Achi news desk-
Amateur astronomers or eclipse enthusiasts can now use a new bilingual app to ensure they get the best experience on April 8.
The My Eclipse app is a 21st-century tool for this age-old phenomenon, created by the Quebec Federation of Amateur Astronomers (FAAQ).
According to Alan Prefontaine, project manager at the FAAQ, the app has three main purposes: informational, historical and scientific.
The goal, Préfontaine says, is to give people plenty of information about eclipses and prepare them with the best ways to view the changing sky.
The app provides details such as letting users know if they’re in line for everything — meaning when they can take off their glasses to look at the eclipse and when they have to put them back on.
“People understand that if you go to totality, especially a long period of totality, you’re going to enjoy the eclipse a lot,” Prefontaine said. “There is a huge difference between 99% covered sun and everything.”
He calls the wonder almost “esoteric.”
“Everything changes, darkness comes; human nature has been guided by the sun that rises in the morning, sets at night for thousands of years,” notes Prefontaine. “Suddenly, at 3:30 p.m., the sun is going to disappear… people are marked by it.”
The federation worked with programmers from the University of Montreal for more than a year to create the app and first tested it last October during a partial solar eclipse.
The app isn’t just for the total eclipse on April 8; Préfontaine says it is up to date until 2032.
“We won’t have full eclipses in Quebec, but they happen somewhere on the globe every year, year and a half,” Prefontaine said. “Many of them will be visible as partial eclipses from here, so you can use it for those. Or if you get on a plane and go to Europe or Africa or wherever, you can bring the app with you and it’s going to give you the same quality information.”
This means users can use the app no ​​matter where they are in the world.
“Because of the geo-localization, it will know where you are, and it will send you real-time messages about what’s going on around you,” he said.
The last total eclipse visible from Montreal was in 1932; The next one is not expected until 2106.
To download the My Eclipse app, click here for iOS and here for Android.
