Manitobans stared up at the sky in awe on Monday as they watched the moon slowly pass in front of the sun during a rare celestial event that won’t happen again in North America for two decades.
“This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,” said Grade 7 student Joseph Henderson on Monday. “It’s pretty cool.”
Henderson and his classmates at Winnipeg’s River Heights School got to watch the partial solar eclipse in Manitoba with their own eyes — and with the help of eclipse glasses — thanks to their teacher Emma Plummer.
For her, Monday’s eclipse gives her a chance to enhance her students’ learning.
“I was so, so excited about the eclipse happening, and the fact that it’s happening during the school day means I get to share that with all of my students,” said Plummer, who teaches math and science.
She said she started planning Monday’s lesson with her students before spring break.
“We started with them asking questions, deciding what do they know already,” Plummer said inside her classroom.
“Some students are starting with, ‘what is an eclipse?’ and other students are starting with, ‘how do we safely view it.'”
Manitobans saw a maximum 50 to 60 per cent partial eclipse just after 2 p.m. on Monday. The eclipse started shortly before 1 p.m. and lasted until shortly after 3 p.m.
The last time a total solar eclipse happened in the province was in 1979. Another one won’t be seen in North America until 2044.
“This kind of event makes memories,” said Plummer.
Though Manitobans were only able to see a partial eclipse, some traveled to Ontario to catch a glimpse of it in its path of totality — the stretch where the moon will block the sunlight entirely.
Students from École River Heights School in Winnipeg slapped on their eclipse glasses
and headed outside with CBC’s Jim Agapito to take in the ‘once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.’
That includes Margaret and Rene Roncin, who drove from Dauphin over the weekend to make sure they could watch the total solar eclipse in Niagara Falls.
They’re part of the hundreds of thousands who were in the area for Monday’s event.
“We figured, what the heck, why not?” said Margaret.
“It’s to be part of that once-in-a-lifetime event,” added Rene. “You’d hate to say, ‘Ah, I should have went yesterday.'”
Churchill resident Joe Stover also decided to make the trip to watch the total eclipse. He traveled by plane, train and car to Wheatley, Ont., to see the eclipse with his grandmother and uncle.
It’s something he planned on doing for about 20 years, when he heard of a solar eclipse happening somewhere across the globe but hadn’t traveled to see it.
“I was a bit captivated by the whole idea, then I thought, ‘Well wouldn’t that be really neat to see?'” Stover told Janet Stewart on CBC’s Radio Noon.
“I knew that no matter what I was doing, no matter where I was, that I was going to do everything in my power to be there for this eclipse. The day is finally here. I can’t believe it.”
Stover took a train from Churchill to Thompson, then flew to Winnipeg, and later Toronto before catching another train to Windsor and then driving to Wheatley, a southwestern Ontario community that’s in the eclipse’s path of totality.
For two minutes and 21 seconds, he was be able to watch the moon cover the entire sun.
“It’s been on my bucket list a long time,” he said. “I don’t think I’ve ever been this giddy.”
But Dennis Lyons, president of Winnipeg’s Royal Astronomical Society of Canada chapter, wanted to stay in the province for the event, though he said some members traveled to Newfoundland or Mazatlan, Mexico, to watch the eclipse in totality.
“It’s a fairly rare event to be able to observe it locally,” he told CBC News at The Leaf at Assiniboine Park, where hundreds gathered on Monday.
“I just wanted to be here to help others to enjoy this and be able to see the event as best they could.”
Sisters Gia Guerrero and Maria Guerrero were also at the park Monday. Gia, who’s nine years old, hasn’t seen an eclipse before, and was happy to finally get the chance.
“I’m really excited,” she said before the eclipse started. “I like a bit of science.”
Gia, 12, said it was her sister’s idea to head down to the park for the viewing event.
“Our teachers would not let us go outside to see it, so I told my mom if I could skip school and go and see it,” said Maria.
“I really, really wanna see it.”
Lyons said Manitobans would see about 62 per cent of the sun covered by the moon. He set up a special telescope with a white-light filter allowed viewers to safely watch the eclipse happen in real-time.
“It’s very exciting, especially when we got a lot of people out to be able to see this,” he said.
Manitobans stared up at the sky in awe on Monday as they watched the moon slowly pass in front of the sun during a rare celestial event that won’t happen again in North America for two decades.
