Well over 600 people crowded along the Davis Bay Seawall Aug. 21 to get a look at the solar eclipse through telescopes and solar viewing glasses provided by the Sunshine Coast Astronomy Club.
The club, a branch of the Royal Astronomy Society of Canada, had four telescopes for people to peer through, including one projection telescope that offered a postcard-sized display of the eclipse as it happened.
The club also provided 200 pairs of viewing glasses that were snapped up quickly by the crowd of all ages.
At the height of the eclipse, around 10:30 a.m., about 80 per cent of the sun was blocked by the shadow of the moon, which made for some neat viewing but didn’t darken the day that much.
The eclipse reached 100 per cent for some watchers in the U.S. who were within the “path of totality,” a 70-mile-wide ribbon that crossed the U.S. from Oregon to South Carolina.
The Sunshine Coast Astronomy Club offered the free viewing event in Davis Bay as part of their ongoing public outreach, in an effort to “enhance understanding of and inspire curiosity about the universe.”
Club members regularly set up their telescopes for public viewing sessions throughout the year, take part in special events and encourage visitors to come to their observatory in Wilson Creek.
Find out more at www.coastastronomy.ca
