A partial eclipse… while waiting for the total eclipse

On Saturday, October 14 at noon, a partial eclipse will be visible in Quebec. Amateur astronomers will take advantage of this event to prepare for the total eclipse which will take place next April – a phenomenon that Montreal has not experienced since 1932.

Partial eclipse

Saturday’s eclipse will see 15% of the Sun hidden by the Moon in Montreal. “It happens very often, but we use it as a dress rehearsal for the total eclipse in April,” says Jasmin Robert, director of the Fédération des astronomers amateurs du Québec (FAAQ). “It will still be a great show on Saturday, as it comes at a time when people are off work. » As usual, you must use protective glasses to avoid damaging your eyes if you want to watch the partial eclipse.

Total eclipse

The eclipse on April 8 will be total in the southern half of Montreal, and visible in its entirety in the Eastern Townships. The band where the eclipse will be total will measure 200 km. “For half an hour, it will be dark,” explains Marc Jobin, astronomer at the Montreal Planetarium. “It’s impressive, the wildlife is changing its behavior. » Mr. Jobin has witnessed 10 total eclipses in his life, the last in 2012 in New Mexico. “I was supposed to go see one in 2020 in Argentina, but there was the pandemic. »

Annular eclipse

Unlike April’s, Saturday’s eclipse will be annular, meaning the Moon will not cover the entire Sun. “The Moon must be close enough to the Earth to hide the Sun,” says Mr. Jobin. This will not be the case on Saturday. The lunar orbit is in fact slightly elliptical, which means that there is a difference of 50,000 km between the moment when the Moon is closest to the Earth and the moment when it is furthest. And as the Moon moves away from the Earth by 38 millimeters per year, within half a billion years, there will no longer be a total eclipse, notes Mr. Jobin. Which is still a bit long…

Christopher Colombus

In 1504, Christopher Columbus used his astronomical knowledge to predict a solar eclipse and impress his native hosts in Jamaica. The stratagem was taken up in literature, notably by Mark Twain in A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court and Hergé in The Temple of the Sun.

Application

The FAAQ has launched a phone application, My Eclipse, which can be used to better plan the observation of Saturday’s partial eclipse. “In April, we will have three sites to observe the eclipse, we will be able to accommodate thousands of people,” says Mr. Robert. The Montreal Planetarium plans to distribute half a million observation glasses for the April eclipse. “When the Moon completely hides the Sun, you don’t need glasses, but at the beginning and at the end, you have to have them,” says Mr. Jobin. On April 8, the Moon will completely cover the Sun for a little more than 3 minutes at the center of the total eclipse.

Hotels

In Estrie, hotels directly located under the April eclipse have unusual reservations. Manoir Hovey, in North Hatley, is already full for Sunday April 6 and Monday April 7, according to its general manager, Jason Stafford. “We are often full even during the week, but reservations come in very early,” says Mr. Stafford. It must be said that we were prepared, we are going to have glasses for our customers. »

NASA

During Saturday’s eclipse, NASA will launch three rockets into the atmosphere to measure its disruption by the eclipse. This mission is called Atmospheric Disturbances in the Wake of the Eclipse, or APEP, which in English is the name of the Egyptian god of the night, Apophis.