Total Eclispe

Do you have plans to observe the eclipse today?  I have my glasses and will be popping out of the office to have a look.

 

THAT WAS COOL!  It got slowly darker and colder until it felt like early evening.  That part was almost cooler than the eclipse itself.

 

13 comments

  1. I’m about a 30 minute SE drive to the lakeshore in Oakville; I should be right on the northern border of the totality path. Hopefully. And then there’s the cloud cover today which will, also, hopefully break for a bit around 3pm

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      1. If it is still cloudy at 3pm, the sliver of light (less than 100% blocked) will wash out the clouds. Hopefully, in the band of totality, it will actually get really dark in Oakville. I think the weather is about an hour later for cloud clearing here, so I may not see the eclipse, just the darkening.

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        1. Here’s hoping Dan. The weather here has not changed at all. They are still calling for the cloud to clear a bit at 3 pm. Fingers cross.

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  3. The page won’t let me be the fifth reply to my original comment so I have to make a new one.

    The 30 minute drive to Oakville became a 90 minute event due to horrendous traffic; to Oakville, really?! My chosen park was crowded and the lot full; over-full as cars were even parked on the grass. I left, but couldn’t find any street parking, and with the construction and one-way streets it took a long time to exit the neighbourhood.

    I found a small parkette a few streets further over, and a small lot there, so I had my new viewing location with a few others that joined us in the isolated spot. The clouds were heavy and we couldn’t see anything past them. About 2:30 someone said it was getting darker, but I thought it was just heavier clouds. Then about 3:05 a small window opened in the clouds, exactly where the sun was, and I heard a loud cheer from everyone in the surrounding parks. I thought the cheer was for the window, but putting on our glasses we saw the eclipse was already at about 50%. The window held for the rest of the transition to full coverage, the beads and corona, and then the diamond ring, with the clouds rolling in right after blocking everything out again.

    Around 4pm, the whole sky suddenly cleared and I watched the rest of the eclipse until the moon fully passed the sun about 5pm; I guess at 2:30 it really had gotten darker, because the eclipse had actually already begun, but it wasn’t apparent through the clouds.

    It was worth the drive to be in the band of totality as it became very dark (street-lights came on and were visable on the ground), and we saw the corona. The clouds gave us that perfectly timed and placed window, and it was a better show than Toronto saw and I didn’t have to drive to Niagara.

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    1. It got much colder there as well, and the total-eclipse lasted about 4-5 minutes; I think Niagara had about a 7 minute total-eclipse. Then it took about another 90 minutes to clear the sun; I’m not sure when it exactly started, but probably near 2pm. Then it got really warm and sunny.

      Next one in Toronto: in 120 years! See ya’ there!

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    2. With hindsight, I wish I had driven somewhere as well. Take the afternoon off. I know some people who just found a roadside to park in cottage country, and they saw full totality. I wish I had done that.

      It was really cool how the world got dark and cold for a few minutes. That was almost better than the eclipse because you can feel it with all your senses. The eclipse itself was about 97% for us, but I was unable to get any pictures.

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      1. I have experienced partials in the past, but this time I had the opportunity, with some travel, to see a full eclipse and I had to do it; it is only a 20 km/12 mile drive in to the ‘path of totality’ so no reason for missing a once-in-my-lifetime chance. I was concerned it might be a wasted trip if the clouds didn’t part, though, but they did. From seeing the video on the news, it appears Niagara, Hamilton and Kingston had partial cloud cover during the total eclipse; in Oakville, we missed part of the beginning, and part of the moon passing after, but we had a clear window from about 20 minutes before total to just after the diamond ring, and again with about 40 minutes of the moon passing to full clearing. I think we had the best location in the surrounding area.

        It reminds me of my university graduation: I invited both my mom and grandmother, but they were having a big personal argument at the time. My grandmother, in anger, said she won’t go and will see the next one. I told Mom “tell Grandma she’s going to this ceremony as ‘there won’t be a next one!’ “

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