a total solar eclipse delights astronomy enthusiasts

They rolled their eyes. Professional astronomers and amateur cosmologists flocked to a remote region of Western Australia on Thursday (April 20) to witness a total solar eclipse. In Exmouth, on the northwestern tip of Australia, astronomers parked their caravans, set up their telescopes and donned their goggles to watch the moon slip past the sun ahead of the total eclipse.

“A lot of people get addicted to this strange, otherworldly moment”said John Lattanzio of the Astronomical Society of Australia.

“They become ‘eclipse hunters’ and travel around the world to repeat the experience”he added.

At 11:29 a.m. local time (3:29 a.m. Paris time), darkness descended on the spectators, plunging them into an eerie calm, before the sun returned fifty-eight seconds later, bathing the dusty Australian outback in its light. , Outback. It will also be visible in its entirety in West Papua and East Timor.

At the other end of the continent, in Sydney, the eclipse was only partial, with less than 20% of the sun’s surface blocked by the moon. The eclipse notably allowed scientists to observe the solar corona, usually masked by its light rays. It was while witnessing a similar eclipse that Albert Einstein hypothesized that light rays could bend.