Australia's total solar eclipse in pictures
- Published
People in Queensland, Australia, have had a special treat - they witnessed this, a total solar eclipse!
Before it happened people got very excited - crowds gathered at the beach where they could get a clear view of the sky and the eclipse. People with telescopes and cameras joined them, but were careful to specially adapt them to avoid damage to their eyes.
That's because looking directly at the Sun can be extremely dangerous. Lots of people wear special viewing glasses if they want to look at the eclipse.
A solar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes between the Earth and the Sun. A total solar eclipse is when the Moon completely blocks out the Sun. And when this happens things get really dark, even if it's the middle of the day!
This might look like the Moon, but it's actually the Sun... As the time of the eclipse approaches, the Moon moves across in front of the Sun until it eventually completely blocks it out...
...like this. The next total solar eclipse will not take place until March 2015. You can also get partial solar eclipses when the Moon doesn't completely block out the Sun when it passes in front of it - the Moon will look like it has taken a big bite out of the Sun instead. It doesn't happen that often either so it's still something people get excited about.