Achi news desk-
A GTA professor says the upcoming major eclipse is literally a “once in a lifetime event” as the last time it happened in the Toronto region was 1925 and the next one is expected to be in 2144.
“It’s a once in a lifetime event,” Robert Cockcroft, a professor of astronomy and physics at McMaster University told CTV News Toronto on Thursday. “It’s when you get the perfect alignment between the moon and the sun, and it’s just a coincidence that they appear on the same side of the sky.”
“The sun is about 400 times bigger than the moon, but it’s also 400 times further away from the earth so they appear the same size so that allows the moon to cover the sun sometimes.”
A total eclipse in itself is not a particularly rare event, Cockcroft noted. In fact, it happens once every 18 months or so in different parts of the world, he said.
“If you’re willing to travel to an eclipse, it’s not an uncommon occurrence. You can get to see one every year or two,” he said. “But for the eclipse to come to you is what makes it rare. That’s what makes it a once-in-a-lifetime thing.”
In Ontario, a total eclipse occurred in 1979, but it could only be seen in the northern parts of the province. Paul Delaney, an astronomer and professor at York University, tracked the eclipse to Brandon, Manitoba, where it was also visible.
“I’ve seen a total of three solar eclipses and that was my second,” he told CTV News Toronto. “It was by far the coldest. It was February and it was cold on the roof of Brandon University, but the sky was clear. My master’s thesis was based on my observation of the sun that day.”
Back in 1925, when the last total eclipse occurred in the Toronto region, Delaney said historical records show there was “surprisingly” a lot of public engagement thanks to the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada, which was at its peak at the time, and the University of Toronto. .
“The eclipse happened shortly after a very famous solar eclipse in 1919, which basically verified the theory of relativity,” Delaney said. “So there was a lot of interest around solar eclipses early in the century, even though we didn’t have social media and the like.”
“The Royal Astronomical Society of Canada and the University of Toronto were very, very involved in making sure the public was safe,” he said.
Monday’s eclipse will occur around 2 pm, experts said. The whole event takes about two and a half hours.
“The thing that everyone is excited about is that there’s 90 seconds in the middle at 3:18pm when totality happens,” Cockcroft said. “All the excitement and work for these 90 seconds.”
The complete blocking of the sun by the moon will cause darkness for a short time.
Depending on the conditions and how clear the sky is at the time of the eclipse, he said, the first thing he’ll notice in totality is the solar corona, a white haze around the sun.
Delaney said he was trying to be optimistic about the weather and the sky on Monday, and had been monitoring the weather forecast hourly for the past week.
“The blizzards you had earlier last week in Toronto, if that had been predicted on Monday, I would have been terribly disappointed,” he said. “At the moment the prospects are shaky and so I am quietly optimistic.
“But you have to take it with a grain of salt. Whenever you chase eclipses, solar or lunar. You have to be prepared for failure due to the weather.”
In 2017, a partial eclipse was visible in the Toronto area, but only about 70 percent of the sun was covered. Monday’s eclipse is expected to have 99.9 percent coverage.
