The total solar eclipse is a cosmic spectacle well worth the hype

By Robert Knobel, Kristine Spekkens, Queen's University, Ontario

Eclipse fever has gripped North America, where many people are talking, worrying — and obsessing — about the April 8 total solar eclipse.

The eclipse itself is beautiful and moving, and is an incredible opportunity to excite and involve the community in the scientific advances that eclipses have brought to us, and all the potential discoveries that we might see in the future — including possibly discovering life on other worlds.

In a solar eclipse, the moon passes in between Earth and the sun, casting its shadow on Earth. The amazing coincidence is that the moon — about 400 times smaller than the sun — also happens to be about 400 times closer to us than the sun, and so they appear the same size from Earth’s surface.

When the sun, moon and Earth all line up, the shadow cast by the moon follows a narrow path that moves across the globe as the Earth rotates and the moon and Earth continue their orbital dances around the sun.

Palpable excitement

Most of North America will have a partial eclipse on April 8. Totality will occur along the diagonal path of total shadow for a precious few minutes.

The excitement around the eclipse is palpable, coming from kids to adults, locals to visitors. Municipalities are worried: Niagara Falls predicts up to a million people visiting and Kingston predicts up to 500,000.

This is in part because of the rarity of a total solar eclipse — they happen about 375 years apart at a given location on average, and the next one anywhere in Canada isn’t for 20 years.

But the hype also stems from how beautiful a total eclipse can be. A partial eclipse is interesting. Everyone should use a solar filter or pinhole camera to safely watch the moon gradually cover the sun’s disk.

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