Hundreds gather in Sudbury to witness solar eclipse

Solar eclipse event held in Sudbury Around 1,000 people attended Science North's solar eclipse viewing party in Sudbury on Monday to view the eclipse.

Almost 1,000 people were at Sudbury's Science North on Monday to witness the solar eclipse. The viewing party was held both outside and indoors for viewers to safely enjoy.

An eclipse of this nature hasn't occurred since 1979, said Olathe Macintyre, staff scientist at Science North.

"This might be once or a twice in a lifetime thing here in Sudbury if you witnessed the eclipse in 1979," Macintyre said.

A total solar eclipse occurs when the moon's shadow passes over the moon.

Sudbury residents Mason Dilella and Lindsey Dumont were excited to see the rare celestial event.

"It'll definitely be a cool experience, seeing an eclipse for the first time," Dilella said.

"I've been told the sky completely blacks out, which I'm pumped for."

Dumont said it was important for her to attend the event because of its rarity.

"It's not something you see a lot and whenever things like this happens, you have to get excited for it," she said.

On Monday, cloudy skies prevented the eclipse from being completely visible.

"Seventy-three per cent of the time, this day in April in Sudbury, we do have clouds, but it’s still such a rare and awesome thing," Macintyre said.

Ashley Larose, CEO of Science North, said there was a lot of excitement from the public leading up to the event.

Glasses sold out quickly

"We really appreciate the response from the community and we love to be able to play that role,” Larose said.

“So to see so many people here who have taken time out of their time to experience something together is really, really at the core of what we do here at Science North.”

Solar eclipse glasses sold out long before the event occurred.

"For us, that tells us our community is really into science," she said.

"We love that, at our core, that's our mission."

Macintyre said the next total eclipse won't happen for some time.

"Here in Canada we'll have another eclipse in 2099," she says. "For Ontario it’s a little longer, 2106 and that'll be a neat thing to see."

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