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By Duane Grandbois

Partial Eclipse Happens Monday: Viewing Party

Aug 19, 2017 | 11:09 AM

Regarding the upcoming solar eclipse…on Monday the moon will begin to block the sun in the Okanagan at about 9:12 a.m., reach maximum coverage just before 10:30 a.m. and disappear again shortly before noon.

The prime location is a narrow 100 km-wide band running between Salem, Oregon and Charleston, South Carolina…people there will see the total solar eclipse. Many couples are all set to say their vows with the eclipse in the background. This is a very big deal for people in the direct line of the event.

Everyone else, including us watching from the Okanagan, will get only partial coverage. Viewing parties are planned across the Okanagan, including the Okanagan Science Centre in Vernon, holding their own viewing party in their parking lot Monday morning.

They will have eclipse glasses, solar binoculars, a telescope with a solar filter as well as pinhole eclipse projectors.

The last solar eclipse visible from the Okanagan was in 1979 and the next one that will hit Canada won’t be until 2024 but scientists say that will be along the east coast, so for us this is as good as it’s going to get.

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Here’s hoping winds will blow the smoke away to make for a more vivid experience. Remember it is critical that you do not look at the phenomenon with the naked eye as it can cause irreparable damage.

by Duane Grandbois

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