The solar eclipse was visible in the southern Manitoba sky earlier this afternoon. About 55 per cent of the sun was covered by the moon.
Zach Loewen, a local individual interested in the skies, went all the way to Texas to get a better view of the eclipse.
He says pictures don’t do it justice.
“It was more incredible than any pictures we could ever see. Just being here in person has been an amazing experience. Actually being able to be here, feel the area grow colder, the world around you grow darker.”
He adds there was an amazing crowd.
“There were probably around 200 vehicles here in Pecan Creek Park in Hamilton, Texas. And just the amount of expressions and ‘oohs’ and ‘ahs’ we heard as the different phases of the eclipse were occurring added to the excitement and amazement.”
Loewen says people came from quite far away to view the eclipse.
“There was even a bus full of people from Taiwan who had come here to see the events. It was overall an amazing experience together as people able to witness and go through this together.”
He and his family had planned out eight different locations ahead of time to make sure they had a good view.
“We settled on Hamilton and we were able to see a totally unobstructed view of the eclipse during the entire duration. It was amazing.”
He says it was incredible to predict the exact time each event was going to occur, and then seeing them come to pass.
“For example, when we pulled up to the park and we were able to know that there was a chunk of the sun missing already, I told the kids to grab their eclipse glasses and take a look at the sun and tell me what they saw, and they all were amazed.”
Falynn Burke, a local 17-year-old amateur astronomer, says she’s been interested in the skies for four years now.
She owns three telescopes and has a pair of binoculars from her great-grandfather.
“One of my telescopes is pretty big. I've used it tons of summers and summers worth where we brought it all across Manitoba.”
Burke says she can see quite a bit.
“You can actually see a really good view of the Andromeda Galaxy, that's one of the coolest things I've seen. I love seeing the Orion Nebula. That one is a winter staple, even if it is -40 outside, it looks beautiful.”
A photo Falynn Burke took of the moon through her telescope.As for planets, she has seen Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn.
Of all of them, Saturn is her favourite.
“When you see it for the first time, it's like a little Christmas ornament in the sky. Because it's so tiny, but you can see the rings around it and everything. It's beautiful."
She says today was an exciting day for her, and is thankful that she was able to see it.
“Last year we were basically clouded out, but there would be moments where we would see the eclipse for a split second and then everybody would go crazy like, ‘oh look, it's the eclipse. You can finally see it.’”
Burke viewed the solar eclipse from Manitoba Museum's Solar Eclipse Viewing Party at The Leaf in Assiniboine Park.
Composite of the eclipse phases in Palm Desert, California which had the same percentage of coverage as in Southern Manitoba. (~55%). Difference, totally clear skies here throughout the event. Taken with a Canon R7, rf100-400 lense plus rf1.4x Extender, ND100000 Filter. Photo credit: Hans Epp
With files from Kenton Dyck and Corny Rempel
Tue, Apr 30, 9:00 AM
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