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Bobby Dazzler Newsletter

Issue #2, January 2003


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Eyewitness Solar Eclipse Report

At mid-afternoon on December 4th, we rolled into the tiny
outback village of Lyndhurst (about 150 km south-east of Lake
Eyre in South Australia). Normally, Lyndhurst is where we top
up our water supplies and buy a few last-minute provisions before
we head up to Marree and the start of the Oodnadatta Track. A
visit to Talc Alf, Lyndhurst's resident sculptor, homespun
philosopher and eccentric is also an important part of the
Lyndhurst experience.

But apart from that, Lyndhurst does not normally have much to
hold one's attention.

This time it was different. A total eclipse of the sun was due to
take place in only a few hours' time right there in little ol'
Lyndhurst, and people from all parts of the world were arriving in
their thousands to experience this rare event.

Not only that, but a "Trance Festival" was being staged just a
kilometre or so out of town to coincide with the eclipse. Your
Bobby Dazzler Newsletter reporter, who has in certain respects
led a somewhat sheltered life, took this to mean that the
festival participants would be taking on board various mind-
altering substances for the three-day duration of the event.
Now while this was probably in many cases true, I was reliably
informed that "Trance" is in fact a musical genre ("a bit more
spacey than techno"), and that the attendees were basically
there for the music. Which was just as well, since the music
continued non-stop, 24 hours a day for the whole time!

There were people, cars, tents, hamburger stands and
dreadlocks everywhere. Just buying some milk at the store
involved 20 minutes on a queue!

We drove around for a while to absorb the unusual ambience,
and then headed five kilometres out of town to a spot near the
Ochre Cliffs. There were people occupying every bit of high
ground. We found a reasonably secluded -- but low-lying --
area to pitch our tents, have a bite to eat, and then get ready
for the "show". (Although six kilometres distant, the Trance
music could still be heard, but not loud enough to worry us.)

We heard rumours that there was serious cloud cover at
Ceduna. This is the coastal town several hundred kilometres
to the south west which had been promoted as "the" spot from
which to view the eclipse. It was even reported that some
people had given up on Ceduna early that morning, and set off
by car to try to get to Lyndhurst before sunset. We allowed
ourselves a little smugness as we observed the clear sky over
the Lyndhurst region. Not even enough dust in the air to worry
about!

As soon as the moon started to pass in front of the sun, it was
clear that the eclipse would be sufficiently high above the
horizon to be seen from just about anywhere in the area, even
where we had set up our camp.

Our specially-purchased eclipse glasses got plenty of use, as the
moon took almost an hour to gradually block more and more of
the sun. Finally the last speck of visible sun disappeared.
Immediately the sky became noticably darker, and the brilliant
white "ring of fire" -- the sun's corona -- appeared around the black
disk of the moon. We had 26 seconds to look at this cosmic
drama with the naked eye, before the sun began to appear again.

It was truly a remarkable experience! If you haven't seen a total
eclipse and you ever get the opportunity, grab it -- I'm sure you
won't regret it!

It should be mentioned that, as far as spectacular appearance is
concerned, a partial eclipse (where the sun is only partly covered
by the moon) is trivial compared with the total eclipse.

For some interesting eclipse pictures taken near Lyndhurst by
freelance astronomer Fraser Farrell, have a look at:
http://astronomy.trilobytes.com.au/2002/dec4.htm

There will presumably in due course be some pictures on the
Astronomical Society of South Australia's site:
www.assa.org.au

Some eclipse facts:

* An annular eclipse is where the moon covers the centre of the
sun, but the outer edge of the sun is still visible. Neither a partial
eclipse or an annular eclipse is nearly as spectacular as a total
eclipse.

* There were 71 total eclipses worldwide in the 20th century.
None of these was visible from Sydney.

* The next total eclipse in Australia will occur in North
Queensland in 2012.

* The cloud cover in Ceduna cleared just in time for the total part
of the eclipse to be seen!

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The Wide Brown Land

This phrase from Dorothea McKellar's poem is familiar to all
Australians. In drought time, it's very easy to see how pertinent it
is. In drought-affected areas, the grass disappears, and the
parched soil provides the dominant component of the landscape.

On our way to see the eclipse, we passed through dramatically
"brown land" in western New South Wales and South Australia.
As one person put it: "It's so dry here, the potplants are out on
agistment."

Fortunately in the last couple of weeks, some rain has fallen in
these areas, but more will be needed before the drought can be
said to be over. Which leads me to say something about
Australia's deserts:

About 18% of Australia is classified as true desert, although
35% of the country receives so little rain, it is effectively desert.
Just under 70% of the country meets the requirements for being
classified as at least "arid".

All Aussies know that there's a lot of desert out there in the
middle, but I suspect that when pressed for a bit more detail,
we tend to get rather vague. For example, we have seven deserts
each one of which occupies at least 1% (80,000 sq kms) of
Australia. How many of the seven can you name? (Answers
below.)

The standard definition of a desert is where the average rainfall
is less than 25cm a year. This definition includes Antarctica. For
"hot" deserts, a second requirement is that more water would be
lost by evaporation that is gained by precipitation.


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ANSWERS (in descending order of size): Great Victoria Desert,
Great Sandy Desert, Tanami Desert, Simpson Desert*, Gibson
Desert, Little Sandy Desert, and Strzelecki Desert*. There are
three other smaller ones (Sturt Stony Desert, Tirari Desert, and
Pedirka Desert*).

The Big Desert and Little Desert in Western Victoria are not
regarded as true arid-area deserts. The Cobbler Desert* (seen
on the Strzelecki Track) is actually a part of the Strzelecki Desert,
and is sometimes known as the Cobbler Sandhills.

Our largest desert, the Great Victoria Desert, which occupies the
area to the north of the Nullarbor Plain in South Australia and
Western Australia, covers four and a half percent of Australia!

* The deserts marked with an asterisk are visited on the Bobby
Dazzler Tours Grand Tour.

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Happy New Year!

We hope that 2003 is a good one for you, and that you will find
some time to enjoy the world you live in, read some good books,
spend time with friends, and think about what it all means.