We watched the Eclipse in Canada and it was was one of the most astounding things we have ever seen in our lives.

It is a rare event that most people will probably experience only once in their lifetime, and we were lucky enough to live in the parts of North America where the total eclipse was visible.

No videos or pictures will ever do it justice in our opinion. The last time an eclipse happened in North America was 2017.

We don’t remember hearing much about it at the time, and even this time around, we were not particularly excited about it and were a bit ignorant about the magnitude of the event.

It was thanks to Sanjar’s brother’s insistence that we went. And boy are we thankful to him. He planned the whole day, checked the weather and realized that it was better to drive for 2 hours to Port Stanley because Niagara would be cloudy.

It was a 2 hour drive. We had to wait for a couple hours on the beach and there was a heavy traffic coming out of Port Stanley on the way home but it was worth every single moment of the day.

We grabbed a spot on the beach and waited for Eclipse

If you happen to live somewhere where an Eclipse is going to happen in your lifetime, please put it in your plans and go watch it.

Also make sure you witness a total eclipse, there is apparently a big difference between a 99% eclipse and a total one. That is how powerful the Sun is.

History

A solar eclipse happens when the Moon passes between the Earth and the Sun, and completely obscures the Sun. Total eclipse happens in limited paths across earth. For example we live in Toronto, where we witnessed about 99% eclipse, so we had to drive to Port Stanley for the full experience.

Solar Eclipse (Photo by Jongsun Lee on Unsplash)

Unlike a lunar eclipse which can be viewed from anywhere on the night side of the Earth, a solar eclipse can only be viewed from small parts of the world.

Luner Eclipse in Comparison (Photo by Yu Kato on Unsplash)

A solar eclipse happens on average every 18 months and any given region will experience a total eclipse every 360 to 410 years.

The last total eclipse that was visible by people in Canada was in 1979, in places like Manitoba. There was a total eclipse in 2008 but it was in remote parts of Nunavut.

This just shows how rare it is for someone to witness a total eclipse and how lucky and in awe we are of what we saw.

Our Day

We left Milton around 9 and arrived at Port Stanley at 11. We feared that there wouldn’t be enough parking spaces near the beach, but we arrived early enough. The totality was going to happen around 3pm.

We parked our car not far from the beach and proceeded to walk around the town. It is a nice cute little beach town that comes to life in the summer months. But given the magnitude of the approaching event it was just as alive if not more on this day.

We waited about 25 minutes at a local coffee shop to get some lattes, which was packed with people. Then we proceeded to walk more around the town.

After finishing our coffees we walked back to the car and got all the chairs and belongings and walked to the beach to grab a good spot, with the visible horizon of the water.

We settled at a good spot, had some snacks, sandwiches, tea and just relaxed. It was sunny at Port Stanley and we were warm enough on the beach.

Sanjar having some tea and a sandwich

The eclipse started around 2pm, at which time we put on the solar glasses and witnessed a small black sliver starting to block the sun from the bottom right.

It would take about an hour and a bit until total eclipse so we watched the event as the Moon was obscuring more and more of the sun, occasionally taking of our glasses, eating, chatting and just relaxing.

It was getting darker slowly, and in particular much colder. We had to wrap ourselves with blankets.

As the moon was covering more and more of the sun, people started paying more attention. It was not safe to take off the glasses until total eclipse, and you could hear people yelling “not yet” as the light and brightness of the sun was disappearing.

And then bam, it became darker drastically and we took of our glasses.

The best way to describe what we saw would be a pitch black circle with a bright shiny crown all around it, generally referred to as the “corona”. The crown was alive and constantly changing, with rays changing in size all around the moon.

It was unbelievable, the most beautiful and astounding sight we have ever seen. There is nothing like it. Absolutely nothing. And the best thing was that everyone started yelling and cheering, sharing the awe together. We can feel the goosebumps even now as we write this.

While build up to the eclipse was particularly super exciting with some people not even watching with their glasses, the last few minutes and the totality had everyone watching.

The atmosphere was electric. Children were running and screaming, people were hugging and someone brave enough even walked into the water. You could hear “omg” and “wow” uttered by everyone around us. It was an experience unlike anything we have ever had.

The total eclipse lasted about 2 minutes, after which the brightness of the sun returned and we had to put our glasses on. Someone yelled “it’s not safe to look anymore” and I even joked to my brother that that person was a hero for protecting everyone.

People stayed to watch it a bit more but just like that it was over and people started packing. Most People lost interest once totality ended, understandably.

We stayed behind a bit for an hour waiting for the traffic out of the town to die down.

Conclusion

The next total solar eclipse will be in 2026 in Russia, Greenland, Iceland and Spain. Given how beautiful the solar rays and corona looked around the dark moon circle, who knows, we might even plan a trip to Iceland or Spain.

We now understand how amazing this event is and why so many people made plans to witness it. There were a lot of people that travelled to the US and Canada from Europe, South America and even Asia. And honestly we might end up doing the same in 2026.

There is a lot of other science behind the total eclipse and a lot of phenomena that you can research and read about that we didn’t discuss. We highly recommend the Total eclipse videos published on youtube by the channel Smarter Every Day. These videos were really entertaining and informative.