Canadians on the move to watch partial solar eclipse
Clayton Uyeda and his wife Jo will be on a ferry — en route from Swartz Bay on Vancouver Island to Tsawwassen on the mainland — when the partial solar eclipse in Canada begins in Victoria at 9:08 a.m. Monday.
“It’s more intimate,” says Uyeda, 59, a math, physics and astronomy teacher at Victoria High School. “I am expecting to have a real sense of connection with the heavens.”
As for his students, Uyeda hopes the eclipse will help them realize that they are part of something grander than their social status or image. He thinks teenagers could benefit from looking up instead of down at their hand-held devices.
“Hopefully, (the eclipse) is empowering,” Uyeda says.
Victoria will offer the best eclipse view in Canada, with 90 per cent of the sun blocked out.
However, unlike our cousins to the south, Canada won’t see a total solar eclipse, where the moon will completely cover the sun, blacking out the sky and turning day into night momentarily. It will only be seen along the so-called path of totality, which is a narrow band from Oregon to South Carolina.
Canada is still in for a treat with a partial eclipse, though. Imagine the sun as “a glowing cookie with a bite taken out of it,” says Matt West of the Saint John Astronomy Club, noting that the rare moment is “exciting” instead of “overwhelming” like totality.
Plus, viewing events are being held across Canada, from Ottawa’s Canada Aviation and Space Museum to McGill University to Victoria’s Mount Tolmie Park. No matter which party Canadians choose to crash, they should don eclipse glasses to prevent eye damage.
Toronto will enjoy 70 per cent coverage, Calgary 77 per cent and Vancouver 86 per cent, according to the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada.
Jennifer West, an astronomer at the University of Toronto’s Dunlap Institute for Astronomy and Astrophysics, says that during a partial eclipse, the sun will shine through the spaces between the leaves of trees, which can act like a pinhole camera. It explains why you will find little crescent suns projected on the sidewalk.
For those who are not near trees, West says a cheese grater, a colander or even a piece of paper with a hole will do the trick. Look down at the ground, she cautions, and never directly at the sun.
In Toronto, the Dunlap Institute will be hosting a watching party at the Canadian National Exhibition, where about 20 astronomers will be at hand with solar telescopes and eclipse glasses.
West won’t be one of them. She will see the total eclipse in Nebraska — something she’s been planning since 1997.
In Calgary, staff at the city’s zoo say they’ll be keeping a close eye on the animals Monday — not because of any serious concern but more so out of curiosity.
“It happens so rarely that we’ve never been able to document what happened in the past with these eclipses,” says Doug Whiteside, the senior staff veterinarian at the Calgary Zoo.
Whiteside says the eclipse is a short duration so he’s not expecting to see anything significant and there is no concern that the animals could suffer eye damage once the eclipse is at its peak.
“The majority of animals don’t naturally stare up at the sun anyways so we don’t anticipate any problems with that.”