‘This is pretty sweet to see:’ Partial eclipse doesn’t disappoint observers in Regina

It was a magnificent sight to see in Saskatchewan — even though people in this province only got to see a partial solar eclipse.

In Regina, a watch party was held right in the heart of the University of Regina’s campus on the Dr. Lloyd Barber Academic Green, just outside the Paskwāw and Wakpá towers.

Telescopes equipped with solar filters and eclipse glasses were made available for members of the public to get a look at the eclipse safely and without damaging their eyes.

What initially started out as around 40 to 50 people rapidly grew into hundreds as the clock ticked down to the peak of the eclipse. At the height of the watch party, there were hundreds of students, staff and people just wanting to get a look at the eclipse.

A University of Regina telescope utilized a sour cream container as a way to safely project the progress of the eclipse. It uses the light coming from the sun to project an image onto the paper covering the container as a way to avoid looking directly at the sun. (Roman Hayter/980 CJME)

In Regina, at the height of the event, the moon covered approximately 40 per cent of the sun, allowing a majority of the light through and causing minimal changes to the sun to the naked eye.

But those who had a pair of special eclipse glasses or who got to look through one of the U of R’s telescopes were excited by what they got to see.

Sam Mallett, a student at the University of Regina, said he was thrilled to see the eclipse.

“This morning I listened to ‘Total Eclipse of the Heart’ right when I woke up because it’s kind of a big thing,” Mallett said, referring to the 1983 song by Bonnie Tyler. “It’s quite exciting to get a solar eclipse here; it rarely happens.”

Many people attending this year’s event had seen an eclipse before, but many of them said it had been a while.

“Last time I saw one was in high school, so this is pretty sweet to see,” one man said.

“Back in about ’78, I think ’79, my Grade 12 and 11 physics teacher took us out for a viewing back in high school,” said another man.

“This is my second time,” a third man added. “I saw one a long time ago, but I was a kid.”

Brian McQuinn and his son also decided to check out this year’s eclipse. McQuinn said he’d seen an eclipse when he was a kid, and now his son gets to experience the same thing.

“As a parent, you always experience these things a little differently now,” he said. “Because this is going to be the first time in quite a few decades we get one quite this good, having him go through that, I think it’s interesting to see things from their perspective.”

It will be quite a wait until we see something like what Eastern Canada got to experience. The next scheduled total solar eclipse in Saskatchewan is slated for 2044.