Are you inside the path of totality of Quebec’s total solar eclipse?

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For a brief period on April 8, southern Quebec, including parts of Montreal, will be plunged into a twilight-like state during the first total solar eclipse to fall over the province in decades.

The Eastern Townships and other parts of southern Quebec are inside the path of totality for this eclipse, where for a few moments Monday afternoon the moon will completely block out the sun. Darkness will descend over North America across a long, narrow path beginning in Mexico and ending in Newfoundland — including some but not all of Montreal, which straddles the northern border of the path. A local astronomer estimates that as much as 45 per cent of the population in the Greater Montreal area is actually outside of the path, meaning around 2 million people will have to travel at least a few kilometres south or east to experience it.

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Marc Jobin of the Montreal Planetarium suggests making the trek to the path of totality because the difference between total solar eclipses and partial solar eclipses (when the moon blocks part of the sun, but doesn’t cover it completely) is “day and night.”

“If you’re not inside the path of totality, you’ll be missing out on the peak of the phenomenon; you’ll be missing the show, really,” Jobin said. “A partial eclipse, when you’re just outside the path of totality — be it 99.9 per cent — is not 99.9 per cent of the experience of a total eclipse. You’re very far from it. … There’s a world of difference between the two.”

Jobin, who has seen 10 total solar eclipses around the world over the past 25 years, described the experience as supernatural.

“The eclipse happens in the sky, of course — the moon hides the sun — but then the whole environment around you changes,” he said. “And that’s big — I mean: ‘Who turned off the lights?’ It’s so big. You’re really plunged into an environment that changes around you. … It works on very primitive behaviours; it triggers something deep inside you.”

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In Quebec, the Eastern Townships will be in the heart of the path of totality, meaning it will experience a longer period of darkness. In Montreal, the path cuts diagonally across the island, excluding Île-Bizard and the northern parts of Dollard-des-Ormeaux and Ahuntsic-Cartierville. Everything north of Rosemont—La Petite-Patrie is also excluded.

Jobin suggests heading south of Highway 20, closer to the St. Lawrence River if you’re planning on viewing the eclipse on the island of Montreal. Those across the river on the South Shore are further into the path, so there’s no need to travel south unless you’d like to experience totality for a longer period of time. It’s estimated that Montreal will experience totality for about one minute and 25 seconds. The centre of the path of totality, much of which is in the Estrie region — like Parc national du Mont-Mégantic — will experience it for about three minutes and 30 seconds.

Astronomer Nicolas Cowan, an associate professor in McGill University’s physics and Earth and planetary sciences departments, said the experience goes by really fast “whether it’s 30 seconds or three minutes.”

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“The difference, if you’re in some place where you’re deep in the path of totality where you get a few minutes, is then you can take the time to look around and be like: ‘Holy crap, I can see stars, and it’s the middle of the day.’”

Otherwise, he suggests looking at the “main event,” which is the sun’s corona or outer part of its atmosphere. That’s what impressed him most when he saw the total solar eclipse in Idaho in 2017.

“No one had explained this to me,” Cowan said. “I did not realize I would see the solar corona, I did not realize it would look like giant white flames emanating from the sun. I was like, ‘Whoa, this is really cool, now I understand why ancient civilizations thought the sun was a ball of fire.’ Because it doesn’t look like a ball of fire during normal times, it looks like a white disc; but then when you see it during an eclipse, you’re like ‘Oh, it actually does look like flames … it’s pretty cool.’”

Overcast weather could affect the view of the eclipse, but Tracy Webb, an associate professor in the department of physics and the Trottier Space Institute at McGill, said intermittent clouds shouldn’t be a problem.

“The actual eclipse takes quite a lot of time, in the sense that you see the moon slowly move in front of the sun,” she said. “If it’s just a cloudy day, the chance of that entire event being blocked by clouds is pretty small, so you should be able to see it even if there are some clouds. … It’s really just that one minute of totality that is really crazy that you really want a clear view. But you’ll still see the change in the light even with clouds.”

In addition to making sure you’re in the path of totality, the astronomers say it’s best to try to watch the eclipse from an open area with a view of the horizon.

kthomas@postmedia.com

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