Скачать или смотреть Shadow bands during the total solar eclipse of November 14, 2012

This video captured with an iPhone clearly shows the elusive eclipse phenomena known as shadow bands. When conditions are right, these delicate shadow bands may appear just before and just after a total solar eclipse. This rare visual phenomena is not fully understood and is a consequence of the Sun's disk shrinking to a very thin crescent in the minute before and after an eclipse.

Our the advice of our group leader, Joe Cali, we drove inland on the morning of the eclipse near Cairns, Australia. We knew we would have near-certain success if we left Trinity Beach at 2 a.m. for an inland site. After three hours of driving, we reached this location alongside the Mulligan Highway near the Palmer River Roadhouse. We watched the Sun rise over the distant coastal cloud layer and the view through filtered binoculars at first showed a boiling image of the partial eclipse through turbulent air. There were light cirrus clouds during the eclipse; I do not know whether they affected the appearance of shadow bands but there was no perceived attenuation of our view of totality.

That I recorded shadow bands on this video was an accident; I did not intend to image them in advance. Several fortuitous factors led to this lucky recording of shadow bands:

I happened to rent a white car

I chanced to park the car perpendicular to the total solar eclipse

the Sun during eclipse was at low altitude, about 14 degrees high in the sky

the air was turbulent, perhaps a factor towards the visibility of the shadow bands

a few minutes before totality, I spontaneously asked my wife to borrow her iPhone to capture an informal family video of our experience

The result was magic. You'll hear our gasps when we saw this sight.

At each of my previous eclipses, I have looked for shadow bands but had never seen them before. This time, they were very clear and distinct, an unforgettable moment.