April8
If you’re in New Brunswick, make sure you take a few minutes on Monday afternoon to take in the majesty of the solar eclipse. Safely, of course!
Many of us have seen a partial solar eclipse. The last one passed over us in 2017.
But this is a special event! This will be a total solar eclipse! Parts of New Brunswick will have a better view than others. But believe it or not, this will be the first total solar eclipse to pass directly over our tiny province in more than 1,000 years! The last time we were in the direct path of one was way back on November 30, 932 AD!
On average, a total solar eclipse is visible somewhere on Earth every 18 months. But they only pass over the same path roughly every 410 years. So the fact that we’ve had to wait more than twice that time is mind blowing!
And that’s not even taking into account the rarity of a total solar eclipse happening to begin with!
We only get treated to this celestial show here on Earth, because of our special positioning in space. Only because we have a singular moon orbiting us, and the Sun’s distance from Earth is about 400 times the Moon’s distance, and the Sun’s diameter is about 400 times the Moon’s diameter, do we end up with this perfect alignment from our viewpoint here.
So, weather permitting, many of us should be treated to a once in a lifetime show on Monday afternoon starting around 3:30!
There’s still time to get yourself some safe viewing devices, because you don’t want to miss out!