There is Eric, Petra, myself and Allan ..... at least.
There will be a few from our Astronomy Group in Townsville as well. One group have already visited the area a couple of times to look for a couple of good eclipse viewing areas.
Looks to me like a 100-200 m walk west of town and the observing should be fine beside the road?
and being near the highway i would say the police might be in the move somewhere else mood. I have been eyeing off that spot for a while - its a pity we cant access the mine road to the north and above the road?
looking at the cloud and predictions a would say you wont be alone out there - probably have to put up with Al and myself as well as we will be visiting from the coast
Total solar eclipse of 2012 Nov 14 Mt Carbine
Sunrise at 5:37 am
Latitude: 16° 31' 39" S, Longitude: 145° 8' 27" E, Height above sea level: 370 metres
Time zone: 10h ahead of UT
The eclipse is total from this location with a duration of 2m 6.0s.
Beginning of partial phase
Time: 2012 Nov 14 05:44:21
Sun's altitude: 0.7°
Beginning of total phase
Time: 2012 Nov 14 06:37:49
Sun's altitude: 12.9°
Maximum eclipse
Time: 2012 Nov 14 06:38:52
Eclipse magnitude: 1.016
Ratio of Moon's to Sun's apparent size: 1.038
Position angle of centre of Moon: 17.8°
Sun's altitude: 13.2°, azimuth 105.4 degrees
End of total phase
Time: 2012 Nov 14 06:39:55
Sun's altitude: 13.4°
End of partial phase
Time: 2012 Nov 14 07:39:17
Sun's altitude: 27.2°
It is on my list.. but as the clock is ticking and as more and more alternative locations are mentioned as good or as banned for non-locals (like headland in Port Douglas), I am more and more frustrated.. I am guessing I will be lucky if I manage to get off the plane in Cairns at all
Police and the council have determined the popular lookout area only has a safe viewing capacity of 200 people, so decided a ballot was the best way forward.
"It is a wonderful opportunity for quite a number of very lucky people to hopefully have a spectacular view of the total solar eclipse," Division 10 councillor Julia Leu said.
"It is important for locals because we have to unfortunately limit the number of people who would want to go up on the headland via our stairway. We have only recently upgraded and improved that."
Application form asks for proof of local address (so when I downloaded the form and saw that, I gave up, of course).
Total solar eclipse of 2012 Nov 14 Mt Carbine
Sunrise at 5:37 am
Latitude: 16° 31' 39" S, Longitude: 145° 8' 27" E, Height above sea level: 370 metres
Time zone: 10h ahead of UT
The eclipse is total from this location with a duration of 2m 6.0s.
Beginning of partial phase
Time: 2012 Nov 14 05:44:21
Sun's altitude: 0.7°
Beginning of total phase
Time: 2012 Nov 14 06:37:49
Sun's altitude: 12.9°
Maximum eclipse
Time: 2012 Nov 14 06:38:52
Eclipse magnitude: 1.016
Ratio of Moon's to Sun's apparent size: 1.038
Position angle of centre of Moon: 17.8°
Sun's altitude: 13.2°, azimuth 105.4 degrees
End of total phase
Time: 2012 Nov 14 06:39:55
Sun's altitude: 13.4°
End of partial phase
Time: 2012 Nov 14 07:39:17
Sun's altitude: 27.2°
from SkyMapPro
not sure about the 2m6s bit - i think we would be lucky to be just over the 2min mark, maybe 2m 1 or 2 sec
Location: '34 South' Young Hilltops LGA, Australia
Posts: 1,481
2m06s duration?
Skymap pro probably uses an average oblate spheroid for the lunar limb, hence the 2m06s prediction. There are two valleys on each side of the moon that shorten the duration by many seconds.Use one of the calculators that use the Kaguya/Herald limb profile corrections
I hope to see some northern nebulae while I am up north.
Click on the information circle (i) at the bottom of this image, zoom in (+) and look at the red patches between Cygnus and Auriga. http://media.skysurvey.org/interactive360/index.html
Note the Andromeda galaxy and the double cluster (NGC 869/884) below the Heart and Soul nebulae. The names show up when you move the mouse over them.
"Nick Risinger broke the sky down into 624 areas (each 12 degrees wide) and captured each portion through 60 exposures. Four short, medium, and long shots with each of six cameras were taken to help reduce noise, satellite trails, and other inaccuracies."