2012 Total solar eclipse at Atherton near Cairns during totality – Click for a larger version!
My Astro-Physicist wife and I have had a wonderful morning enjoying and photographing the Cairns total eclipse for 2012! We decided over 6 months ago to stay near Atherton about an hour’s drive from Cairns for the Eclipse.
Not only was accommodation scarce, but we felt that there was a higher chance of better weather up high on the tablelands, than down near the coast.
We were not disappointed!
Scroll down for the Eclipse/Venus photo.
The Eclipse was totally astonishing to watch, and the minute and five seconds of darkness and eery silence that we experienced was only eclipsed (sorry) by looking at the impressive corona emanating from around the moon’s disc. It was a jaw-dropping experience, we truly felt privileged to have witnessed such an amazing spectacle! We managed to experience totality with no clouds, which was our ideal scenario.
Equipment used to view the Eclipse:
Picture of Sarah Sweet holding a Canon 7D with solar filter
My wife spent a few weeks researching and getting ready for photographing the the Eclipse. We managed to borrow her brother’s Canon 7D and we ordered (and received just in time) a Celestron Solar filter to use on the camera – it fit very snugly in the camera hood. It’s made for a 60mm Celestron telescope, but it worked very nicely with the DSLR. We also used Josh’s Canon EF 24-105mm lens as well, which worked well for getting a wide shot with Venus (and some landscape) and then quickly getting a tighter shot of the Eclipse corona. Today Sarah managed to take around 437 photos of the entire transit, and she is pleased with the results. She wanted to make a composite image with all four contacts, but we only managed to experience three contacts as there were clouds initially obscuring the transit.
We thought the weather was against us!
Picture of the location we chose to view the 2012 Cairns Eclipse
It was a harrowing time waiting for the clouds to disperse. We were on tenterhooks until 5 minutes before totality, and then like a miraculous sign from the heavens the clouds literally disappeared and we were met with a truly breathtaking sight! My wife was committed to photographing Venus with the Eclipse, and attached to this post are the amazing results. We certainly hope that people around the world will appreciate these images!
Cairns total Eclipse for 2012 – Totality including Venus
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Phenomenal shots guys! Well done!!
Thanks
What awesome shots! I can only imagine how giddy your wife must have been at being able to see this AND get some great shots of it! Did you camp here?
Hi Greg, where we are there is next to the wonderful accommodation that we stayed at. Allawah Retreat.