CNN PRODUCER NOTE     Karl Glazebrook took these photos of the eclipse Palm Cove Beach in Queensland. Karl, a Professor of Astronomy at the Swinburne University of Technology in Melbourne, travelled up to Queensland with his family for an eclipse-themed holiday.

“It was real dicey with the weather, 24 hours before the eclipse it was totally cloudy and raining,” said the astronomer who usually researches the evolution of galaxies using large telescopes (Keck, Gemini, Magellan) rather than a DSLR.

“The morning of the eclipse I got up at 4am to check the sky. I had to decide at that point whether to drive inland or stay on the coast, but I saw enough stars that I decided to stay on the beach. I figured it was a (i) bird in the hand (ii) nicer location. On the other hand quite risky as it likes to cloud up in the morning which it actually did just after sunrise!

“About 30 min before the totality I was in despair as most of the sky was cloudy. About T-10m it started to break up and a hole appeared and it looked like the sun was moving towards the hole. Two minutes before the eclipse the last cloud left the sun! You can see this cloud in one of my photos,” he said.

On the morning of the eclipse Karl reckons there were about 1000 on the beach. And although he managed to bump into a few other professional astronomers from Australia on the beach Karl’s main eclipse gazing buddies were his kids:

“The day before I got my kids making pinhole cameras out of card and paper. In one of the photos you can see my 6-year-old daughter Hilary using hers (nicely decorated too, her own idea!). They actually worked! People on the beach were impressed.”
- stinabacker, CNN iReport producer