The solar eclipse cast a shadow on the workday in downtown Victoria Monday and brought out some creative viewing methods.
Around 10 a.m. people poured out of offices and businesses to watch the moon move between the Earth and sun, blocking it nearly 90 per cent at maximum.
Street corners and rooftops were full of watchers using everything from telescopes and selfies to colanders and coffee lids to cast crescent shadows.
Mark Tarr, owner of VCM Auto on Government Street, held his welding mask to the sky to see the first bite from the sun.
“I remember the last one in 1979. We came out of school in Brandon, Man. to watch,” he said. “It was the best spot. It went pretty dark then.”
In Centennial Square, Stephanie Blaizey used a metal colander to watch the eclipse through a pattern of shadows cast onto white poster board.
“My dad gave me the idea,” said Blaizey, who works in GIS mapping at the City of Victoria. She said they saw an eclipse in Scotland 18 years ago through a Tetley tea box pinhole shadow.
There were a few in the crowd at the square with special eclipse glasses. Several people watched with whatever they could.
Kal Suurkask used the sip hole in his Starbucks coffee lid to cast an eclipse shadow on the ground.
Staff from the Capital Regional District building had cereal boxes with pinholes and one fellow used the holes in his ball cap.
Tom Heemskerk, a technician at the McPherson Theatre, used a safety pin to poke holes into black lighting foil. He also demonstrated how making an O with your hand worked too.
Even the trees were casting shadows of tiny shifting crescents onto the sidewalks.
Blair Morris, who heads the tech department at McPherson, brought his solar telescope, “for folks at work to watch, but I guess we’ve drawn a crowd,” he said, with a line about 30 people deep.
Students from the Global Village English Centre on Broad Street were on the sidewalk watching through pinholes on paper.
This was the first eclipse experience for Valentina Restrepo, from Colombia, and Fahad Alzaid, from Saudi Arabia.
“It’s very cool, but also a bit uncomfortable,” said Restrepo. “Something about the light is really strange.”
The next total eclipse to be visible in Canada will be on April 8, 2024. Its path will go through the southern edge of Ontario and Quebec, central New Brunswick, western Prince Edward Island and central Newfoundland.
