Solar eclipse wows stargazers in Indonesia, Australia
The remote town of Exmouth plunges into darkness for 58 seconds in the kind of solar eclipse that only happens once every ten years.
Some 20,000 people gathered under clear skies in Australia’s northwestern coastal town of Exmouth to enjoy a rare total solar eclipse that plunged the region into darkness for 58 seconds as the moon blocked the sun.
The remote town of less than 3,000 people was one of the best vantage points in Australia to see the solar eclipse that also passed through Indonesia and East Timor.
An international crowd had been gathering in Exmouth for days, camping in tents and caravans on a red, dusty plain on the outskirts of town with cameras and other viewing devices aimed at the sky.
“A lot of people get hooked on that minute or so of eerie otherworldliness,” said John Lattanzio of the Astronomical Society of Australia.
“They become ‘eclipse hunters’ and they travel all over the world for repeat experiences.”
Totality occurred at 11:29:48 local time (03:29:48 GMT) on Thursday and brought darkness and a spectral calm, according to those who were there.
Less than a minute later, the dusty outback was bathed in light again.
NASA astronomer Henry Throop was among those at Exmouth, loudly cheering the eclipse in the darkness.
“Isn’t it incredible? This is so fantastic. It was mind-blowing. It was so sharp and it was so bright. You could see the corona around the sun there,” the visibly excited Washington, DC resident told the Australian Broadcasting Corp.
People in West Papua and East Timor were also able to witness the total eclipse.
In the Indonesian capital, hundreds flocked to the Jakarta Planetarium to watch the partial eclipse, which was obscured by clouds.
Azka Azzahra, 21, came with her sister and friends to get a closer look by using the planetarium’s telescopes.
“I am still happy to come even though it is cloudy. It is happy to see how people with high enthusiasm come here to see the eclipse, because it is rare,” Azzahra said.
The call to prayer resounded from the city’s mosques when the eclipse phase began as Muslims said eclipse prayers as a reminder of God’s greatness.
The hybrid eclipse occurred largely over water as it moved from the Indian Ocean to the Pacific Ocean. The few people in its path saw the darkness of a total eclipse of the sun or a “ring of fire” as the sun peeked behind the new moon.
The eclipse also gave scientists a chance to observe the sun’s corona, which is mostly obscured by the bright rays.
Witnessing a similar solar eclipse once helped Albert Einstein hypothesize that light can bend.
Such events occur about once every ten years: the last was in 2013, and the next will not be until 2031.