Solar siblings
From St. John’s to Tennessee, Monday’s solar eclipse drew attention far and wide
Sister and brother Amelia and William Quinton stare at the partial solar eclipse over St. John’s Monday, sharing one of the eye-protecting solar eclipse viewers provided by the Johnson Geo Centre.
You couldn’t look directly at it, but that didn’t stop crowds from heading up to the Johnson Geo Centre in St. John’s to witness the rare solar eclipse on Monday afternoon.
Only a partial amount of the eclipse passed over Canada, with the highest visibility being in Victoria, B.C., where 90 per cent of the sun was eclipsed.
In St. John’s, only small 30 per cent was eclipsed, but that still didn’t stop people from being cautioned about looking directly at the sun without special eye-protecting glasses or homemade gadgets — which the Geo Centre happily loaned to the public via the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada in St. John’s.
For Tom King, a meteorologist from Gander, a shade No.14 welder’s lens did the trick when it comes to chasing solar eclipses — something he’s been doing for years.
“After the first one, you’re kind of hooked on it,” he laughed.
Since a young age, King has been fascinated by astronomy.
He told The Telegram he had always wanted to see a full-totality solar eclipse, and after making some Romanian friends during a course in the U.K. in 1997, he reconnected with them in 1999 when travelling to Romania to see his first full solar eclipse.
This year, King travelled just outside of Nashville, Tenn., where the astronomical phenomenon was at 100 per cent totality — something he says he’ll never get tired of seeing.
“The goal is, obviously, to see the solar eclipse, but if it’s also happening in an exotic part of the world, you just have to take the extra time, sample some local culture, and take in whatever part of the world you happen to be in for that eclipse. It’s all part of the fun.”
This was King’s fourth solar eclipse, having previously travelled to Romania in 1999, Africa in 2001, and Turkey in 2006.
He says travelling to these places to see eclipses adds to the mystique and excitement of it all, and he loves meeting fellow umbraphiles.
“There’s a great commodity and sense of anticipation with it,” he said.
“During the eclipse phase, there’s such a celebration! Everyone is cheering and yelling, it’s just so great. There’s so much exhilaration surrounding it, plus it really puts things into perspective in terms of your place in the universe.
“In your day-to-day life, you don’t realize it, but you know, we’re just creatures crawling around on a ball of dust orbiting the sun, and the eclipse makes you realize that you’re a part of a much grander scheme.”
In terms of his fourth solar eclipse, King described it as perfect.
“We had perfect viewing conditions,” he told The Telegram during a phone interview late Monday afternoon. “There was some cloud, but we stayed right under a hole that allowed us to see the entire event. We could’ve flown to Oregon and had guaranteed good weather conditions, but not the same length of totality with the eclipse, so I decided that we’d take the chance and head to Tennessee.
“That’s part of it, too,” King added. “You have to take your chances and roll the dice, and hopefully, if everything works out the way this trip did… mission accomplished.”
King says if he can encourage people to get out and see a solar eclipse at least once in their lifetime, it’s worth one’s while.
“It truly is one of the most spectacular natural occurring events that you can experience in your lifetime.”
“I mean, you’re seeing your environment in a light that’s being diminished by the moon. The entire landscape and everything around you takes on this very strange tint, and it becomes almost surreal. You’re looking at your environment in a way that you’ve never seen it before, and that’s part of what I love about eclipses. It’s just such a spectacular experience, I encourage everyone to get out and see one at some point, if they can.”