Before we even bought our first flight for this trip, we had promised my mom we’d meet her in Port Douglas, Australia for the total solar eclipse on November 14, 2012. Honestly, I would never even have known it was happening, but the timing worked out well since we wanted to be in Australia and New Zealand for this summer.
I remember seeing one partial eclipse as a kid, but this was before the days of disposable eclipse viewing glasses so all I really remember is constructing those little cardboard viewing boxes and seeing the shadow they created.
This time around we were armed with multiple pairs of glasses, including the extra sets we used to cover our camera lenses with. Interestingly, the only time that you don’t need the glasses is during the ‘totality’ when you can look at the ring of light directly.
It had been cloudy and raining the two days prior to the event, and we were very worried that we wouldn’t get to see it all happen. Fortunately the morning was only partly cloudy and even though our view was obstructed sometimes, we did get to see many phases of the eclipse, and we even got a shot of the totality before the clouds took over. The most amazing thing was the eerie silver appearance everything took on just before the drop into darkness that comes with the totality.
It was easily one of the more spectacular things we’ve seen and we’re excited that there will be one crossing over North America on August 21, 2017. Total eclipses occur nearly every year, but are only visible within a narrow corridor, and not on every continent. For more information check out NASA’s eclipse webpage.
The professionals get much better shots with their giant lenses and official eclipse lens covers (as opposed to say…taping a pair of cardboard eclipse glasses over the lens of your camera…not like I know anyone who did that…) but you get the idea with these.
The very beginning
Totality. This looks like it was taken in black and white, but it wasn’t.
The Parallel Life 
I hope you got to enjoy the Great Barrier Reef when you were in Cairns. Living in Australia for over 20 years it’s embarrassing how long it took me to get there!
We did make it there, pretty amazing, and I can only imagine what it must have looked like when it was healthy.
OMG! Totally beautiful and awesome….excellent pictures….”Thank you” for sharing!
That last photo was my mom’s since she was the only one who didn’t forget to take her filter off during the actual totality part!
Phenomenal shots. Thanks for sharing!
Thanks 🙂
Awesome, Ashley! So glad you got to experience this with your mom. I hope to see the eclipse in 2017! 🙂
You should totally come out to Wyoming with us! It’ll be in the summer, we can go camping (your favorite thing!)!
Wow, what an amazing, once in a lifetime experience!! That last photo is just incredible.
(Also, this made me think of a wonderful YA book I read last year about an eclipse (lunar, I think?)–Every Soul a Star by Wendy Mass.)
It was pretty spectacular. You might be close enough on the west coast to see part of the one in 2017, or make a trip a little further south and see the whole shebang!