Double rainbow man has a rival. Watch our Visual Story Editor's reaction to the total eclipse in Cairns as he becomes an eclipse junkie

AND suddenly the heavens were open and unfastened. Thousands lining beaches and lookouts in Cairns and Port Douglas burst into cheers and tears as a total solar eclipse plunged Queensland's far north into darkness at 6.39am.

For two minutes time stood still as an eerie, unearthly glow - the colour of indigo - fell over the tropical coast.

Viewers had been promised that day would turn to night, but the speed of the switch left many gobsmacked.

"It was breathtaking," said tourist Ann Lucey, a nurse in her mid-fifities from Florida in the United States.

"I felt my heart skip a few beats, felt myself clapping, I was just breathless in awe."

Huge dark storm clouds taunted onlookers as patches of light played across the Coral Sea, giving odd scant glimpses of a red crescent sun in the partial eclipse phase.

"That big cloud hung about like a bad smell," said Swiss eclipse chaser Barbara Vonarburg, 56, a television science program presenter, on Trinity Beach.

"It was like someone said, "No, I'm not going to show it to you"," she said.

Many of the heavily equipped amateur astronomers, out to get that trademark shot of the "Eye of God" with pink geysers of nuclear fire visible in the corona surrounding the black disc of the moon, felt disappointed.

"When the light of the sun did come back to Earth, I felt tears of thanks in my eye," said the Swiss.

"Imagine if it didn't?"

Light spilled back to Earth, visible as illuminated fingers in the cloud, as the camera flashes of an estimated 60,000 tourists and locals rippled along the coastline in a 170km-wide band of moon shadow.

Forty hot air balloons filled the sky over the Atherton Tablelands and a flotilla of sailboats, superyachts, runabouts and four cruise liners dotted the waters of the inner Great Barrier Reef.

"It is like everyone had come down to watch the End of the World," said Dr Natalie Dillon, a scientist in Mareeba.

"When it goes dark and the temperature drops, you get a sense of the fragility of life.

"I just feel in awe. It is like the Moon has wiped a cloth over the face of the Sun and we can start afresh.

She said the moment of totality was a glimpse into the start of the Ice Age.

"It shows how the Sun is the reason life exists on earth. Too much closer and we'd burn. Too much further away and we'd freeze.

"For a moment, you get a sense of what it felt like when the dinosaurs went extinct as the cloud of a meteorite storm obscured the sun and plunged Earth into an Ice Age."

Japanese tourist Hiroaki Kondo, 28, was one onboard four charter flights out of Japan to come to Cairns for the total solar eclipse.

"I feel so excited," he said.

"Everything was so surreal."

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Dr Stuart Ryder, from the Australian Astronomical Observatory, said it took the moon about an hour to pass from first contact, when it begins to cross the sun's path, to totality, when the sun is completely obscured.

During those few minutes of totality, it looks like a moonlit night.

Indigenous astronomy expert Duane Hamacher was up on a hilltop near the Cairns Airport to watch the celestial spectacle.

"This is spectacular," Mr Hamacher said.

Many indigenous groups, including in Arnhem Land were watching the event which has deep spiritual meaning for them.

"Most Aboriginal cultures believe the sun is female and the moon is male," Mr Hamacher said.

"Some believe the sun is in love with the man but he does not reciprocate these feelings so the sun chases him around the sky.

"On rare occasions, she manages to grab him and in a jealous rage tries to kill him but he convinces the spirits that hold up the sky to save him, which they do."

The next solar eclipse to be visible from Australia is expected in May next year, but it will only be an annular eclipse (where the sun is still visible around the edges of the moon).

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Spectator Ben Woodward said the temperature dropped, the sky went darker and birds went quiet when the eclipse reached totality.

"It was an eerie feeling and the temperature dropped but the sky didn't go completely dark. It looked like dusk," Mr Woodward, from Cairns Wildlife Dome, told AAP.

"The view was obstructed by a large cloud but there were moments where you could see the eclipse occurring."

He said a lot of cameras had been positioned in the wildlife park to record how the animals reacted.

"Several wildlife keepers have said a lot of the birds fell asleep."

By a remarkable celestial coincidence, the sun is 400 times wider than the moon, but also 400 times farther away, so for those on the coastline between Cairns and Port Douglas today, the discs will appear to match in size.



Casting a shadow 150km wide, the eclipse began over the Kakadu National Park in the Northern Territory, moved eastwards across the Gulf of Carpentaria and then crossed Queensland shortly after dawn.

More than 50,000 tourists from Europe, Asia and the US have traveled to the far north to enjoy two minutes of “totality” – weather dependent.

Hotels are completely full, cruise liners are moored offshore and forty hot air balloons will take to the sky above the Atherton Tableland.

Scroll down to see an interactive on the total solar eclipse

Amateur enthusiasts were joined by scientists from around the world who will be researching the eclipse’s impact on north Queensland’s prolific bird and animal life, as well as one of the deepest mysteries of solar physics: coronal heating.

The sun’s corona or outer atmosphere is a million degrees celsius warmer than its 6000 degrees surface, and the few brief minutes of totality are a very rare opportunity for researchers to work out why.

After a 14,500km celestial trek across the Pacific Ocean, the eclipse will end 800km west of Chile.

A partial eclipse was visible right down Australia’s east coast, across New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, eastern Indonesia and the southern part of Chile and Argentina, according to Britain's Royal Astronomical Society.

As the sun re-emerged from behind the moon, 700 runners will began the Solar Eclipse Marathon in Port Douglas.

In a nod to the far north's hippy past, an eclectic mix of DJs, techno and folk acts are performing at the week-long Eclipse Festival, near the remote Palmer River Roadhouse.

The eclipse is the first to occur in Australia since Ceduna in South Australia was plunged into darkness ten years ago.

Australian eclipse watchers will have to wait until 2028 for the next total solar eclipse visible from Australian shores.

