How to watch solar eclipse in Alberta: Q&A w/ Telus World of Science

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Edmontonians who are hoping for clear skies to view the partial solar eclipse April 8 should heed the warning of experts to take care and have appropriate equipment when looking at the celestial event.

You can safely watch the partial eclipse at the Telus World of Science through free, safe telescopes or purchases safe solar viewers at the centre.

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“Looking at the sun on any given day, whether it be an eclipse day or not is very dangerous. People have become totally blinded by that, you don’t want an eclipse to be the last thing you ever see,” said Frank Florian, senior manager of Planetarium Space Sciences at the Telus World of Science in Edmonton.

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On Thursday, Postmedia spoke to Florian about how Edmontonians can safely watch the partial eclipse, how it will be seen across different parts of Alberta and Canada and when might the province be able to see a full eclipse.

How can people safely view the partial eclipse and are sunglasses enough?

Definitely not. Sunglasses? Don’t do it.

Solar eclipses are wonderful things to behold, but in order to view a solar eclipse of any kind, you really need to use the special solar filter, something that you can put over your eyes or over the front of your telescope. Now, those types of solar filters are available through a lot of different places including at the Telus World of Science.

We sell solar viewing glasses that have all the stringent requirements to view the sun safely. If people don’t have solar viewing glasses, then there’s other ways of looking at a partial solar eclipse by projecting an image of the sun through a little pinhole onto the ground or onto a piece of paper. You’ll see that instead of just a circle of sunlight, you’ll see that there’s a little chunk taken out of the sun. That’s an indirect means of looking at these partial solar eclipses.

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Now, if people want to see the sun totally eclipsed or basically see the sun through the telescope with a solar filter, we will have telescopes at the Telus World of Science for that.

Can you explain the difference between a partial and a full eclipse and why a partial is considered more dangerous?

So those individuals in eastern Canada, as long as they don’t get clouds, they’ll be able to see a total eclipse.

That means that the moon itself will cover the entire disc of the sun blocking all and any direct sunlight from view. So, it basically will turn day to nighttime for a few short seconds or minutes depending on exactly where you lie along that shadow of the moon, a partial eclipse, however, is where only a portion of the sun will be obscured by the moon during any partial phase.

Any partial phase when the moon doesn’t cover the sun, even a small amount is very, very dangerous. Even for those people that are within that region where totality is going to be where the moon covers up the entire sun, any of the partial phases leading up to that, it’s very dangerous to look at the sunup there.

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It’s only safe to look at the moon and sun together as a total solar eclipse when the moon does cover the entire disc of the sun — then you don’t need to wear special glasses anymore.

But as soon as any, there’s a glimmer of sunlight again, passing through what’s known as the diamond ring effect where again, all of a sudden, the moon starts to move off from in front of the sun and direct sunlight reaches you again, that’s dangerous.

With this partial eclipse, how will it affect us in different parts of Alberta or if it will at all?

Well, here in Alberta, we just get really a shallow partial eclipse here in Edmonton starting at 11:54 a.m. That’s when the moon slowly starts to cover a small portion of the sun. Only about 23 per cent of the area of the sun will be hidden behind the moon. So that’s not very much. The whole duration of the total part partial eclipse that we get to see here is about one hour and 45 minutes.

People out and about on that day, if it’s a clear day they won’t notice any difference of the brightness of the surrounding area. It’ll still look less like any other sunny day.

Different parts of Alberta like Calgary would get a little bit more of a coverage about 26 per cent. The further north you go, you’ll get to see less of it. Even Grand Prairie gets to see a little bit of the eclipse, but only about 15% of the area of the sun will be obscured by the moon.

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In Alberta, it’s just strictly a partial solar eclipse. The further north you go, the less you get to see of it. The further south you go, you get to see a little bit more of the partial eclipse and more of the area of the sun being obscured.

If you travel further towards the east, going through Saskatchewan into Manitoba, you get to see more and more of the sun being obscured by the moon.

When will the next full eclipse be?

Partial solar eclipses are fairly rare — eclipses are pretty rare. The next partial clips that we get to see will take place on Aug. 12, 2026 and we’ll see between 10 and 15 per cent of the area. It’s very similar to what we’re seeing here a little bit less. 

In the next 20 years, there’s going to be eight more partial solar eclipses starting in with Aug. 12, 2026. 

On Aug. 22, 2044, here in Alberta, most Albertans, whether you’re in the mountain parks, whether you’re in Red Deer, Edmonton, Calgary will be able to see a total solar eclipse and total solar eclipses themselves are rare for any one area. 

It’s been estimated that basically any one location on the earth gets to see a total solar eclipse once in a 400-year period. For us here in Alberta, we only have 20 years to wait for our total solar eclipse time.

ctran@postmedia.com
X: @kccindytran

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