By JONATHON HOWARD
A PARTIAL solar eclipse will occur on Friday, 10 May, and Southern Downs residents can catch the celestial anomaly from 7.40am.
It will reach maximum eclipse at 8.56am – at the start the sun will be about 14 degrees above the horizon and at the maximum 28 degrees.
Although this is a partial eclipse as seen from South East Queensland, with about 40 per cent of the sun blocked by the moon, in parts of Western Australia, Northern Territory and on the Cape York, it is an annular eclipse in which a part of the sun is visible as a ring.
The eclipse will end at 10.24am with the sun about 40 degrees high in the sky.
To see the solar eclipse directly and safely, you need an eclipse filter.
You can also project the sun on a white sheet of paper using a pinhole. Eclipse filters are available from Twinstar Observatory.
The next total eclipse to be seen in Warwick, Stanthorpe and Toowoomba will occur on July 13, 2037.
