Eclipse from the Mulligan Highway

[RickS]

We headed out from Trinity Beach the night before the eclipse and went 200km in search of guaranteed clear skies. Unfortunately, that meant getting back late and tired the next day and missing the get together at Palm Cove :sadeyes:

Here are a few quick images with minimal processing. Will have a go at stacking some images of the corona when I get home.

Pics taken with Nikon D800E and 70-200m lens on a fixed tripod. My portable mount refused to track so plans to use my FS-60 and a second camera came to nought...

Cheers,
Rick.

[Larryp]

Great images, Rick!

[iceman]

Very nice Rick!

[strongmanmike]

Well done Rick

Mike

[Paul Haese]

Well done Rick, no cloud without the drama we had.

[RickS]

Thanks, Laurie, Mike^2 and Paul!

[multiweb]

That's a really nice set of Pic Rick. Gotta be stoked with that. Well done indeed. :thumbsup:

[RickS]

Thanks, Marc!

[Dennis]

Great shots Rick. The 1st image ticks all the boxes for me; the foreground tree and the gossamer thin striated clouds veiling the partially eclipsed Sun all combine to produce a dramatic photo.

Cheers

Dennis

[SkyViking]

Beautiful shots! Looks like you got a lot of the corona there, it's huge.

[naskies]

Nice work, Rick! Looking forward to seeing your processed photos.

[Matt Wastell]

Hi Rick - they are pretty great now - looking forward to the repro!

[colinmlegg]

Love the 2nd shot. Really nice! :)

[RickS]

Thanks, Dennis! When I realised that the tree was just where the sun was going to rise I decided to take a risk and leave the tripod there. Fortunately, it turned out like I hoped.



Thanks, Rolf! I'm hoping I can get the corona wider still with stacking but we'll see...



Thanks, Dave. Hopefully I'll be able to make some improvements, but it doesn't always work that way for me ;)



Thanks, Matt!



Thank you, Colin!

[h0ughy]

well Done. fantastic event well captured

[RickS]

Thanks, Houghy.

[RobF]

Top stuff Rick, even if you didn't get to bring all guns to bear. Looks like you ended up with a great site for the extra effort.
2nd and 3rd shots are particularly nice to my eye.

[RickS]

Thanks, Rob!

My next project is making some stacked images of the corona. If only there were more hours in the day (and night) :)

[gary]

Hi Rick,

Great stuff!

Did you happen to record your lat/long or km by road from Mt Carbine?
I would be curious to know how close you might have been from where we were.

[RickS]

Thanks, Gary! We were 65.6km past the Mt Carbine hotel at 16 14 31.09 S, 144 43 32.82 E. It's a shame we didn't get a chance to meet.

Cheers,
Rick.

[gary]

Hi Rick,

Using the SatNAV to compute the road distance, you were 21.4km further up the
Mulligan than we were.

Looking at Google Earth, I see you found a nice clearing just south of the Maitlands
Downs turnoff.

We drove just a few km north of the centerline to look for a good spot before doubling
back to a track we spotted that would get us off the road and that would not be
blocked by hills or trees. We ended up at S16.416763° E144.761884°

Such a pity that chance didn't provide the opportunity to hook up. I would have
really enjoyed the chat.

One thing is for sure. The more Mai and I look at other people's photos the more
we realize how lucky we were to get such beautifully clear skies where we were.

It was the right place at the right time.

On the Monday morning after a night of heavy rain, we got up at 5:15, walked down
to the beach at Palm Cove and saw that it was cloudy. You would have seen totality
by the scarcest of margins.

We were staying up on the Palm Cove headland and had wonderful panoramic
views over the ocean and up the coast.

On the Tuesday morning, all I had to do is raise my head two inches from the pillow
as I could then see this panoramic view from bed. One look at how lousy the
weather was way out at sea was enough for me to just put my head back
on the pillow. :lol:

So when Andrew Murrell telephoned later that morning and reported that Petra had
said on her Facebook page that it was clear at Mt Carbine (thanks Petra!), I knew
what we had to do! It was a case of "head west young man".

We packed ham and cheese rolls for dinner that night in case we ended up a long
way from civilization. Mind you my teenage niece's face lit up when Andrew
Murrell and his wife Miriam said they were driving back to Mt Carbine pub for dinner
and said they had a spare seat in the car. :lol:

Vehicles went roaring past on the Mulligan all night. Some were no doubt regular Cooktown
traffic but as the hours rolled on, the sound of ever faster tyres gave one a sense
that many were desperately seeking clear skies at the last moment. :lol:

[ourkind]

WOW Great photos Rick! I love also how you've got the trees and leaves in the frames :thumbsup:

ps: playing catchup with so many post :)

[RickS]

Gary: our site was one of several scouted out for Joe Cali's group of eclipse chasers. After checking the weather forecasts the night before we headed inland after stocking the esky with water, bread, cheese and a couple of chocolate bars :) There were probably 40ish people by early morning and then a busload of unrelated folks turned up just as the show was starting. I'm pleased we decided to go inland rather than stay at Trinity Beach and hope for the best. Same as you we saw lots of activity on the highway - even a car driving obliviously along during totality. I guess they just put their headlights on and kept going :lol:

Carlos: thanks very much!