It was a strange site Monday afternoon in Montreal as thousands of people wearing special protective glasses gazed skyward.
The line to get to the Planetarium snaked all the way to the street as people hoped to catch the partial eclipse of the sun from our vantage point on Earth.
They were handing out free safety glasses to protect against UV so powerful they could lead to blindness.
Experts and amateur astronomers were on hand to answer questions; admission was free.
The sun and moon began partially aligning in Montreal at about 1:22 p.m.
“Most astronomers are big space nerds, so we think this is pretty cool,” said Kelly Lepo, coordinator of the McGill Space Institute.
McGill's lower campus began filling up hours earlier for an eclipse viewing party, where they ran out of the 5,000 pairs of filtered safety glasses they had to give away – a popular event, indeed.
The director of McGill’s Space Institute, Victoria Kaspi, said it was a thrill.
“The best thing is to see that all these people came out to appreciate it, to see what we do, what we love and to get a chance to experience it as well,” she said.
A narrow swath of the United States from Oregon to South Carolina was treated to a full eclipse -- but at 2:38 p.m., Montreal's star gazers were suitably impressed when the eclipse was at its peak with 58 per cent of the sun blocked out.
Montreal will experience a total solar eclipse on April 8, 2024.
