A retired math and astronomy teacher in Williams Lake made sure to view the solar eclipse Monday, April 8.
Lynn Capling said because it was overcast in Williams Lake she knew it would be a partial solar eclipse and did not haul out her telescope but instead was using her eclipse viewer.
“You can just see sort of a flat area of the bottom of the Sun where the moon is blocking it from our view,” she told Black Press Media at 11:30 a.m. outside her home on Country Club Boulevard. “Somebody told me it was about 17 per cent covered.”
The last time there was a partial solar eclipse was in 2017 when she said quite a bit of the sun was blocked.
In fact, she made of painting of it she shared as well.
“Until the whole thing is blocked you cannot really see the excitement of the corona [the outer atmosphere of the Sun],” she explained.
When the eclipse occurs, it does get darker, albeit not conceptually to human beings, and it does get cooler.
In 2006, she and her late husband Steve Capling went to Turkey for a total solar eclipse.
“It was quite amazing how dark it gets. You can see the stars come out and how cool it got. I had thought right after the eclipse I would go jump in the water because we were right near the ocean, but I was too cold to do that.”
Another year, Capling’s daughter was delivering pizza in the 1990s during the eclipse so Capling gave her the eclipse viewer to take along and show customers.
“She got the best tips ever,” Capling said, chuckling.
The partial eclipse began about 10:43 a.m. and ended at 12:20 p.m. Pacific Standard Time.
In 2026, a total solar eclipse will glide across northern Greenland, Iceland and Spain.
The next total solar eclipse in North America will arrive on March 30, 2033, but only in Alaska. For those living farther south, you’ll have to wait until 2044, when the moon’s shadow will sweep across Western Canada, Montana and North Dakota.
READ MORE: Canadians gather to watch the sun go out, as much-hyped eclipse arrives
With a file from Canadian Press
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