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Hi David jjj & All,
Well mine is a similar story save that I plumped for Goulburn that was, by dawn, about 90% clear. I went a bit down the road to Lake Bathurst and pulled off onto a dirt road and went up there about a km and had 360 deg almost perfectly flat horizons. Just missed out on first contact with a bank of cloud but nailed 2nd with the P.S.T. and saw the black-drop effect visually with a 9mm Type I Nagler at about x45.
Saw about about 90% of the next 3.5 hrs of transit (odd bits of cumulus rolling through) then a big bank of cloud filled the sky for about 30 mins so I decided to head somewhere else.
Drove up to Marulan 30km N of Goulburn (still cloudy) and had lunch. Started to clear shortly before 3rd & 4th contacts. Missed 3rd but saw the final egress (4th) between banks. So, all in all, I'm a happy camper. Even got to show a couple of old cow-cockys (who pulled up in a ute) Venus going across the Sun, though neither seemed to appreciate the significance. Pretty successful day I'd say.
It occurred to me later this afternoon that I had been very fortunate in this life to be admitted to a select group of people on this planet:
I am one of a very tiny number of people who have observed two (each) solar transits of three different solar-system bodies. I guess there isn't more than a couple of thousand people world-wide, probably far fewer actually, fortunate (read lucky) enough to have witnessed two transits of Mercury, two of Venus and two total solar eclipses.
Not something necessarily to be "proud-off" (there isn't a lot of skill involved except being in the right spot and looking in the direction of the Sun) but certainly very fortunate.
Best,
Les D
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