Why do people travel the world chasing the moment the moon passes between the earth and the sun creating a total solar eclipse?
Tens of thousands of people are descending on North Queensland to witness the eclipse, which is visible only from Australia, including people who have dedicated their life to chasing the astrological phenomenon.
So what's the big deal? And where does our obsession with space come from?
Dave Reneke from Australasian Science Magazine thinks it's got something to do with the spectacular sight witnesses see during totality.
"This is singly the most incredible thing I've ever seen. You're not prepared for what you see."
"It's everybody enjoying the same thing at once. It is one event a human being has to see once in their lifetime."
Although the exact process of a solar eclipse is explained by science, Mr Reneke says it's the effect on the world around us that leaves people in awe.
"The flowers close up, it gets cooler, birds disappear, and you don't hear them chirping anymore, and when totality happens there is quietness before...and when the sun disappears and you get the ring of fire on the outside everyone breaks out into spontaneous applause."
Mr Reneke, who watched the 2003 total solar eclipse from Ceduna, South Australia, describes it as the sun being eaten away by Pac-man.
"It's the total awe of it - the fact that you're looking at the sun, and minutes ago it was bright daylight then its dark and you can see stars in the sky that weren't there 20-30 minutes earlier.
It's a common held belief that the solar phenomenon can deeply affect human and animal behaviour, which has lead one long time eclipse chaser to Cairns to study how the eclipse affects local wildlife.
Todd Thompson, who is based in the Western Pacific island of Guam, has seen the human response to 10 eclipses he's witnessed, but is turning to our furry friends this time round.
"This year we've selected a locale that has wildlife nearby, to see how the animals react, if at all."
So why does he spent so much money chasing down the sun and the moon?
"It seems to be an addictive event. I know a lot of people who travel around the world each time an eclipse happens and so there is something ethereal and visceral that comes out in people."
"It makes you think twice about the wonders of the world."
After viewing his first eclipse in Munich in 1999 Mr Thompson says it became a personal mission to see another, and another.
"I recorded [my first] on video and it's embarrassing," he laughs "I actually got a little teary eyed; it's definitely a moving experience, it really catches you off guard the first time."
He says the emotional response he has to the solar events has left him in two minds about what provokes the interest and excitement around the phenomenon.
"The one is - we as humans are so powerless to what's going on in the skies and beyond.
"The other is a sense of wonderment that there are people with calculators and computers who can precisely predict to the second when the eclipse is going to happen anywhere.
Both, he says makes the viewer feel small by comparison.