A solar eclipse will be seen soon after sunrise on November 14 this year.
It is a total eclipse along a narrow path through northern Queensland, including Cairns, but the rest of Australia will see the sun partially eclipsed.
In the Warwick-Stanthorpe-Tenterfield area, the eclipse will begin around 5.58am, just about an hour after sunrise. The sun will still be low in the sky, only about 13 degrees above the horizon. At around 6.55am the maximum eclipse will occur and roughly 80 per cent of the sun will be blocked by the moon. The eclipse will end about 8am. The next total eclipse to be seen in this region will occur on July 13, 2037.
Never look directly at the sun or you will suffer serious damage to your eyesight. To view the eclipse safely, use eclipse glasses or look through a telescope or binoculars fitted with a solar filter attached. And the cheapest and safest way to enjoy the eclipse is a pinhole projection. Make a pinhole on a sheet of thick paper and project the sun onto a screen (a white sheet of paper.) You can adjust the size and brightness of the image of the sun by adjusting the distance between the pinhole and the screen. (The larger the distance, the bigger but fainter image of the sun.)
Twinstar Guesthouse Observatory at Ballandean is not open to the public for eclipse viewing, but eclipse glasses will be available at $4.00 each. Phone: 07 4684 1135 or email: twin-star@bigpond.com). If you would like to know about the past and future eclipses, visit the NASA eclipse site at http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/eclipse.html
