By Staff
April 9th, 2024
BURLINGTON, ON
If you watched the eclipse from Burlington you got the full Monty.
Eric Stern and Denis Gibbons covered the Eclipse for the Gazette locally.
Stern was at Central Park where he estimates there were 200 plus people. “The kids at times didn’t seem all that interested – they wanted to play on the slides. But it was fascinating for th adults.”
Denis Gibbons, an experienced, season reporter covered the event at Spencer Smith Park where the crowds were amongst the biggest he has ever seen in Burlington since the gathering of people at the waterfront more than 30 celebrate a massive fireworks display more than 30 years ago to celebrate the twinning of Itabashi and Burlington.
It was a very pleasant 73 degrees F in their hometown of Lima, Peru on Monday, so the Valderrama, Ascuna, Jauslin and Gallardo families, who now reside in Burlington, had to bundle up with the chilly 46F temperature by Lake Ontario to watch the eclipse. Photo by Denis Gibbons
It would be difficult to put a number to the crowd. The took over the pier and stretched west along the Naval Promenade.
Monday’s eclipse of the sun could be viewed in the South Pacific, Mexico, the central United States and Eastern Canada, with Burlington’s Spencer Smith Park one of the prime watching spots.
It was no coincidence, then, that most of the spectators the Burlington Gazette reporter interviewed had international backgrounds.
While they now make Canada their home, viewers interviewed originated from far-off places like Korea, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Peru and England.
Carole Panton (left) and Carolyn Swinson met for the first time in high school in the town of Leek, Staffordshire, England, 68 years ago. They got together again to view the eclipse when Panton came from her new home in Halifax to visit Swinson in Toronto and the pair drove out to Burlington after reading in the newspaper what a nice town Burlington is. They are sisters in law. Photo Denis Gibbons
Clouds covered the sky in the morning and early afternoon, but the sun started to break out, and people put their glasses on to see the eclipse.
The eclipse began in the early afternoon at 2:04 reaching full coverage at 3:18 p.m. and begin gradually dissipating, wrapping up by 4:31.
It was dark enough at the peak of the eclipse for the city street lights to come on.
Keira Hansen (left) and Nicole Boudreau of Burlington take a dip in Lake Ontario every Sunday year-round, so nobody was surprised when they decided to view the eclipse from the little sandy beach at Spencer Smith Park. Asked what they thought of it, they said, “It was so cool.” And with the water temperature at 38 degrees F, they weren’t kidding! Photo Denis Gibbons
A couple of daring women donned swimsuits and waded into the water at the little beach to view the eclipse, in spite of a frigid water temperature of 38 degrees F.
Mayor Marianne Meed Ward recalled seeing a previous eclipse from North Carolina in 2017 and revealed that her son Nick is an avid astronomer.
No accurate figures on attendance were available, but most could not remember such a large crowd at the park since the City of Itabashi, Japan, staged the Friendship Fireworks more than 30 years ago.
Immigrants from Sri Lanka, Kesinan Sabapathy and his wife Jayanthy Kesinan brought their two children Kaveen and Kirusiny all the way from Brampton after reading about the special eclipse viewing gathering online. Kesinan now works in building maintenance. Photo Denis Gibbons
Nine-year-old Jaeyune Kim took advantage of a PD day at Orchard Park elementary school to join his father Sunil with his telescope in Spencer Smith Park. Sunil was an amateur astronomer during his university days in Korea. He now works as a computer programmer in Canada. He said he was looking forward to the eclipse so much, he bought his special pair of glasses more than a year ago. Photo Denis Gibbons
When the total eclipse did take place everything was very quiet.
An eerie quiet settled on the crowd. Photo Denis Gibbons
With our eclipse glasses, it certainly was an incredible spectacle! Family from Toronto started out early to get to Burlington in good time and family from Scotland, who had planned their trip here long before the eclipse became common knowledge, joined the crowd at Spencer Smith Park. We were fortunate!