Solar eclipse passes over Ottawa, visible despite clouds

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Monday afternoon’s solar eclipse was a spellbinding show for many, despite a cloud or two.

Some prayed, mediated, or cleansed their tarot cards. Others on the balcony of Carleton University’s Richcraft Hall simply gazed skyward, in awe of the celestial event.

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While Ottawa wasn’t in the path of totality of the April 8 solar eclipse, the event was no less enthusiastically welcomed, as dozens of people of all ages crammed onto the balcony, craning for a view of the eclipse.

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Around 3:25 p.m., the moon blocked out some 98 per cent of the sun’s rays. The sky darkened, the air grew chilly, the streetlights flipped on. All was still.

Cyrus Robertson Orkish, a PhD student in physics, said the solar event, a once-in-a-lifetime occasion for some, was a chance for people to come together in a rare shared experience.

“It’s cool to me that with rare celestial events, everyone is on the same page, everyone is talking about it,” he said. “Whatever else is going on, everyone knows, at least around here. That’s very special, and rare, and bigger than all of us. I think it’s really cool.”

Students and observers stood in line to view the partial eclipse via a solar telescope, which was hooked up to a computer monitor to show a detailed look as the moon crossed in front of the sun.

“The moon is 400 times closer to us than the sun, but also 400 times smaller,” Thomas Gregoire, chair of Carleton’s physics department, explained. “So the apparent size of the moon and the sun in the sky is similar, and comes on top of one another.”

Eclipse gazers were all given special eclipse glasses to view the event safely. The glasses were in hot demand across Ottawa, and were necessary to observe the eclipse without the sun’s rays damaging the viewer’s eyes.

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Jordan Pinkerton, a physics major at Carleton, said he felt like he was part of a historic moment.

“I’ve been waiting for this for quite a while,” he said. “I saw a solar eclipse in primary school in England, but it was a cloudy day. It just got a bit dull for a few moments. But today, it’s pretty reasonable weather we’re having.”

He says the event has piqued his interest in studying astrophysics, along with observing constellations from the school’s observatory on top of the Herzberg Laboratories for Physics and Computer Science.

While many schools were closed for the day, some families took the opportunity to bring their children to the university for the eclipse.

“We took advantage of this here, this is amazing,” Edna Aguilar-Matta said. Her nine-year-old daughter, Ivanna, was particularly excited about the eclipse.

“It’s going to look like a black hole in the sun,” she said.

Jessica Lynch agreed it was a once-in-a-lifetime event.

“I just need more connection to life, people, everything,” she said. “It’s good.”

She brought her tarot card deck and was shuffling the cards ahead of the eclipse.

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“I’m a bit eclectic in my beliefs, attitudes, practices,” she said, explaining that a tarot card deck needs to be cleansed or charged before it’s put to use.

“I couldn’t think of a better opportunity,” she said.

Meanwhile, in Centretown, Debra Viner and her husband, Gary Viner, brought their grandsons Seth, 7, and Jonah, 6, to the Canadian Museum of Nature to watch the solar eclipse.

“It’s like a once-in-a-lifetime thing,” said Seth. “This is going to be the first one I’m going to see in a long time.”

Debra and Gary’s daughters are all teachers, and say when the boys need care, ‘they are it.’

Phil Bale and his son, Jameson, 5, had reserved tickets to join the viewing party at the Canadian Museum of Nature.

“I just wanted to have him experience the eclipse,” said Phil.

Samson Turay said he had been browsing the Facebook events page when he noticed the Solar Eclipse Viewing event put on by the Canadian Museum of Nature.

“I was open to experiencing the eclipse because I’ve never seen an eclipse before,” said Turay. “And I guess the fact that I could see it in a place like the Nature Museum, I thought that it’d be really cool.”

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Richard McNeil said he had been late getting glasses.

“I had to run around to a couple different places,” McNeil said. “Either they didn’t sell them or they were sold out. Luckily, though, the New Museum of Nature was giving them out, so I was able to get them.”
McNeil said after watching it in Ottawa, he regrets not driving down to Cornwall to see it in a full totality area.

“It was super cool, it just got dark and kind of cold.”

Environment Canada forecasts it will be cloudy again by this evening, becoming partly cloudy near midnight.

READ MORE: Here’s how Ottawans are watching the total solar eclipse today

While Ottawa sits just north of the path of totality — at the peak moment, the moon covered 98.9 per cent of the sun — the effect was to be complete in Brockville, Cornwall and further east towards Montreal.

The chance to see the show meant countless citizens headed south toward the St. Lawrence River to find prime viewing spots.

“Don’t be discouraged, especially for those who have made plans to travel,” Environment Canada meteorologist Sean Akiyama had said Sunday afternoon. “It will be a spectacular event.”

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When did the eclipse happen in Ottawa?

In Ottawa, the eclipse began at 2:11 p.m., when the moon made its first appearance in front of the sun. It progressed from there to the peak moment at 3:25 p.m. The progression continued as the sun began to re-appear, piece by piece, until being fully seen again at 4:35 p.m.

The process began two minutes earlier in Kingston and one minute earlier in Brockville.

At the peak moment, the forecast called for highs of 17 C in Ottawa and Cornwall, and 16 C in Brockville. The high in Kingston was expected to be 12 C.

How to tell if you’ve damaged your eyes looking at an eclipse

Viewing the eclipse without proper eye protection can lead to permanent eye damage. Be alert for these symptoms in the hours and days after the April 8th eclipse:

• Blurry vision
• Eye pain or a feeling of grittiness in your eyes
• Distorted straight lines that look bent, such as a curvy door frame
• A blind spot in the central vision of one or both eyes
• Increased light sensitivity
• Dychromatopsia, that is, a change in the way you see colour

(Source: Ontario Association of Optometrists optom.on.ca)

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Updates from the path of totality

Kingston

An 89-year-old resident of Kingston, Ont., says this won’t be his first solar eclipse, but it will be pretty special.

Tom Rance says for some people, it may be a once-in-a-lifetime experience — “almost like watching the Leafs win the Stanley Cup.”

Rance was among the first people to head to Lake Ontario Park, where the city is holding a viewing.

One man from Toronto said he was considering driving to Montreal, which he says has clear skies forecasted, as he eyes the cloud coverage coming off from the lake.

City of Kingston workers at the park were all given free glasses to view the eclipse.

Officials had blocked off several streets near downtown to accommodate throngs of eclipse watchers as of 9 a.m.

Locals are debating whether the city will see more people today than they did in 2016 when The Tragically Hip played their final show there.

Carole Giangrande and Brian Gibson have been eclipse-chasing for 45 years.

The Toronto couple was in Kingston to witness their fifth eclipse, their first being in Gimli, Manitoba in 1979.

Giangrande says so much in the world right now “is so rotten” but watching an eclipse together brings feelings of positivity and wonder.

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She says “there’s no human experience that can match it.”

Niagara Falls

Eclipse watchers were lining up as of 8:40 a.m. to try to break a Guinness World Record.

The city is trying to get 300 people to dress up in sun costumes.

A sign by the falls reads those participating must be wearing black, yellow or white pants.

Officials say it’s a fun way to celebrate the solar eclipse, which will be on full view in the border community.

Quebec

Benoit Reeves, a science communicator and son of late Canadian astrophysicist Hubert Reeves, travelled from Paris to Quebec just to see the eclipse.

The Montreal-born Reeves says he’s already witnessed eclipses in the past and it was such a moving, powerful experience, he simply had to attend.

He was attending an event at the Astrolab in Mont Megantic, east of Montreal, where 2,500 people got tickets to watch the eclipse today.

Reeves says the conditions are magnificent, there is good weather and the path of totality passes right over Mont Megantic.

Thousands of people had gathered at a viewing site in Montreal’s Jean-Drapeau park by 1 p.m. for what organizers billed as the “eclipse of the century.”

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People spread out across the site with picnic blankets, sun hats and small telescopes.

Eight-year-old Albert Duchene could hardly contain his excitement for what he’s calling an “unforgettable moment.”

He says he wanted to come to the viewing site so he could watch the eclipse with people from across Montreal, Canada and from other countries.

Atlantic Canada

Seven-year-old Avalon Gardner-Duffy, who drove up to Fredericton, N.B. with her parents and siblings from Nova Scotia, says she’s very excited to see her first solar eclipse.

She says she’s looking forward to the “black bump” of the moon blocking the sun, and “the shine coming up from behind.”

Her mother told her and her siblings to make sure they didn’t miss the eclipse by having to use the washroom at the moment the sun is blocked by the moon.

They laughed and agreed it was an important point.

Galina Sherren, an undergraduate physics student at Memorial University, came to Gander, N.L., from St. John’s to view the eclipse with a group of her fellow students.

She says the eclipse provides a unique opportunity to understand more about the sun.

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She says the next opportunity people in Newfoundland will have to see a total eclipse will be in 2070, which means today’s eclipse may be a once-in-a-lifetime event for the 22-year-old.

Sherren says the excitement of the event really hit home when she arrived in Gander, where a large community viewing event is planned today.

She says she’s heard that witnessing a rare astronomical spectacle such as a total eclipse can be quite emotional, and she’s prepared for it.

In western Prince Edward Island, near a lighthouse at the tip of North Cape, hundreds of people gathered at the Wind Energy Interpretive Centre, which is normally closed at this time of year.

The centre’s parking lot, flanked by more than two dozen wind turbines, was jammed to overflowing.

Dozens of eclipse-chasers set up lawn chairs and strolled along a rocky spit that juts into the Gulf of St. Lawrence, which was decidedly calm despite a stiff westerly breeze.

Spirits were high as the sun shone through a thin layer of high-altitude clouds.

With files from Ken Warren, Elizabeth Payne, Blair Crawford, Hannah Daley, Postmedia staff and The Canadian Press. 

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