This article was previously published on GuelphToday.
What some are calling a once-in-a-lifetime event was extra special for a Guelph boy who celebrated his ninth birthday on Monday during the solar eclipse.
“I’ve never experienced an eclipse before except for when I was like one,” said Elwyn Shepherd.
He thought Monday’s eclipse was pretty cool: “It looks like it's evening. It feels different. It looks darker,” said Shepherd.
“This is a once in a lifetime birthday to remember,” said his mom, Carly Wilson.
They were watching at the Yorklands Green Hub and the Guelph Stargazers event at the former reformatory lands along York Road.
Participants were provided with eclipse glasses and also viewed the eclipse through telescopes. There were about 25 people registered for the event but about 40 people showed up.
Over at Johnston Green at the University of Guelph, about 2,500 people gathered to experience the eclipse. Many brought blankets to lie on as they looked up.
Around 500 pairs of eclipse glasses were handed out and people had an opportunity to check out the celestial event through telescopes with special filters.
“This is probably the best place in the city, if we’re not going to travel,” Zhen Ningxu said after the eclipse peaked. “We were hoping it would be completely (dark), but it’s still good.”
“I was hoping to see the change in the light, to see all of these people out, I’ve always heard stories about the birds may their change behaviour and things get quiet,” added Derek Vella, a director at the U of G. “I think it wasn’t dark enough here in Guelph to see all of that, but it definitely got cooler and got darker.”
Several people brought footballs, discs and other games to play while they waited for the darkness to arrive. In the minutes leading up to the peak at 3:20 p.m., those games mostly stopped as people aimed their gaze upward.
Guelph wasn’t in the path of eclipse totality, it was about 99 per cent. That means part of the sun was still visible. In places like Niagara Falls and Hamilton the sun was covered.
As the eclipse neared, cloud cover over Guelph began to dissipate, much to the pleasure of many onlookers.
“We see blue sky – it’s getting bigger,” observed Robin Marshall. Asked why she decided to take in the action from Johnston Green, she said, “Mostly, I just felt like being outside and it was a really good excuse.”
If she didn’t know the eclipse was happening today and stepped outside, 11-year-old Kira Mulholland would have felt something was off. She noticed the air was colder and it was darker outside.
Mulholland said the eclipse looked like a banana. When she went near a body of water at Yorklands she was able to see the sun’s reflection and realized how bright it was.
