Just before noon on Monday, Airdrie residents will be able to marvel at the partial solar eclipse. 

The partial eclipse will begin at 11:49 a.m., and it will reach its maximum around 12:43 p.m. The maximum is defined as, 'The deepest point of the eclipse, with the Sun at its most hidden.' The eclipse will end at 1:38 p.m. 

Simon Poole, the past President of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada (Calgary Chapter), said that while the eclipse is quite a sight to behold, safety is crucial.

"You're going to want to have officially certified eclipse glasses to look at the sun at any time during the eclipse; there's no way around that. If you're going to use equipment, such as binoculars or a telescope, you're going to want to make sure that the aperture of that device is filtered. You can't just filter the eyepieces; you need to filter the actual aperture of it."

Poole said that Airdrie and the surrounding areas are expecting an eclipse of about 37.4 per cent magnitude, meaning that the moon will be covering approximately just over a third of the sun at the maximum.

He added members of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada will be at the TELUS Spark Science Centre beginning at 9 a.m. until the end of the eclipse. He added that there are also other creative ways one can view the eclipse.

"Some of the ways that I like to observe it: I would get a colander out of my kitchen and make the sun kind of go through all those holes and then on the ground; you should see shadows, and you will see the moon taking a bite out of the sun in all of those shadows."

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has also underlined the importance of eye safety.

"When watching the partial phases of the solar eclipse directly with your eyes, which happens before and after totality, you must look through safe solar viewing glasses (“eclipse glasses”) or a safe handheld solar viewer at all times. Eclipse glasses are not regular sunglasses; regular sunglasses, no matter how dark, are not safe for viewing the Sun."

Safety precautions are also being taken by schools. The Calgary Catholic School District (CSSD) notified parents and guardians on their website of what will be occurring in school.

"Partial or annular solar eclipses are different from total solar eclipses – there is no period of totality when the moon completely blocks the sun's bright face. Therefore, during partial or annular solar eclipses, it is never safe to look directly at the eclipse without proper eye protection," CSSD stated on its website.

Students who attend CSSD schools will be invited to:

  • Remain at school for an indoor lunch.
  • Ask parents/guardians to send a lunch to school.
  • Participate in supervised indoor activities and away from windows to the outside.  

"If parents/guardians decide that their child will walk home for lunch on Monday, please discuss with your child not to look directly at the sun to protect their eyes from damage from the solar eclipse."

When asked about how rare or common solar eclipses are, Poole said that they are not as rare as one would think. He also clarified details that are sometimes confused when it comes to lunar and solar eclipses.

"With a solar eclipse, the Moon is coming between the Earth and the Sun and the Moon itself is going to be covering parts or in some regions, all of the sun in the sky. The Moon and the Sun are perceived [on Earth] as about the same size."

He said that it also depends on where the moon is and whether it's at a point closest to the earth, or furthest from the earth.

"The moon has the potential to cover the entire disk of the sun; when it's further away, it'll just cover the middle of the sun, and that's called an annular eclipse. In the case of Monday, the moon is closer to the Earth, and it will fully cover the sun. With a lunar eclipse, what happens is that the sun and the moon are on opposite sides of the earth; the Earth is casting a shadow onto the moon."

Although Airdrie will not see the full solar eclipse, NASA stated that, 'millions of people along the path of totality – which stretches from Texas to Maine in the United States – will see a total solar eclipse, when the Moon completely covers the Sun.'

"Weather permitting, the first location in continental North America that will experience totality is Mexico’s Pacific coast at around 11:07 a.m. PDT [Pacific Time Zone]. The path of the eclipse continues from Mexico, entering the United States in Texas, and travelling through Oklahoma, Arkansas, Missouri, Illinois, Kentucky, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine."

The eclipse will enter Canada in Southern Ontario, and continue through Quebec, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, and Nova Scotia. The eclipse will exit continental North America on the Atlantic coast of Newfoundland, Canada, at 5:16 p.m. NDT.

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