Solar eclipse in Ontario: here's everything you need to know

A total solar eclipse is set to occur in parts of Ontario on Monday for the first time in 45 years.

People from across the province and beyond will be flocking to cities within the path of totality to catch a glimpse of the rare cosmic event.

Here is everything you need to know to get ready for and enjoy the celestial show.

Where and what time is the solar eclipse?

The start of Monday’s eclipse and how long it lasts will vary slightly depending on where you are viewing it from in Ontario.

Across the province, the eclipse will start at approximately 2 p.m. before peaking between 3:15 and 3:25 p.m. in most major cities.

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While all of the province will see a partial eclipse, only certain areas will experience totality, including Hamilton, Niagara Falls, Fort Erie, Kingston, and Burlington.

Click here to see the best viewing time in your area.

Niagara Falls preparing for up to 1 million visitors

Niagara Falls Mayor Jim Diodati said the city has been buzzing with excitement ever since National Geographic declared the city the best place in the world to view the total eclipse.

“It’s going to be crazy… We are trying to prepare for the biggest event in the history of the city by far,” he told CP24 last month.

“The biggest crowd we’ve ever had was 12 years ago with Nik Wallenda going across the falls. That day we had upwards of 150,000 people.”

Diodati said some have estimated that the crowd for the eclipse will be eight or nine times that size.

Niagara Region proactively declared a state of emergency on March 29 “out of an abundance of caution” ahead of the influx of tourists. Officials said the move will ensure it is prepared to accommodate the “once-in-a-lifetime event.”

A number of roads closures will be in effect as of noon for crowd management and can be found here.

Metrolinx has also announced it is running special service to and from the Falls to accommodate the surge in visitors. Click here for details.

'I'll be in Toronto during the eclipse. Will I even see it?'

While the moon will cover up 99.9 per cent of the sun in parts of Toronto on April 8, the city is not in the path of totality like other municipalities outside the GTA.

Because of that, only a partial eclipse will be visible and spectators will miss out on many of the more exciting aspects of the celestial event.

• Watch the solar eclipse live here

“You're not going to see the sky go dark. You're not going to see the sun get blacked out. You're not going to see the corona,” Elaina Hyde, the director of the Allan I Carswell Observatory at York University and a professor with the school’s Natural Sciences department said.

“If you're just standing around outside, you might not even notice anything's happening.”

What is the weather forecast?

There’s a chance viewing the solar eclipse in Toronto on Monday could be hampered by cloud cover, but skywatchers should still be able to catch a glimpse of the event, if weather permits.

A low-pressure system, the centre of which is moving from the upper Midwest in the United States to northwestern Ontario, will hit the Golden Horseshoe area with clouds and isolated showers from sunrise to late afternoon.

However, according to CP24 Meteorologist Bill Coulter, the forecasting models are “not in total agreement” and there is a chance there will be a few clear breaks by mid-afternoon – right when the solar eclipse is set to take place.

“In other words, we could get lucky. But, anticipate mainly cloudy skies at eclipse time for Toronto and Niagara. I’m keeping my fingers crossed,” Coulter said.

How rare is this eclipse?

The last time there was a total solar eclipse in the Toronto area was 1925. After Monday, the next solar eclipse in the region will be in 2144.

“It’s a once-in-a-lifetime event,” Robert Cockcroft, McMaster University astronomy and physics professor told CTV News Toronto. “It’s when you get the perfect alignment between the moon and the sun, and it’s just a coincidence they appear on the same side of the sky.”

Can you view the eclipse without glasses?

If you can’t get your hands on specialized glasses, you can still safely view the solar eclipse with materials you can find around the house.

To do that, take a piece of cardstock or cardboard box and punch a hole through it. With the pinhole, you can project an image of the sun onto a surface, saving your eyes from looking directly at the sun.

You can also make a shoebox pinhole camera by cutting a hole on one side of a box, putting a piece of aluminum foil over it and then pricking a very small hole in the foil. 

 

 

 

 

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