Eclipse 2024: ‘The horizon glowed as if dawn had broken on the wrong side of the world’

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“We were in connection directly with the universe, with the sun, with the moon, and we are so humble to see that.”

Minutes after the moon blotted out the solar for 90 surreal seconds on an island in the St Lawrence River, Olivier Hernandez, director of the Montreal Planetarium and a famous astrophysicist, was virtually in tears.

“It was so emotional. I was about to cry. Did you see the corona? Did you see the purity of the light coming out from the sun? We have seen also the chromosphere.

“Wow, what a show, what a show.”

In the Great American Eclipse of 2024, Montreal was the star flip that nobody had predicted. Most astronomical consideration alongside the “zone of totality” was centered on Texas and the Midwest, with Niagara Falls additionally hoping for clear skies over one of the world’s nice tourism icons.

In the finish, although, the corrugated skyline of Canada’s greatest French-speaking metropolis equipped the backdrop to an astronomical present that was summed up many times as extraordinaire.

On an unseasonably heat, brilliant day, eclipse hunters and native individuals converged on Parc Jean Drapeau on the Ile Sainte-Hélène for what was billed as the Eclipse of the Century. Snow was nonetheless mendacity on the floor, and a few early arrivals long-established a snowman with a pine cone for a nostril and moss for his scarf.

DJs and a live performance orchestra supplied the warm-up for a crowd estimated at between 200,000 and 400,000. Several wore T-shirts displaying the iconic Pink Floyd album cowl for Dark Side of the Moon, and a pc science scholar named Sam introduced a colander as a way to observe the partial eclipse by its shadow.

The moon started to nibble at a nook of the solar at 1414 native time [GMT 1814]. During the subsequent 72 minutes, the air chilled as the sky darkened into an more and more eerie gloom. Gulls swooped skittishly above the crowd.

Even with 99 per cent of the floor of the solar obscured by the moon, the spectacle might be seen solely by particular glasses that block out 99.99 per cent of seen mild.

Suddenly, at 1526 [GMT 1926], the entire metropolis was plunged into darkness – and Montreal’s residents celebrated the nice cosmological coincidence with a refrain of screams, whoops and applause. So that is what awe seems like.

Just a couple of miles away to the west, the horizon glowed as although dawn was breaking on the wrong side of the world: Montreal lay very near the edge of the zone of totality. But all eyes had been transfixed by the corona of the solar – the burning gases which might be seen solely throughout a complete photo voltaic eclipse.

“It’s just completely mind bending how beautiful it is,” stated astrophysicist Jonathan Gagné. “It’s so rare in astronomy that we can actually see something with our own eyes.”

Mr Gagné seen the spectacle along with his daughters. He delighted in “seeing like their amazement in their eyes as well as mine”.

They could also be round the subsequent time the province of Quebec hosts a complete photo voltaic eclipse, on 3 May 2106 – an auspicious day on which the climate may prove even higher.

Yet most of us will accept the indelible reminiscence of a day when humanity in all its vibrant, Canadian range convened for an appointment with the universe.

Rebecca Solomon, climate reporter for Meteo Media, was on her first task to cowl a complete photo voltaic eclipse.

She summed up the cosmic climax: “Everybody is so cheerful. It’s a perfect day.”