Achi news desk-
A total solar eclipse is expected to occur in parts of Ontario on Monday for the first time in 45 years.
People from across the state and beyond will flock to cities within the path of totality to catch a glimpse of the rare cosmic event.
Here’s everything you need to know to prepare for and enjoy the heavenly show.
Where and what time is the solar eclipse?
The start of Monday’s eclipse and how long it will last will vary slightly depending on where you’re viewing it in Ontario.
Across the state, the eclipse will begin around 2 pm before peaking between 3:15 and 3:25 pm in most major cities.
While the entire state will see a partial eclipse, only a few areas will experience totality, including Hamilton, Niagara Falls, Fort Erie, Kingston, and Burlington.
Click here to see the best viewing time in your area.
Niagara Falls prepares for up to 1 million visitors
Niagara Falls Mayor Jim Diodati said the city has been buzzing with excitement since National Geographic declared the city the best place in the world to see the total eclipse.
“It’s going to be crazy… We’re trying to prepare for the biggest event in the history of the city by far,” he told CP24 last month.
“The biggest crowd we’ve ever had was 12 years ago with Nik Wallenda going across the falls. That day we had more than 150,000 people.”
Diodati said some have estimated the crowd for the eclipse will be eight or nine times that size.
The Niagara Region proactively declared a state of emergency on March 29 “out of sufficient warning” ahead of the influx of tourists. Officials said the move will ensure it is ready to accommodate the “once in a lifetime event.”
A number of roads will be effectively closed from midday for crowd control and can be found here.
Metrolinx has also announced that it is running a special service to and from the Falls to accommodate the surge in visitors. Click here for details.
‘I’ll be in Toronto during the eclipse. Will I even see him?’
Although the moon will cover 99.9 percent of the sun in parts of Toronto on April 8, the city is not in the path of totality like other municipalities outside the GTA.
Because of that, only a partial eclipse will be visible and viewers will miss out on many of the more exciting aspects of the celestial event.
“You’re not going to see the sky get dark. You are not going to see the sun darkened. You’re not going to see the corona,” said Elaina Hyde, director of the Carswell Observatory at York University and a professor with the school’s Natural Sciences department.
“If you’re standing around outside, you might not even notice anything going on.”
What is the weather forecast?
There is a chance that viewing of the solar eclipse in Toronto on Monday could be hindered by cloud cover, but sky watchers should still be able to catch a glimpse of the event, weather permitting.
A low pressure system, whose center is moving from the upper midwestern United States to northwestern Ontario, will hit the Golden Horseshoe area with clouds and isolated showers from sunrise to late afternoon.
However, according to CP24 Meteorologist Bill Coulter, the forecast models “don’t completely agree” and there is a chance that there will be a few clear breaks by mid-afternoon – right when the solar eclipse will occur.
“In other words, we could be lucky. But, expect mostly cloudy skies at eclipse time for Toronto and Niagara. I’m crossing my fingers,” Coulter said.
How rare is this eclipse?
The last time there was a total solar eclipse in the Toronto area was 1925. After Monday, the next solar eclipse in the region will 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. “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.”
Can you see the eclipse without glasses?
If you can’t get your hands on specialist glasses, you can still view the solar eclipse safely with materials you can find around the house.
To do that, take a piece of cardstock or a cardboard box and punch a hole through it. With the pinhole, you can project an image of the sun onto a surface, saving your eyes from looking directly at the sun.
You can also make a shoebox pinhole camera by cutting a hole in one side of a box, putting a piece of aluminum foil over it and then poking a very small hole in the foil.
