SYDNEY (AP) — Tens of thousands of tourists, scientists and amateur astronomers from around the world waited anxiously across tropical northern Australia on Tuesday to find out whether the clouds will part in time to see a total eclipse of the sun.

Forecasters were predicting cloudy skies around dawn Wednesday, when the moon will pass between the sun and Earth and plunge a slice of the continent’s northeast into darkness. Many worried that they will miss a rare chance to view the celestial phenomenon.