SUN BLOCKED
All eyes on the sky as thousands gather at the Ex for rare celestial show
Monday’s solar eclipse was tough to capture with a smartphone camera, so Christine Chung sat patiently beneath a tree and sketched the fleeting moment by hand.
On soft yellowish paper, Chung carefully drew images of the sun and moon’s progression, with time stamps for each stage. Along with other viewers gathered at Exhibition Place, she waited for the three-quarter coverage that would appear only briefly.
Her sketchbook documented a celestial show that NASA labelled the first of its kind — crossing the continent from coast to coast — since 1918. In Toronto, the viewing party at the Ex drew thousands of wonderstruck visitors.
From a spot in the grass, Bob Wegner recalled he’d once heard Carl Sagan say that most humans died without knowing their place in the cosmos.
“Days like this are an opportunity for those seeds to be planted to take an interest in astronomy,” Wegner said.
And interest was clearly budding. Kids scampered across the grass, pulling the hands of their parents to get a better vantage point. Pint-sized amateur scien- tists explained the mechanics of their tinfoil-and-cardboard pinhole projectors to anyone who’d listen.
They gawked, wide-eyed, at the much larger telescopes operated by scientists from the University of Toronto, who organized the free viewing event for CNE goers near the Better Living Centre.
Matt Russo, a theoretical astrophysicist who’s worked on translating the structure of planetary systems into music, was no less excited about the cosmic anomaly.
“We’ve got this incredible projection telescope that lets us look at the sun in real time,” he explained, pointing to the white space near the bottom where shadows and light painted an image of the sky.
The event wasn’t just an eclipse, he added. Viewers could also look out for a dazzling array of sunspots in Monday’s skies.
For those without a projection telescope, methods of viewing the event ranged from simple — paper-rimmed glasses, which CNE- goers lined up for — to experimental. Wielding a kitchen colander and a sifter, retired Grade 2 teacher Anna Werbowy of Missis- sauga demonstrated how to cast tiny shadows onto a surface below.
“I was watching the live broadcast about the eclipse and there was a young scientist interviewed,” she said.
The scientist suggested using the kitchen apparatus, but Werbowy wasn’t entirely sure how to do it. As she walked through the CNE, she stopped a group of young scientists and asked them if it would really work.
“And they said, ‘Sure, that would work!’” she said, laughing.
Together, they figured out how to use the equipment to cast shadows of “little moons, instead of a hole” onto the ground.
While viewers worked together to figure out the best ways to capture the eclipse, they also shared questions about the cosmos with friends and strangers.
“It’s just one of those things, we know so little about it,” Megan Anderson said, discussing the universe as a whole. “It’s still so fascinating.”
In a world where science can explain so much, she was mesmerized by how little of space has been explored.
As the excited calls rang out across the lawn just after 1 p.m. — “It’s starting!” — parents reminded their kids to shield their eyes with glasses.
Viewers could see a small black semicircle, like a bite out of an apple, beginning to cut into the still-bright sun.
At the peak of the eclipse, the sky dimmed slightly over the CNE. The maximum coverage in Toronto was 76 per cent, but the remaining light still illuminated the lawn. By 3:49 p.m, it was over.
To those who gathered outside the centre, the big moment was worth waiting for. Audrey Diamantakos and Travis Vrbos, who arrived at 11 a.m. to beat the lines and snag two pairs of glasses, called it a “once-in-alifetime chance.”