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the people - it was a lovely community morning. 'Beautiful blue sky, no obstruction at all, the reaction was they put their glasses on and just went wow,' he said. Mackay organiser Allan Tunnah says at the peak just 10 per cent of the sun was visible. Hundreds of people gathered at a local school in Mackay to watch the celestial event.

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were able to see the full corona and I'll be looking at the pictures on the television.' MackayДЇurther south in Mackay, the sun is shining again after the city was darkened for a brief period. 'I'm sorry we didn't get to see the corona - I'm just glad the people in Mareeba. 'It was really bizarre and quite dampening - there wasn't people dancing on the beach but they were actually quiet,' she said. University of Sydney astrophysicist Professor Ann Green was on the Cairns Esplanade, where she said they missed seeing the total eclipse.Д«ut she said it was still a wonderful experience seeing parts of it through broken cloud. 'Ninety-six-per cent of the eclipse happening just a short time ago, through the eclipse specs it looks like the moon when you see the crescent of the moon - just a little tiny sliver and it's been that way for quite a while,' he said. The ABC's Michael Clarke described the scene in Townsville. The moon eclipsed the sun almost totally in Townsville and unlike the epicentre of Cairns further north, there was not a cloud in the sky. 'The corona is very, very clear - a few of the valleys of the moon showing out from the edge there.' Townsville 'That's just absolutely amazing to see that black hole in the sky with the stars out, is just absolutely awe-inspiring,' he said. Skygazer Michael was part of the excited crowd at Mareeba. Many people made a last-minute dash west to Mareeba to watch the phenomenon because of the cloudy forecast in Cairns.

'We come, we go all over the world, and sometimes we don't see, but it's very rare, not often, so we enjoyed it a lot.' Mareeba dash 'We weren't anxious because nature does what it wants, so that's the game,' she said. They included hundreds of scientists who caught charter flights from Asia, and thousands of passengers on cruise liners on the Great Barrier Reef.Д¬arole Haupais travelled with a group from the French Astronomy Association, and says clouds that threatened to block their view of the eclipse in Cairns added to the thrill. Tourism groups estimate up to 60,000 people travelled to the far north Queensland region for the first total solar eclipse in 1,300 years. 'An ocean liner off the shore - that's the only other light that we can see.' Tourism boost 'We are seeing just a perfect perimeter - I guess a sparkling effect of a diamond ring. 'It's like the twilight zone - we literally have lights out at Four Mile Beach,' she said. The ABC's Charlie McKillop says it was thrilling to watch the moon cover the sun. 'I didn't expect it, but obviously being dark for two minutes made them go 'what the' - so they just stopped.' 'They went quiet - if they get scared by something, if a bird of prey goes over, they will go very quiet,' she said. 'Then right after that, as if to add to the drama, the clouds rolled in again.' Zoo animalsД¬airns Dome wildlife supervisor Melissa Vanderboom says even the animals responded to the eclipse at the zoo. 'The clouds moved away at just the right time - we saw a superb eclipse. 'For a while there, we thought the clouds were going to get us, but in the end it couldn't have been better,' he said. He says cloudy skies before the event created incredible suspense. Mr Cuttle filmed the phenomenon for NASA from Palm Cove.

It cast a dark shadow over the area and the temperature dropped rapidly as day turned to what felt like night, with eclipse watchers saying they were blown away.ДЄstronomer Terry Cuttle says the eclipse was one of the most dramatic he has ever seen. The clouds parted just in time to treat at least 2,000 people on the beach at Palm Cove in northern Cairns to a clear view of the total solar eclipse.

Totality was first experienced in Port Douglas, near Cairns in the state's far north, shortly after 6:30am (AEST). A rare total solar eclipse has thrilled tens of thousands of skygazers across regional Queensland this morning.

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