Astronomy club hosts viewing of partial eclipse on weekend

By Lethbridge Herald on October 19, 2023.

Herald photo by Justin Seward Kait Turnbull helps son Beau look into the telescope at the partial solar eclipse at Lethbridge Astronomy Society on Saturday.

Justin Seward
Lethbridge Herald

Sixty-five attendees enjoyed the partial Solar Eclipse at the Lethbridge Astronomy Society under sunny skies on Saturday morning.

A partial solar eclipse happens twice a year when the sun and moon are not totally aligned with earth, while the moon partially darkens the sun.

Attendees saw the sun, learned about lunar and solar eclipses and how they occur.

“This is not a total eclipse but this is a partial, so you won’t get totally dark here,” said society president Brady Sherwood.

“So you’ll get some dimness but you can only see it with some solar glasses and maybe some telescopes that have the coatings on them. And then yeah we’ve got about four telescopes set up that have filters on them.”

The telescopes were only set up for solar but if the lenses were removed, the galaxies, nebulas and various other deep sky things can be observed.

“I think it’s amazing that the society even puts this on for people to be able to come down,” said Kait Turnbull.

“It was a free event, and so family-friendly and kids get to come and see and get introduced to all these concepts early on and that’s really valuable to us.”

Turnbull was out with husband Brody and their kids.

“I really just wanted to show my kids,” said Brody.

“I wanted them to be able to look at the eclipse and like my daughter and I go out and look at stars and different planets in the sky and talk about it and she was really interested.  So just harbouring that love. It’s really important.”

LAS hosts public observing events on the last Saturday of each month from October to February, excluding December, at 7:30 p.m.

Attendees learn to navigate the night sky through constellations, stars and planets.

More information can be found at http://www.lethbridgeastronomysociety.ca.

LAS is located in Popson Park.

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