Good morning! (or good night to our readers in America). The first one of the three ‘summer’ eclipses is here now.
It’s currently 1 p.m. in Australia (AEST, six hours ahead of Central Europe), and a partial solar eclipse is already underway. While the biggest phase is visible in the Antarctic (over 33%), there is barely any other land mass covered by the lunar penumbra. This eclipse is visible only from the extreme south of Australia and New Zealand, such as:
- all of Tasmania (about 10% in Hobart, 7% in Launceston)
- most of Victoria, with only 2% eclipse in Melbourne
- parts of Southern Australia including Kangaroo Island; Adelaide is on the edge.
- in New Zealand – only the uninhabited Auckland Islands (Motu Maha) and, on the edge, Stewart Island (Rakiura)
Yesterday’s forecast was showing a clear gap for the north-eastern half of Tasmania. Luckily, this turned out to be true, as seen on the current satellite picture. Don’t forget that it’s mid-winter down under, and that fair weather is often a tricky matter in the Southern Ocean.
There are few people but some locals watching this celestial event today, yet one of the eclipse chasers, Jörg Schoppmeyer has managed to fly there all the way from Germany and reports clear skies in Hobart!
Only four weeks (one lunar month) left till the next one, this time in the Arctic. See you in Tromsø, Norway!
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