A total solar eclipse will darken the Southern Hemisphere today. Though it will only be visible from a small, remote area of Australia, you can still watch via the internet with our selection of live feeds.
A total solar eclipse occurs when the moon passes between the Earth and sun, casting a shadow across the planet. Today’s eclipse will become darkest over Cairns, Australia (where the viewing camera feeds are located) at around 12:45 p.m PST (3:45 EST) and will last about two minutes. But a partial eclipse will stretch from 11:45 a.m. to 1:35 p.m PST (2:45 to 4:35 EST), blocking part of the sun and creating an eerie twilight in what would otherwise be the early morning.
The top feed has a pre-game starting at 11:00 a.m. PST (2:00 p.m. EST) and officially starts half an hour after that. It comes from the Slooh Space Camera, which has a three-person crew near Cairns to film the celestial event and broadcast it to the world. Photographer Anjali Bermain, Astronomy magazine’s Bob Berman, and astro-imager Matt Francis of the Prescott Observatory in Arizona will discuss the eclipse from Australia. They will be joined by a team of experts during a live Google+ hangout, including heliophysicist Lucie Green from Mullard Space Science Laboratory and Slooh president Patrick Paolucci. Viewers can ask questions on Slooh’s homepage and snap live pictures using a Pinterest account.
A second feed starts at 11 a.m. PST (2 p.m. EST) and comes from the Cairns Eclipse 2012 Ustream channel, a tourism promotion group. The feed is co-sponsored by the Astronomical Association of Queensland, NASA, and several other partners.
Finally, the Cairns City Webcam will be snapping shots every minute and uploading them to the internet. It is located in the marina and will be pointed just above the city’s trinity inlet where the sun and moon are expected to come in line with the Earth at 12:39 p.m. PST (3:39 p.m. EST), as totality happens over Cairns.
Adam is a Wired reporter and freelance journalist. He lives in Oakland, Ca near a lake and enjoys space, physics, and other sciency things.
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Watch Live: Spectacular Total Solar Eclipse Over Australia
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Watch Live: Spectacular Total Solar Eclipse Over Australia
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Watch Live: Spectacular Total Solar Eclipse Over Australia
