Nanaimo Astronomy Society is preparing for some shady goings-on next week when the 2017 total eclipse of the sun darkens morning skies across parts of Canada and the U.S.
The event happens Monday (Aug. 21) and the astronomy society will host a public viewing event at Maffeo Sutton Park from 9 a.m. until noon.
Tony Puerzer, Nanaimo Astronomy Society vice-president, said in Nanaimo the moon will cover a little more than 86 per cent of the sun for about two minutes when the eclipse reaches its peak totality at about 10:20 a.m., but the entire event will last about two hours.
“It’s on a Monday and it’s work time, but people should really plan to take their coffee break around 10:20,” Puerzer said.
He and society president Chris Boar will travel to Oregon – Puerzer to Salem and Boar to Madras – to view the total eclipse.
“Madras, Ore., is the highest likelihood of clear skies and in a dry area,” Puerzer said.
This is the first total eclipse to occur over North America since 1979, when Puerzer failed to see it because of bad weather in Portland, Ore.
“I was 21 years old and I was leading a bus tour from the Vancouver Planetarium … It was me and a whole Greyhound bus load of disappointed people standing there in the drizzling rain early in the morning in Portland, not seeing the eclipse, so I’ve been waiting 39 years to correct that problem.”
“The other bus, they decided to go [inland] and they saw it. They caught it through a hole in the clouds,” Puerzer said. “The big lesson I learned from that is if you’re going to go, stay mobile.”
Puerzer, a professional photographer, has been advised to simply watch when it happens, but said he will attempt to photograph it.
Because the moon won’t totally eclipse the sun over Nanaimo, people must wear proper eclipse safety glasses to watch the event.
“The Nanaimo Astronomy Society is going to be setting up at Maffeo Sutton Park … and they will have telescopes with safe solar filters and they will also have dozens, if not hundreds, of those little solar eclipse cardboard glasses that are safe, so we will be handing those out to people who come by,” he said.
The public can also view through the society’s telescopes.
The society will share images taken by Puerzer, Boar and others at its September meeting.
David Prud’homme, Vancouver Island University ElderCollege instructor and amateur astronomer, and the Town of Qualicum Beach are giving the public a safe view of the eclipse 9 to 11:30 a.m. on the Qualicum Beach waterfront, weather permitting, where the public parking ends northwest of the Beach Hut. The public can view the eclipse through Prud’homme’s telescopes or eclipse safety glasses.
To learn more, visit the Royal Astronomical Society’s web page at http://bit.ly/2uQDrSP to view and download an eclipse handout.