LIVE BLOG: Essex County first in Canada for rare total solar eclipse

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For the first time in 250 years, Essex County experiences a total solar eclipse this afternoon.

The Windsor Star has photographer Dan Janisse and reporters Brian MacLeod and Taylor Campbell chasing down the action.

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Follow the Star’s live blog of this very rare and very cool celestial event, when the moon aligns perfectly with the Sun and the Earth to cast a shadow that will briefly turn daytime into night along a pathway across North America.

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2:15 p.m.

Camped out in Leamington along the Lake Erie waterfront, Star reporter Brian MacLeod said that, despite the start of the eclipse, most of those who have gathered appear more interested — so far — in playing basketball, chatting and picnicking.

“It’s more like a carnival atmosphere than a scientific event,” he reports

2:05 p.m.

IT’S HERE! IT’S NOW! The partial eclipse has begun over Canada, starting with Essex County.

The growing coverage of the Sun by the Moon over Essex County continues for just over the next hour, with the full eclipse beginning around 3:13 p.m. and lasting several minutes. During the full eclipse (you’ll know and feel it because things will go dark and the temperature — currently a summery 19 Celsius in Windsor — will briefly plummet.

Over Essex County, the partial eclipse ends shortly before 4:30 p.m.

Note: locally, the total eclipse of the Sun will only be experienced in the southern and eastern part of Essex County.

1:50 p.m.

As the clock ticks ever closer to a total solar eclipse over Leamington, the town’s Seacliff Beach is filling up, and folks late to the extremely rare party are now scrambling and scavenging for eclipse glasses.

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DON’T STARE AT THE SUN without proper ISO-rated solar eclipse glasses! You won’t see anything anyway, and permanent eye damage or blindness is a likely outcome of such an effort.

12:30 p.m.

WARNING: if you were planning to livestream your going-to-darkness-once-in-a-lifetime experience, it might be tricky. Lots of folks on the solar eclipse’s shadowy pathway in Leamington (including members of the Windsor Star’s eclipse team) are already discovering (nearly 3 hours before the actual eclipse) that cellphone reception is extremely spotty.

Could be the sheer magnitude of social media traffic. This was one of the reasons why the Niagara Region declared a state of emergency and brought in extra cellphone towers and capacity in advance of the big day.

12:20 p.m.

It doesn’t get much further south in Canada — nor much more central to the total solar eclipse’s pathway than Pelee Island, which is why M.V. Pelee Islander II added an extra sailing today out of Leamington.

And those who are island-bound can expect great island hospitality, as tweeted by the mayor:

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12 p.m.

Just three more hours to prepare, Essex County!

11:30 a.m.

If you were planning to visit Point Pelee National Park for the first-in-Canada best solar eclipse viewing possible, don’t bother: “We are unable to admit any more visitors today.”

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11:27 a.m.

Here’s the Municipality of Leamington’s road closure schedule: Leamington solar eclipse road closures

11:15 a.m.

Some Leamington business owners already complaining about traffic road closures. Meanwhile: the eclipse parties are starting to gear up:

11 a.m.

Lots of myths and legends around solar eclipses. Predicting when day would turn into night was one of the ways ancient Egyptian astronomers (later: Greek philosophers) held power over the peasantry (and pharaohs), according to University of Windsor physics professor emeritus Gordon Drake in a Windsor Star guest column: Get ready for ‘sky magic’.

10:28 a.m.

Here’s a NASA Scientific Visualization Studio map of the eclipse shadow’s path courtesy of The Canadian Press: Solar eclipse path across Canada.

10:20 a.m.

Almost completely clear blue skies above Essex County currently, but cloudy conditions could play a factor by the afternoon. For a portion of the county’s south along Lake Erie and the east, whether it’s cloudy or not, darkness descends from about 3:13 to 3:17 p.m.

10:10 a.m.

Point Pelee National Park is one of the best local spots to observe the total eclipse, but it has a limit on admissions, and when that vehicle total is reached, the park previously announced it’s closing the main gate, including even to bicycle and pedestrian traffic.

10 a.m.

NASA is chasing the shadow from Mexico’s Pacific coast, through the United States and then from Essex County to Newfoundland and Labrador. Here’s a live video stream of the journey:

https://nationalpost.com/news/space/watch-live-video-total-solar-eclipse-2024

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