After the excitement of a total solar eclipse swept through Ontario two years ago, some skygazers from southwestern Ontario couldn’t resist a front-row seat to the next one.
On Wednesday, the sun and moon put on another show, this time with a total solar eclipse over Europe.
While people in Ontario only had a partial view, the path of totality — when the moon completely blocks the sun’s light — stretched through parts of Greenland, Iceland, Spain and Portugal, sending eclipse-chasers to Europe for a better view.
Catherine Neish, an earth sciences professor at Western University, hopped on a plane with some family and friends to see totality from the countryside of northern Spain.
“I think once you’ve seen one eclipse, you’re hooked and you’ve got to see them all,” Neish said. “It’s one of the most amazing things I’ve ever seen.”
(Christian Hartmann/Reuters)
Despite being sunny all week, concern arose when the forecast looked cloudy at the location they’d staked out in Spain, Neish said, prompting her to drive another two hours to where she could see the sun.
“This eclipse is a little bit unusual because it’s happening near sunset, so you want a clear view of the horizon. You don’t want to be somewhere where it’s going to be blocked by trees or hills or a building, so we picked this out very carefully.”
Planetary scientist travels from London, Ont., to Spain to watch the eclipse
Neish said she saw her first eclipse in 2017 in Idaho, and watched the April 2024 eclipse from Long Point Provincial Park on the shore of Lake Erie.
“It really should be on everyone’s bucket list. It’s probably the most alien thing I’ve ever seen. It’s incredible,” she said. “Although I understand what’s happening from a scientific perspective, it really is almost a spiritual experience seeing a total solar eclipse.”
Although I understand what’s happening from a scientific perspective, it really is almost a spiritual experience seeing a total solar eclipse.
While some bring fancy equipment such as telescopes and cameras to capture a great photo, Neish said she prefers to stay in the moment.
“I just want to experience it as a moment with my friends and my family, so that’s all I’m hoping to get out of this.”
‘An extraordinary transition’
Woodstock, Ont., resident Clark Muir and his wife made the trip to the Spanish island of Mallorca, where they witnessed the eclipse on a beach.
“The weather was great and thousands of others like myself were on the beach watching the sun hit totality just above a few distant mountains,” Muir told Afternoon Drive guest host Nav Nanwa.
“It’s an extraordinary transition from a reddish sky and a reddish sun to it completely disappearing. And then it turned black and there’s this beautiful corona that surrounds it.”
(Submitted by Clark Muir)
Muir explained he chose to travel to Mallorca because from there, the sun would appear about three degrees above the horizon, giving a mix of the eclipse and evening sunset.
Muir, a member of the Kitchener-Waterloo Royal Astronomical Society, said he has been a passionate stargazer since he was a child, adding that this is the fourth trip he has made to catch a celestial event like this one.
“I remember being in high school in 1979, watching TV and there was one through Winnipeg and it was just fantastic to see. That was one thing I remember thinking to myself: that I must see one of these,” he said.
People are lucky to see a total eclipse just once in their lifetime, but over the next two years, Earth is set to experience three more total solar eclipses in three continents.
The next total solar eclipse in Canada won’t be until August 2044.
LISTEN | Woodstock man describes what the total solar eclipse looked like in Spain :