While these requirements are a stark contrast to the situation in 2017, when huge crowds gathered across North America to watch the total solar eclipse, Dr. Reid said there was a silver lining: The pandemic prompted the institute and colleagues at Discover the Universe, an astronomy training program based in Quebec, to ship 20,000 eclipse viewers to people in and around the eclipse’s path, including in Nunavut, a Canadian territory whose population is primarily Inuit.
“Because they are in quite remote locations, we wanted to make sure they would have the material to observe it,” said Julie Bolduc-Duval, executive director of Discover the Universe.
Dr. Reid added, “We’re in circumstances, in this pandemic, where everyone is forced to stay at home, but it actually helped bring everyone together on this one particular thing.”
Sudbury, Ontario, is outside the path of annularity but will still experience an 85 percent eclipse of the sun. Olathe MacIntyre, staff scientist at Space Place and the Planetarium at Science North, a museum there, plans to contribute to a livestream of the eclipse on Thursday.
“It’s something we can share apart,” Dr. MacIntyre said.
— Becky Ferreira
Preparing for the eclipse in Greenland and Russia.
Pat Smith works in Greenland for Polar Field Services, a company contracted by the National Science Foundation that helps scientists and others plan expeditions in remote parts of the Arctic. Mr. Smith plans to view the eclipse at a site near Thule Air Base, the northernmost American military base, which is about 700 miles from the Arctic Circle.
The site, North Mountain, is within the path of the annular eclipse, which will last for nearly four minutes there, and viewing conditions are expected to be clear. Mr. Smith plans to take photographs during the event.
In Russia, the eclipse will be visible in full only in some of the vast country’s most remote regions to the east, closer to Alaska than to Moscow.
Source : Nytimes
