Expert offers tips on viewing solar eclipse
Appropriate equipment a must to watch safely: Telus World of Science official
Edmontonians who are hoping for clear skies to view the partial solar eclipse April 8 should heed the warning of experts to take care and have appropriate equipment when looking at the celestial event.
You can safely watch the partial eclipse at the Telus World of Science through free, safe telescopes, or purchase safe solar viewers at the centre.
“Looking at the sun on any given day, whether it be an eclipse day or not, is very dangerous. People have become totally blinded by that. You don't want an eclipse to be the last thing you ever see,” said Frank Florian, senior manager of planetarium space sciences at the popular Edmonton science centre.
On Thursday, Postmedia spoke to Florian about how Edmontonians can safely watch the partial eclipse, how it will be seen across different parts of Alberta and Canada, and when might the province be able to see a full eclipse.
Q How can people safely view the partial eclipse and are sunglasses enough?
A Definitely not. Sunglasses? Don't do it.
Solar eclipses are wonderful things to behold, but in order to view a solar eclipse of any kind, you really need to use the special solar filter, something that you can put over your eyes or over the front of your telescope. Now, those types of solar filters are available through a lot of different places including at the Telus World of Science.
We sell solar viewing glasses that have all the stringent requirements to view the sun safely. If people don't have solar viewing glasses, then there's other ways of looking at a partial solar eclipse by projecting an image of the sun through a little pinhole onto the ground or onto a piece of paper. You'll see that instead of just a circle of sunlight, you'll see that there's a little chunk taken out of the sun. That's an indirect means of looking at these partial solar eclipses.
Now, if people want to see the sun totally eclipsed, or basically see the sun through the telescope with a solar filter, we will have telescopes at the Telus World of Science for that.
Q Can you explain the difference between a partial and a full eclipse, and why a partial is considered more dangerous?
A So those individuals in Eastern Canada, as long as they don't get clouds, they'll be able to see a total eclipse.
That means that the moon itself will cover the entire disc of the sun blocking all and any direct sunlight from view. So, it basically will turn day to nighttime for a few short seconds or minutes, depending on exactly where you lie along that shadow of the moon.
A partial eclipse, however, is where only a portion of the sun will be obscured by the moon during any partial phase.
Any partial phase, when the moon doesn't cover the sun, even a small amount is very, very dangerous. Even for those people that are within that region where totality is going to be where the moon covers up the entire sun, any of the partial phases leading up to that, it's very dangerous to look at the sun up there.
It's only safe to look at the moon and sun together as a total solar eclipse when the moon does cover the entire disc of the sun — then you don't need to wear special glasses anymore.
But as soon as ... there's a glimmer of sunlight again, passing through what's known as the diamond-ring effect, where again, all of a sudden, the moon starts to move off from in front of the sun and direct sunlight reaches you again, that's dangerous.
Q When will the next full eclipse be?
A Partial solar eclipses are fairly rare — eclipses are pretty rare. The next partial eclipse that we get to see will take place on Aug. 12, 2026, and we'll see between 10 and 15 per cent of the area. It's very similar to what we're seeing here.
In the next 20 years, there's going to be eight more partial solar eclipses, starting with
Aug. 12, 2026.
On Aug. 22, 2044, here in Alberta, most Albertans, whether you're in the mountain parks, whether you're in Red Deer, Edmonton, Calgary, will be able to see a total solar eclipse, and total solar eclipses themselves are rare for any one area.
It's been estimated that basically any one location on the Earth gets to see a total solar eclipse once in a 400-year period.
For us here in Alberta, we only have 20 years to wait for our total solar eclipse time.