The devout began to pray, and chant mantras, while as the day grew on, the sunworshippers grew anxious. Fortunately, a New Mexico amateur who had observed at Chaco Canyon was familiar with old Anasazi rain dances, and by creative choreography, got a troop of amateurs to dance a rain dance in reverse. Thus, when a few minutes before totality, a well placed sucker hole developed, a furious argument broke out between the devout and the Sun Worshippers as to just who among them had effected the miracle, with the result that many missed noticing the event.
Not so ASNSW double star expert Richard Jaywalker who busied himself with photographing close binaries immersed in the solar corona. The pessimists went to Port Augusta, studied the omens, phoned Melvin Wales at Ceduna, and then headed for Wirraminna, north of Woomera.
En route, Gordon Garage and Rob McZero were met with at Spud's Roadhouse. Nearby Leigh Creek had been briefly considered and discarded as a music festival was scheduled nearby, so Leigh Creek was left to the hedonists.
In fact, so many strange people had passed through Port Augusta each night that one automatically kept searching about looking for Buffy and Angel. Reports from the site suggested that many stayed safe in darkened vans during daylight, emerging briefly for a few seconds at totality when it was safe to be about without spontaneously combusting.
Wirraminna was the right place at the right time. No cloud, temperature at 20°C, and a strong wind which blew the bush flies to South America. All phases of the eclipse were observed, from first contact to the setting of the partially eclipsed sun were seen - except by Andrew Moral of course who spent totality using his 20 inch Dob to search for Palomar Globulars close to the eclipsed sun. Gary Hill, inventor of the NGC Abacus had to later tell him what he had missed.
Meanwhile, ASNSW Webmaster Ronald MacDonald was taking a full digital sequence of eclipse photos from an observing pad expertly cleared of low scrub by Professor Manuela Vogtswagen using her turbo-charged ride-on mower which had been polar aligned for tracking accuracy in mowing. Sadly, several desert Death-Adders and one Inland Taipan were accidentally minced in the process.