Total solar eclipse seen across northern Australia

From boats bobbing on the Great Barrier Reef, to hot air balloons hovering over the rainforest, and the hilltops and beaches in between, tens of thousands of scientists, tourists and amateur astronomers watched as the sun, moon and earth aligned and plunged northern Australia into darkness during a total solar eclipse yesterday.

Stubborn clouds that many feared would ruin the rare view parted - somewhat - in north Queensland, defying forecasts of a total-eclipse-viewing bust and relieving spectators who had fanned out to glimpse the celestial phenomenon.

"Immediately before, I was thinking, 'Are we gonna see this?' And we just had a fantastic display - it was just beautiful," said Terry Cuttle of the Astronomical Association of Queensland. "And right after it finished, the clouds came back again."

Spectators whooped and clapped with delight as the moon passed between the sun and the earth, leaving a slice of the continent's northeast in darkness.

Starting just after dawn, the eclipse cast its 150-kilometre-wide shadow in Australia's Northern Territory, crossed the northeast tip of the country and swooped east across the South Pacific, where no islands were in its direct path.

A partial eclipse was visible from eastern Indonesia, the eastern half of Australia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea and southern parts of Chile and Argentina. Totality - the darkness that happens at the peak of a full eclipse - lasted just over two minutes in the parts of Australia where it was visible.