Today you can see an infrequent natural phenomenon when the moon passes between the sun and earth in a solar eclipse.
The Backyard Astronomer Gary Boyle says it’s been about a century since North America saw a total solar eclipse.
“The actual umbra, or the dark path where the Sun will be completely blocked out will be about 112 kilometres wide,” says Boyle. “It starts in Oregon at about 3,800 kilometres per hour, and ends up in South Carolina at about 2,400 kilometres per hour.”
Boyle warns everyone to never look at the Sun directly, adding even expensive sunglasses won’t protect your eyes.
He recommends creating a pinhole camera out of a shoebox instead.
“And you would put a piece of foil on one end of the box, put a little pinhole in it, and then it projects the image on the other side, so you’re not looking at the Sun you’re looking at a projection,” says Boyle.
He adds it is a really spectacular, and even angelic sight, and a once in a lifetime opportunity.
The Royal Astronomical Society of Canada – New Brunswick Centre is observing the eclipse and will be set up at two locations – Irving Nature Park and the Rockwood Park Bark Park. The partial eclipse in New Brunswick begins at 2:37pm and ends at 4:56pm.
More details are available on the Facebook event page.
Photo credit: Luc Viatour / https://lucnix.be/
