The downtown skyline and port cranes silhouetted while seen from the harbour in Vancouver, on Tuesday, April 25, 2023. Residents in southwestern British Columbia are in the best place to view the solar eclipse this morning. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck
SAANICH, B.C. – Cheers erupted as brief cloud breaks gave more than 100 people who gathered at an astrophysical observatory site near Victoria, B.C., a peak at today’s unfolding partial solar eclipse.
Calvin Schmidt, an employee of the Friends of the Dominion Astrophysical Observatory in Saanich, says fog and clouds were present for most of the morning at the mountain-top site, but there were moments when the skies parted and the partial eclipse was visible.
Schmidt says those moments of solar splendor were worth the waiting though there are reports the skies were almost totally clear in some parts of Victoria, giving those residents a sustained view of the partial eclipse.
Southwestern B.C. was Canada’s best place to view the eclipse.
The event is known as a ring-of-fire eclipse, where the moon passes in front of the sun but doesn’t completely cover it, leaving a fiery rim around the dark moon.
Environment Canada had forecast clouds and showers for much of southwest B.C. during the morning eclipse, where the moon will block out 70 to 80 per cent of the sun, while the rest of the province will see 50 to 70 per cent coverage.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 14, 2023.
