Weather permitting, people who turn their eyes upwards in Newfoundland and Labrador will be able to see a partial solar eclipse Wednesday.
The Johnson Geo Centre is hosting a watch party in St. John’s from 12 p.m. NT to 5 p.m., alongside the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada and STEM Girls.
“They’ll have their telescopes and their expertise with them. And then inside we’re going to be streaming the totality, which is going over from Greenland, Iceland and then down to Spain,” Johnson Geo Centre lead of education and interpretation Andrea van Nostrand told CBC News Tuesday.
While the range of the eclipse varies depending on location, in Newfoundland the moon will cover approximately 50 per cent of the sun.
The science centre will also have activities where kids can create solar viewing tools so they won’t look directly at the sun, she added.
“Viewing it, it is pretty spectacular,” van Nostrand said with a smile.
“You don’t normally see something moving in front of the sun like that and with the glasses on and the viewers… It’s phenomenal.”
While they are hoping for a sunny day, van Nostrand said the Geo Centre will have events inside no matter the weather.
In St. John’s, Environment Canada is forecasting periods of drizzle with fog expected to dissipate in the afternoon.
CBC meteorologist Ashley Brauweiler said hopefully, the skies will clear by Wednesday afternoon in time for the partial solar eclipse to be visible in St. John’s.
“We’re in for a treat,” said Brauweiler. “We will see about 53 per cent of the sun by the moon [Wednesday] in St. John’s. Gander, same thing. The most will be in Nain, at 55 per cent of the sun.”
However, she said the forecast is not optimal for viewing it.
“There’s a slight chance we may see some of the eclipse but definitely going to have to keep an eye on that,” said Brauweiler.
Hilding Neilson, assistant professor in the department of physics at Memorial University, said the partial eclipse won’t be as dramatic as the total eclipse that happened two years ago.
“It may appear to be a little darker, almost like it became overcast . But that’s really the extent of it. You know, it’s not a huge change when it’s a partial eclipse,” he said.
A total solar eclipse will be visible across Greenland, Iceland and Spain, along with a very small part of Portugal.
Been there, saw that, want to see it again
Seeing the total eclipse two years ago prompted mother-daughter duo Jennifer Waye and Gabriella Fuentes Waye to travel to Europe so they could witness the total solar eclipse from Spain.
“It’s going to be really beautiful and it’s going to be packed, so we’re going to be experiencing that with a lot of other people,” said Fuentes Waye over Zoom while in Mallorca, Spain on Tuesday.
Waye said they wanted to see if from Spain, not only because of a family connection to Spain, but also because of the weather.
“You don’t get a lot of rain. You don’t get a lot of clouds. So the weather, you know, 99 per cent of the chance, you know, it’s going to work out,” she said.
In Canada, people further north and east will be able to see a more complete solar eclipse. Alert, Nunavut will have the best view in the country, where the sun will be 94 per cent covered.
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