shocking is this. According to the Sydney Morning Herald ;
http://www.smh.com.au/news/science/partial-eclipse/2008/02/07/1202234014021.html

"The effect will begin at 1.55pm in Sydney, reach its peak at 2.43pm and disappear by 3.34pm, John O'Byrne, the secretary of the Astronomical Society of Australia, said."
then
"But a thunderstorm over Sydney has spoiled the party, with rain falling across the metropolitan area."

Sunshine here at the moment.

According to the IIS site, the times are 2:52pm, 3:44pm mid-eclipse, and 4:34 pm at its end.

Someone methinks forgot daylight savings.

Unbelievable - and quoted by the ASA no less!

Andrew

[CoombellKid]

it's started a few minutes ago : )

regards,CS

[kljucd1]

Hi,

Nothing but sucker holes over Liverpool. Managed to get a couple of shots though however the last one was without the filter as the clouds were so thick that no light would go through the filter.

Daniel...

[The FishMan]

I am standing outside the State Library of Victoria and the cloud is thin enough to see something. Best thing that has happened in a while, we have missed out on all of the severe Thunderstorms, at least I get to see some of the eclipse.

[madtuna]

pouring rain here just south of Wolongong...can't see the sky let alone the partial eclipse :(

[spacezebra]

Hi Guys

Just a quick pic from my Kodak Easy Share - sky is blue and clear and I have no Coronado :sadeyes:. Ahhhh but I have eclipse glasses! Come on someone must have photos.

38138

Cheers Petra

[Dennis]

I've got the Vixen 102mm f9 refractor running in the back garden with the Canon 40D fitted at prime focus. Using Remote Live View and the interval shooter, I am taking photos every 30 seconds and it's looking a very nice celestial spectacle from Brisbane; a minor miracle indeed!

Browsing the folder of images as they accumulate shows a few solar discs overlaid with scattered cloud as bands of cloud drift in from the NW.

Cheers

Dennis

[citivolus]

About 10 minutes ago a nice big cloud moved in front of the sun. Grrrrr.

[Glenhuon]

Just got a 5 min look at the tail end of the eclipse. By the time I'd set up the cam, clouded out again :sadeyes:. Well, at least the Mrs and kids got to see a bit of it.

Bill

[The FishMan]

I have seen something, like devine intervention, the clouds cleared off. I got out my brother's welding mask and saw it about 3.45pm Melbourne EDT. I have not had any luck with Thunderstorm this year, so I was chuffed when I got to see it. Left my camera at home because I thought it was going to stay overcast all day. Half a bummer.

[citivolus]

I was apparently over sampling my seeing. There were lots of artefacts from seeing distortion.

This shot was taken at about 15:50. It is a median stack of 7 frames to try to combat the seeing conditions. The first shot is a 100% crop, the second is scaled 50%. You can see the second is more visually pleasing, if smaller.

We needed some sunspots to spice this one up a bit!

Processing info: Canon 40D, 70-200mm f/2.8L @ 200mm f/8, 2x teleconverter, Orion solar filter, 1/800 second, ISO 400, 7 frames aligned and stacked in IP, cropped + converted to JPEG with Photoshop.

Eric

[h0ughy]

rain in Newcastle - -it was a no show

[Outbackmanyep]

:thumbsup: Great shots Citivolus!!! I agree with the sunspot comment, it would have aided focussing MUCH better!
I got 160 shots in! and only 3 stoppages for clouds! They move quick up here!!!!

[CoombellKid]

Nice pics Eric!

Well we had pretty good weather, amazingly enough. Watched the start
through the 20x80's then switched to the PST (and hand held the 20x80's)
I could easily see three surface filaments, several small proms in groups
around the limb. Had a patches of cloud in the beginning clearing from
about mid transit.


regards,CS

[sheeny]

Well it was a typical tease here!

I didn't expect to see anything, but I knocked off work at 4 and the sun was shining (admittedly through a big sucker hole, but the important thing was it was shining!):). So I raced home (about 5 minutes), no time to set up a scope and the PST is still away... so I grabbed a cardboard box, punched a tech screw through one end to make a pinhole camera, and raced outside just in time for the the sucker hole to close up and laugh at me!:P Typical...

I suppose I wasn't expecting to see it so I'm not too disappointed, but I do like to look at everyone else's pics!:thumbsup:

Al.

[space oddity]

The skies were distinctly black and rainy in Sydney. It was rather dark - was it to do with 20 % of the sun blocked?:rofl:

[OneOfOne]

I looked outside several times around 2:30 but there was nothing but cloud. Even around 3:30 is was cloudy. I was going to knock off a little later but got caught up tracking down a sofware bug. I finally left work around 4:10 to bright sunshine! I got the "sun" glasses out and could just make out the tiniest bit of the Sun missing. Had I left when I was going to, it would have been clear as most of the cloud was gone when I did leave. So now I am kicking myself I didn't leave when I was going to as I would have seen it was clear and had a better look....:(