A solar eclipse watch party is being organized by Kwantlen Polytechnic next week and the community is invited.
The Oct. 14 event’s organizer, KPU physics instructor Laura Flinn, said particularly children are invited to see this rare phenomenon.
“Kids may not realize how close science is to them,” Flinn said. “This is an event that a large section of North America will be able to see. It’s a significant astronomical phenomenon that will give children a sense of how big the universe is.”
Guests can safely view the eclipse with telescopes and other equipment and check out displays and activities about the solar system.
On the morning of Saturday, Oct. 14, an annular solar eclipse will cross North, Central and South America.
Although its path of totality over North America is limited to the U.S. – from Oregon through to Texas – the best views from Canada of the moon as it passes between the Earth and the sun will be in western British Columbia.
The solar eclipse party starts at 8 a.m. at the KPU Farm at the Garden City Lands, an ideal location to see the eclipse, Flinn said.
The eclipse appears in the Lower Mainland between 8:08 and 10:38 a.m. when about 76 per cent of the sun will be obscured. The maximum eclipse will be at 9:20 a.m.
“We’ll be heading into fall, and the sun is close to the horizon at that time in the morning. From the KPU Farm, when we’re looking toward the southeast, we’ll get an unobstructed view of the eclipse,” Flinn said.
Looking directly at an eclipse without the right eye protection can cause serious eye damage, so special solar viewing glasses will be available for the first 250 guests.
Additional safe viewing equipment will also be available, and viewers can also bring their own – such as a home-built eclipse projector.
Between two and five eclipses occur each year, but only those along the path of an eclipse are able to see it.
That makes such events rare to see in person.
Flinn examined data beginning from the year 1900 and could only find records of partial eclipses visible in the Lower Mainland, events similar to what the region experienced in August 2017.
The KPU Solar Eclipse Party 2023 takes place Oct. 14 from 8 to 10:30 a.m. at KPU Farm.
Parking will be available nearby at KPU Richmond, 8771 Lansdowne Rd.
Rain will move the party inside the university campus, where a livestream will be shown.
