Solar Eclipse from Dome C Antarctica

25 November 2003

On Monday morning a total eclipse of the sun occurred over regions of the Antarctic continent.

Professor John Storey, head of physics at UNSW, is at Dome C, 1600 kilometres from the South Pole. John pointed a camera sunwards and has been beaming pictures of the eclipse back to the school of physics website.

A narrow region of east Antarctica and the Southern Ocean lies in the path of totality and experienced a total eclipse. There are only a few Antarctic stations within this region: bases over the rest of the Antarctic continent experienced a partial eclipse.

The French/Italian Dome Concordia station (Dome C) is one of only a few stations on the high Antarctic plateau. It is located at 75 degrees South latitude, 175 degrees East longitude and is 3260 m above sea level. An 85% partial eclipse was visible from Dome C.

Professor Storey and Dr Anna Moore, from the Anglo-Australian Observatory, are on a three week visit to the Dome to perform maintenance on the Automated Astrophysical Site Testing INvincible Observatory (AASTINO) - a remote laboratory set up in January to measure the atmospheric characteristics of the Dome C site relevant to astronomy. Their progress can be followed via the daily Antarctic diaries.

For pictures of the eclipse from Dome C visit: solar eclipse images