“Waiting for the Shadow”: Countdown to the 2012 Total Eclipse

Affiliation(s): AAQ

Session details: Sunday, 2012-04-07 23:45:00, TBA

Abstract

Few people who witness a total eclipse of the Sun, fail to be deeply moved by the experience. Afterwards, they search for superlatives. Phrases such as, “the most spectacular thing I’ve ever seen” or “mother natures great show,” flow from the lips of “eclipse chasers.” A total eclipse will be visible from Cairns beginning just after sunrise on 14th November 2012. This is the easiest and most accessible total solar eclipse visible to Australian observers until 2028. Even experienced astronomical observers who haven’t seen a total eclipse will be taken aback by the dynamism of the event and will benefit from this talk which will cover history of eclipses in Australia, preparation, observing techniques, weather prospects and observing locations and a description of the various phenomena associated with solar eclipses

Biography

Joe has been involved in amateur astronomy since the 1970’s. He saw his first partial solar eclipse at primary school in Brisbane in 1974. In 1994 he began eclipse chasing seeing both the annular eclipse in north America in May and the total solar eclipse in Bolivia later that same year. Since then he has managed to find his way to the path of eight total and two annular eclipses. When not chasing eclipses, Joe works at the Research School of Earth Science, at the Australian National University in Canberra. In his spare time, he has taught numerous courses on various topics in photography at Canberra’s Photoaccess Photographic Arts Centre for the past 17 years. Joe was commissioned by Australian Geographic to write and photograph a feature about solar eclipse chasers and the 2002 total eclipse Australia. The feature was published in 2005.