When the Cheshire emerges...

How cool was this morning's total solar eclipse?

I watched it all on Sunrise and it gave me goosebumps. It was beautiful!

Dubbo was meant to get it partial, with the peak of about 65 per cent coverage coming to us about 20 minutes or so later. I went outside a few minutes ahead, but soon realised it didn't appear any darker.

It was half hiding behind a building and with my sunnies on (which I know doesn't help if trying to look at it, don't worry), accidentally looked up that way for a second or two. But it was as if it was just a bright sunny morning, and as soon as I did I looked straight at the ground again and sought refuge under a tree.

I'm under the tree researching again to find out the peak time and it was right then according to one website. No visible darkness at all. Great.

Did I miss it?

I had no idea, and heard afterwards that partial ones may be harder to see - but 65 per cent should have made some sort of visible difference even looking the other way.

I took a photo to see if that made any difference, looking down and pointing my camera up to the sky from hip height.




Not really.

Nice photo though, if not a bit bright.

I then tried the pinhole thing for a second, trying to do it through the safety of the tree. But obviously the ground was shadowy from said tree and that idea failed. As did this whole experiment.

***

Late in the day at work I discover the partial eclipse actually happened around 7.30 - AT THE SAME TIME AS CAIRNS, which makes complete sense. However, I refuse to blame myself for the fact that I was incorrectly informed from multiple resources. For the record I had just stepped out of the shower at that time.

major. fail.
And after all that faliure, I'm now really paranoid about my brief glimpse at the sky. It's not like I actively stared at all, more like being caught without sunnies for a second. I'm sure it won't blind me, but I do worry. Just a bit. My left eye's been a bit sore today, but I have been known to have eye strain in recent months from using computers etc. And psychology could have much to do with that also.