Sky During Totality

There is much to see and experience during a total Solar eclipse, but the brief darkness of totality is never enough to absorb it all. As the Sun’s corona becomes visible from behind the dark of the Moon, the sky has got as dark as twilight hours about 40 minutes after sunset. But unlike a normal dusk or dawn, the twilight colours can be seen all around the horizon in every direction with the daylight from the distant locations outside the shadow of the Moon. Brightest stars and planets can also be seen during the short minutes of totality. In fact, if Venus is above the horizon, it can be seen many minutes before the start of total eclipse. This all-sky panorama was photographed during the total Solar eclipse of 2012 November 14 from James Earl Lookout near Lakeland, in Queensland, Australia. As the center of the shadow of the Moon was passing 30 km south of this location, the southern (right) half of the sky got darker than the northern (left) half. The eclipsed Sun can be seen close to the eastern horizon, just above passing clouds. Bright Venus is easily visible higher in the eastern sky, to the upper left of the Sun. Other bright stars and planets were also recorded in the all sky view, you can move the slider on the image to find some of them. © Tunc Tezel