Sunday, February 16, 2025
February 16, 2025

Rare solar eclipse wows locals

Salt Spring residents joined people across North America who took to the streets on Monday, this time not to protest injustice but to celebrate the wonders of the universe.

Canada may have missed the path in which a total eclipse could be viewed, but that didn’t stop thousands from stepping outside to see what was visible with official viewing glasses, welding hoods and homemade pinhole cameras.

Dr. Andrea Varju’s Salt Spring Eyecare office took a rare field trip Monday morning for a viewing party at the Island Escapades beach. Optometric assistant Gretta Hildebrandt said between 30 and 40 people arrived, both people who knew about the event and others who happened to be downtown.

“‘Wow’ is the first thing most people say,” Hildebrandt said of the experience of actually looking at the sun in that state.

For more on this story, see the Aug. 23, 2017 Gulf Islands Driftwood newspaper or subscribe online.

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