Magnetic observations at the time of the 23 October 1976 solar eclipse in Australia

The solar eclipse of 23 October 1976 passed across south-east Australia in the local solar afternoon. This paper records the magnetic observations of a line of ten temporary stations stretching from a region of fifty percent obscuration to the path of totality. Magnetic conditions at the time were mildly disturbed. Analyses of the data have sought an eclipse effect in the basic quiet daily variation, and also in the disturbance variations. However, no eclipse effect in the primary ionospheric currents has been clearly distinguished above spatial unevenness, due to local differential induction, in the induced secondary currents flowing in the earth. (author)