An eclipse in Ceduna was too good an opportunity to miss, even if the duration would be only 32 seconds. When we visited the town in February, 1999, it was obvious that the limited accommodation would soon book out. Unless we secured rooms immediately, the members of our Astronomical Association of Queensland would stand little chance of getting accommodation.

After booking the rooms we considered various ways to travel the 2,400km from Brisbane to Ceduna. The most practical and least expensive was to fly by commercial airline to Adelaide and then by chartered coach to Ceduna, keeping the number of nights’ accommodation to a minimum.

Participation by Steve Barnes and his group from Canada and the U.K., Larry Rogers from Texas and members of the R.A.S.N.Z. made the group international.

We made an early start to catch our Virgin Blue flight to Adelaide where Justin in his coach captain’s uniform was waiting for us. Peter and I could begin to relax. The coach was waiting! We cannot control the weather, but we wanted all our arrangements to go smoothly. We collected the rest of the group who had arrived in Adelaide earlier.

We visited the "Whispering Wall" at Gawler Reservoir, Jacobs Creek Winery in the Barossa Valley and the Stockport Observatory before overnighting at Clare.

Then it was on to Ceduna via Horrocks Pass and Port Augusta with a detour to Murphy’s Haystacks.

To whet our appetites for the eagerly awaited event, we watched videos of the 1999 European eclipse and 2001 Zimbabwe eclipse. There was a little more traffic on the highway than usual, but certainly not enough to cause a problem. In Ceduna we were rather surprised at the lack of crowds, but the town was prepared for an influx.

On eclipse morning we anxiously watched the sky and tried to be comforted by Damian’s weather forecast that the clouds should clear to just a scattering by mid or late afternoon. Most of the group visited the former OTC station, now a facility operated by the University of Tasmania. We found out later that Peter’s power point presentation on solar eclipses was being shown and attributed to "Dr. Peter Anderson of the University of Queensland"!

Damian presented the latest weather data at our Council of War at midday, and it was generally felt that there was no point in moving to view the eclipse because, at the limited options open to us, it would be a gamble weatherwise. The worst thing would be to move to another location, be clouded out there, and find out later that the original location had a good view. We decided to stay put and take our chances. The bus cannot travel on gravel tracks and unfortunately the eclipse path does not follow any reasonable roads. Many eclipse chasers stayed in Port Augusta and drove north to Lyndhurst or locations on the Stuart Highway or north of Woomera where the weather prospects were better. The duration of totality was shorter and the sun only 4° in the sky at Lyndhurst instead of the 9° at Ceduna. It was not an option for us at midday on eclipse day to travel to one of the inland locations as it was over 600 km by road via Port Augusta.

We set up on the foreshore at Ceduna and anxiously watched the clouds during the afternoon. The wind was very strong so Peter and quite a few of the others (the Canadian group, John Salini, Brendan Downs and also the Sutherland Society) set up their equipment in the side courtyard of the motel where they were sheltered from the wind but could still see the sun over the pine trees.

The rest of us sat on the grass of the foreshore and, with sinking spirits, watched the clouds covering the sun. As the light level dropped during the partial phase, occasionally the sun shone through a clear patch in the sky. As eclipse time approached, we were trying to calculate how fast and in precisely which direction the clouds were moving to see whether, after all, we might be lucky and that the sun would be in a clear patch when it really mattered. About 15 minutes before totality I started to believe we might be fortunate. I was particularly concerned for those who had not experienced an eclipse, including our kids (now young adults) who were in Ceduna to share it with us.

Excitement rose with the countdown as the sun shone through a large clear patch and thousands of people "willed" the clouds to stay clear for just a few minutes more. We watched the crescent of the sun become narrower and narrower as it approached "zero hour".

As the moon moved in front of the sun obscuring the last sliver of light there was an incredible "diamond ring" effect blazing out. We whipped our solar protectors off to the accompaniment of hollers and screams as the crowd went wild. There was a frantic grab for binoculars and our breath was taken away by the beauty of the pink chromosphere and the prominences flaring out from the surface of the sun with the wispy corona extending as a halo.

It struck me how very black the moon was and it actually looked like a black hole in the sky. It was as if we could walk over the shining river of light on the bay and step through this portal into another world. When I mentioned this to Peter he asked me what I had been smoking! Our daughter Janine said that the moon looked close enough to pluck out of the sky.

All too soon another dazzling "diamond ring" of a single bright point of light appeared and was greeted by a roar from the crowd. This quickly developed into a series of sparkling diamond-bright Baily’s Beads as the sun started to peep through valleys on the lunar limb. The Baily’s Beads extended until they became an unbroken quarter, then a half of the circumferance of the moon as it continued inexorably on its way. Very light cloud had come across the moon after the Baily’s Beads effect, but, in our excitement, I don’t think any of us noticed it, although it is visible in photographs. As the moon moved away from the sun people rushed to their friends to share the moment, cried, and embraced each other. Strangers were suddenly strangers no longer because we had shared such an experience. We couldn’t believe that 32 seconds could go by so quickly.

Only the real astronomical enthusiasts watched and photographed the partial phase after totality, the rest of us just wanted to talk and couldn’t take the smiles off our faces. Our kids said they could now understand why we enthuse so much. Shortly after totality the sun again sank into the clouds and we knew how truly fortunate we had been.

As always after an eclipse, the conversation turns to the next one. Most of the people in our bus group, and also those in the Sutherland Society, have asked us to put their names down for the trip we are planning to Egypt for the 2006 eclipse.

We left Ceduna early the next morning for the drive back to Adelaide where we went our separate ways. The group will always share a bond because we were together for such a memorable experience. Most of them left with the comment "See you in Egypt!"