Quote:
Originally Posted by HarryD
A quick observation.
Here we are 4 years to the day, 22/07/2028, and you guessed it, it's cloudy in Sydney. It has been clear for more than a few days, windy though, so fingers crossed for 2028.
Cheers
Harry D
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That's pretty normal weather for this time of year. A single day of weather is not a statistically significant sample. Look at the attached average cloud map for July. It averages 15 years of data.
I have very roughly drawn the eclipse path over the top of it. This correlates most closely to probability of eclipse weather success. % of possible sunshine correlates more closely but I don't have access to that data for AU.
Across much of southern and central NSW, average cloud cover is 4-5 Octas(50-62%) at 3pm in July. This zone of poor weather prospects extends all the way from Sydney to Bourke. I'm sure this won't come as news to anybody who observes regularly from Eastern NSW in winter.
Driving west over the mountains into the near Central West will not significantly improve weather prospects. Driving up to NW NSW improves prospects slightly, driving into SW Qld improves prospects greatly as you get into the winter high pressure zone however, road conditions become very poor and are not conducive to transporting sensitive astro gear.
The cloud cover in the Kimberleys, Northern Territory and extreme SW Qld parts of the eclipse path between Birdsville and Bedourie, have 1-2 octas (12.5-25%) cloud.
The nearest by road to Brisbane, Melbourne or Sydney is the area between Birdsville and Bedourie some 1900km-2000km from any of the eastern capitals or coastal areas. Depending upon road conditions, the last 600km from Windorah can be extremely rough with patches of bull dust hiding deep ruts and corrugations. A friend of mine driving conservatively at just 50-60km per hr rolled a Toyota Landcruiser 4wd on that road and the resulting injuries left him as a lifelong quadriplegic. Allow plenty of time, drive very slow, and don't bring any fragile astro gear. The cars can bounce big time on those big ruts and corrugations.
You can reach the path of totality via sealed highways.
The quickest & easiest way to access the prime weather area, is to fly to Alice Springs, rent a car and drive 400km north on the Stuart Hwy to the eclipse path centre line at Devil's Marbles ~ 130km south of Tennant Creek. Tennant Creek has very little tourist accommodation so expect to spend a cold night sleeping in your car or drive the 4 hrs back to Alice Springs afterwards.
At Devils Marbles:-
1st contact is at 1120am.
Totality is at 12:50pm
Last contact at 2:18pm.
It might be feasible to leave Alice Springs very early, and return to Alice Springs by about 7pm, or earlier if you don't wait for the end of the partial eclipse.
Driving to Devils Marbles from the east is a fair hike regardless of where you live: -
Brisbane 2500km
Sydney 3200km
Melbourne 2700km
The Stuart Highway is part of the National Highway network and provides a vital link between Adelaide and Darwin. The highway is a fully sealed all weather roads maintained in good condition and may be an easier option if longer than tackling the SW QLD roads. I have an ISUZU DMAX high ground clearance 4WD. I have driven on the roads around Birdsville numerous times for Earth Science research fieldwork. Although my vehicle can handle the road conditions, I would not choose to transport telescope equipment in the car over those crappy roads to Bedourie.
Joe Cali
