We Won’t Have A Friday The 13th This Unlucky For Another 60 Years

A solar eclipse on Friday the 13th? What terrors await in the partially-obscured light of day? My guess would be nothing. It also doesn’t help that said eclipse has been and gone and even if you had known about it, you’d have barely noticed it.

For those living south-eastern Australia — one of the few parts of the world covered by the eclipse — the event started around 1pm, peaked at 20-past and finished up around 1:37pm.

I live in Melbourne and I saw jack. It’s a bit sad, really. As News.com.au notes, the last Friday the 13th solar eclipse occurred back in 1974 and there won’t be another until 2080.

That’s over 60 years away.

So, depending on how superstitious you are, today could be considered the unluckiest Friday the 13th we’ll have for a long, long time. If you’re not superstitious, well, you’re still unlucky, because you missed out on a genuine, Friday the 13th solar eclipse, something a lot of us won’t have another chance to see in our lifetimes.

Now, why was the eclipse so hard to see? The picture below sums it up.

The northern-most parts of Antarctica had the best view, which is unhelpful considering none of us live there. Anyone cruising the Southern Ocean would have had the next best, followed by Stewart Island at the bottom of NZ and Tasmania.

As for everyone else, well, unless you’re a vampire, werewolf, or other creature with an extended lifespan, that’s it for eclipses falling on Friday the 13th.

[referenced url=”https://www.lifehacker.com.au/2017/08/when-to-watch-australian-eclipses-2018-2022/” thumb=”https://www.lifehacker.com.au/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/2017/08/GettyImages-836363126-768×432.jpg” title=”All The Eclipses Coming To Australia: 2018-2022″ excerpt=”Last night the world was treated to a total lunar eclipse that also coincided with a so-called super moon. The entirety of the eclipse — all five hours and 17 minutes — was visible from practically everywhere in Australia. Or at least it would have been if clouds hadn’t spoiled the show.”]

Supermoon eclipse to hit Friday the 13th [News.com.au]


The Cheapest NBN 50 Plans

Here are the cheapest plans available for Australia’s most popular NBN speed tier.

At Lifehacker, we independently select and write about stuff we love and think you'll like too. We have affiliate and advertising partnerships, which means we may collect a share of sales or other compensation from the links on this page. BTW – prices are accurate and items in stock at the time of posting.

Comments


Leave a Reply