2002 Eclipse in the Outback
4 December 2002, eclipse viewed from Koolymulka, South Australia by Ellen Bruijns
This eclipse was different from all the other eclipses I’ve seen before. Being a near sunset eclipse the sun was positioned low in the sky, 5.8 degrees at totality. But the most remarkable fact was the duration. It was short, far too short, only 26 seconds. There was no time to let it soak in, no time to realize that I was watching an eclipse. It started, at 19:40:53 hour local time, and……………… it was all over.
I experienced this eclipse from Koolymulka, South Australia. Latitude: 30o57’443”, Longitude: 136o31’462”. Right on the central line in the prohibited area, we had a clear view towards the horizon. The vegetation was only a few centimeters height. There was no cloud in the sky. A very hard wind was blowing, which was good, because it chased the flies away. The pressure reading was 1018 bar. This time, no wall of darkness that came toward us but the shadow was a black pillar that came our way. The speed of the shadow must have been 5 km/sec. With a shadow band off only 30 kilometers wide it didn’t become completely dark during totality. No stars, planets nor the outer corona were visible. But the inner corona and lots off prominences were as stunning as expected. The corona was very symmetrical. No streamers, no spikes were seen.
I had my video running and an automated camera was taking photos every two seconds. Although I didn’t take the time to check the settings during totality, off course, both the photos and video turned out to be good. The photos show all the details and prominences.
So next to my eclipse with Baobab tree, from 2001, I now can add a photo of the eclipse with kangaroo. Lets hope I can raise enough funds to extend my collection in 2003 with a photo of the eclipse with a penguin.
LN