Apart from meeting Jen again, I'm also looking forward to having a look at M31, 31° above the horizon!
Plus the double cluster 16° above the horizon, and a whole bunch of other objects normally hidden from us Victorians!
Cheers
Chris
Where will I find the end of the queue for Chris' scope?
IISers seem to be pretty well scattered all they way along the coast from Cairns to Port Douglas, with the majority (as far as I can work out) between Yorkeys Knob and Palm Cove, and some inland in the direction of Mount Molloy and Mount Carbine.
You might be lucky but a lot of the accommodation is booked out. Beachfront with a view to the east in particular. It might be a case of take what you can find.
For example, the place for which we have reservations at Trinity Beach has been almost fully booked for 2 years.
Solar viewing glasses arrived today, we ordered an extra 4 pairs for the inevitable interested bystanders. They work great, almost as good as looking through the PST!
Anyone planning to go to the Eclipse, especially those in the SE Qld area should be interrested at least two sessions to be held as part of NACAA 2012 in Brisbane at Easter. These are an eclipse imaging workshop and a presentation about the eclipse. NACAA will be held at Queensland University from the 6th to the 9th April. Details are on the NACAA website: http://www.nacaa.org.au/2012/about .
The eclipse imaging workshop will be on the monday morning 9th April. There will be three hours of sharing information about how to image the total solar eclipse from those who have successfully done it before. It will cover everything you need to know from basic astrophotography, what focal length and what exposure to use to capture each of the eclipse effects through to a tutorial on using computer control of DSLR's. It will cover all of what I included in the eclipse photography presentation at AAIC and much more. Includes time for question and answers and discussion.
Speakers will be Terry Cuttle, Joe Cali, Steve Russell and Melissa Hulbert who between them have been to more than 25 total solar eclipses. See http://www.nacaa.org.au/2012/register/eiw
On the Sunday morning Joe Cali will be presenting on all you need to know if going to the eclipse including advice on preparation, observing techniques, weather prospects, observing locations and a description of eclipse phenomena. See http://www.nacaa.org.au/2012/talks/1064
Cost for the workshop is just $30 and $30 for a morning session including Joe's talk. However you must register for NACAA on the website. And don't leave it too long. Registrations close on 23rd March.
And have a look at the rest of the programme to see what you might be interested in. Loads of interesting stuff especially organised for amateur astronomers. Half day is just $30 (includes morning or afternoon tea) or a whole day is $80 including lunch and m/a teas. Or do a full registration for $250 including Saturday and Sunday sessions and social functions on Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights.
See you there.
Terry Cuttle
I've been absent from the forums for a long time ... (still been looking up though )
But I'm taking the family on a 7 week road trip from Melbourne all up the east coast to coincide in the Cairns area for the eclipse (towing the camper trailer). Besides being something I've wanted to see myself for a long time, I'm really looking forward to giving the kids an experience they'll remember like this.
My main question revolves around the best place is to park ourselves... mainly for the viewing of the event itself (but also partly local accomodation - camping/caravan not a problem).
Any good tips? Are there any places in which numbers of IISer's are gathering?
Have a look at Mt Carbine Caravan park, Chris. A few of us are going to be there.
Thanks for the reply Erick. I just realised that I had been making an unconscious assumption that viewing should be on the beach (probably because I wouldn't know where in-land to go with good viewing).
You've obviously looked into this - and would love to hear your reason for choosing there. What's your opinion on Mt Carbine vs (say) Palm Cove?
Very much looking forward to this eclipse in November.
Me and a friend plan to view this towards the Arnhem Escarpment, NNE of Jabiru, NT outside the community of Oenpelli / Gunbalanya on a large rise on the Arnhem Land side. According to the NASA eclipse Google Map page ( http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/SEgoogl...13Tgoogle.html ), an eclipsed sun will rise at 2032 UT (6:02 CST) with it becoming totally eclipsed four minutes later at 2036 for 1m21s.
http://i.imgur.com/MqeLO.png
I think this could be an insane photographic opportunity with an enlarged (illusion) sun/moon against the foreground of the Arnhem Escarpment.
Do you guys reckon this location could be risky due to the normal nature of increased cloudiness on the immediate horizon?
Hmmm!
Aren't you afraid some of those pesky trees may be a bother?
Have chainsaw will travel.
Nah, from Mt Carbine to Bob's Lookout the orientation of the road is towards the sun (ie you look down the road) - just don't get hit by a road train. Further north, and closer to the centre line, the road runs north-south and the trees and power line are a real issue. I'm not sure it is all impossible but you wouldn't know until you got there.
I plan to check out the accessible tops of hills the days before. Perhaps if these is a bushfire a month before eclipse??
But I had already noted the road ran east-west, so, road trains permitting, stand between the double white line, I reckon. (But might get hit by the bikes - I understand that is their special lane on roads?)
Sounds like Fun!
Mind if I join your little group? (availability of new bookings permitting)
When are you going up?
I have sent an enquiry for the week beginning Friday the 9th.
to allow settling in an pre event reconnaissance.