This coming April 8th will now be a PA day at our district schools, due to a total solar eclipse happening that day. The message went out Thursday evening that many area schools will be in the path of totality, meaning they will experience complete darkness at approximately 3:20 PM that day.
According to school boards this presents some safety and travel concerns which lead them to change the PA day set for later in the month, to Monday April 8th instead.
Dr Olathe Macintyre a scientist and former astronaut candidate who was raised in Hastings Highlands, spoke about when and why to watch this eclipse:
“A really good place to find out about the eclipse is Timeanddate.com” Said Dr Macintyre “You can type in your address and you can find out exactly when the maximum is for your location and whether you’re going to get a total eclipse. It’s really worth it if you’re close to the path of totality and you can get to it. I have heard that it’s really worth it to actually experience totality, that there’s really something, you know, magical and special about that moment”
Dr Macintyre also shared with MooseFM some tips on watching the eclipse at home, with household items:
“You can absolutely view this eclipse safely” She said,
“You can do it directly if you have eclipse glasses or welding lenses that are 14 and up.
“You can also view it indirectly with simple household items such as a colander that you might strain your spaghetti through, or even a piece of paper with a pinprick in it. So if you are using a colander or a little hole in a piece of paper, what you want to do is have the eclipse happening behind you and you’re letting that light shine through the small hole projecting onto a nice surface and you will be able to witness the eclipse that way”
For more information on the eclipse and the upcoming PA day, head to The HPEDSB website.