Rare solar eclipse casts shadow over Australia

Nov. 14, 2012:  Starting just after dawn, a solar eclipse observed on Green Island, Queensland state, Australia, cast its 95-mile shadow. (AP2012)

Nov. 14, 2012: Starting just after dawn, the eclipse cast its shadow in Australia's Northern Territory, crossed the northeast tip of the country and was swooping east across the South Pacific, where no islands are in its direct path. (AP2012)

Nov. 14, 2012: People gather on a beach at Palm Cove in Queensland state, Australia, to watch and photograph a total solar eclipse. (AP2012)

Nov. 14, 2012: The moon blocked out the sun in a total solar eclipse briefly turning dawn back into night over parts of northern Australia and the southern Pacific Ocean. (AP2012)

Nov. 14, 2012: A solar eclipse observed in Green Island, Queensland state, Australia, started just after dawn, casting its 95-mile shadow swooping east across the South Pacific, where no islands are in its direct path. (AP2012)

Nov. 14, 2012: A hot air balloon floats in the air as a solar eclipse is observed near Cairns, in Queensland state, Australia. (AP2012)

Nov. 14, 2012: Hank Harper, right, of  Los Angeles watches the solar eclipse from a hot air balloon near Cairns, Australia. Harper flew to Australia with his two children specially to watch the full eclipse, saying we "watched the suns rays re-emerge from behind the moon while kangaroos hopped along the ground below." (AP2012)

Nov. 14, 2012: The total solar eclipse began just after sunrise local time in northern Australia. It was the first total solar eclipse in Australia in a decade and the last eclipse of its kind that humans will see until 2015. (AP2012)