Mon Apr 8: Look Up... Wayyy Up (But Not Without Protection)

Plus: Updates from WordShop 2024, Alexandra School, Grey Bruce OPP & more

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Photo by Justin Dickey on Unsplash

Hmm, what’s going on today…

Oh yes! The eclipse you might have mistaken for the apocalypse, with the near-panic it has incited.

It is a pretty big deal. While we’ve had partial eclipses, the last total eclipse in Ontario happened on February 26, 1979, in Northern Ontario. In Southern Ontario, we go all the way back to 1925 for the last total eclipse, and the province won’t see another until 2099. (We’ll experience the next partial eclipse on Jan. 14, 2029.)

Readers of a certain age may remember making pinhole projectors out of cereal boxes with your classmates, to safely watch the eclipse together.

Well, not this year. School boards across the province—including here in Grey and Bruce—rescheduled a P.D. Day to keep children out of school during the eclipse.

The Niagara Region is under a preemptive state of emergency as officials and businesses prepare for an influx of up to a million eclipse watchers.

Niagara Falls is within the path of totality, the 185 km-wide, 16,000-km-long path through Mexico, the United States, and Canada where the moon will completely cover the sun, and the sky will fall dark.

In that brief period of time, viewers may see “Bailey’s beads,” a diamond ring at the edge of the moon, or even the sun’s atmosphere – waving white streamers surrounding the blacked-out solar disk – which is typically invisible to the human eye.

Hidden stars and planets may be revealed, and atmospheric pressure may drop. The temperature could dip between 2.8 and 5.6 degrees Celsius. Space.com has a great article here on the strange phenomenon that may accompany a solar eclipse, if you want to read more.

Here in Grey and Bruce counties, we’re outside the path of totality but will see an approximately 95% eclipse – IF the sky is clear.

It’s essential to protect your eyes and view the eclipse only through proper eclipse glasses – or one of those pinhole projectors we used to make. Yes, it’s still a thing! The Washington Post has a good explainer article with video that walks you through making a pinhole projector of your own.

However you choose to watch, stay safe out there. That means avoiding being an obstacle on a roadway or waterway, too:

Full subscribers, there’s a lot more for you below, including…

• An update on the $16.5-million Grey Bruce Public Health budget, approved with a 1% funding increase from both Grey and Bruce counties

• Details of an upcoming drive-thru food drive at a community school

• A report from Grey Bruce OPP after a number of weapons were stolen during a Chatsworth break-and-enter

• Congratulations to an Owen Sound custodian who won half a million dollars with Lotto Max

• It’s a wrap! Photos and an update post-WordShop 2024

~ Miranda

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