See October's Eclipse (safely!)

September 25, 2023

UPDATED: Oct. 6, 2023

On Saturday, October 14, 2023, worlds will align. The Moon will pass between the Sun and the Earth, casting a shadow on our planet that will sweep across North America. For viewers in a narrow path from Oregon through Texas and into Central America and Brazil, the Moon will appear to almost cover the sun, leaving a thin ring of sunlight around its edge: an annular (or ring) eclipse.

For most of the rest of the continent, the alignment isn’t perfectly central. The Moon will cover only a part of the Sun, resulting in a partial eclipse. NO matter where you are, a solar eclipse is still a fascinating chance to see the solar system’s motion in action in real time

IMPORTANT SAFETY WARNING:

The Sun is very bright, and if you look at it too long you will damage your eyes permanently. It’s no more dangerous during an eclipse than it is any other time, but people don’t usually stare at the sun for three hours except during an eclipse. A partial or annular eclipse is still too bright to safely observe without special eye protection.

So how can you observe the eclipse safely?

Other safe solar filters include a #14 welder’s glass (ONLY #14, the lower numbers are not safe for solar viewing), and special solar filters sold by telescope stores. Again, avoid online dealers you’ve never dealt with before. No other material is safe, despite what you might read online. You can’t use dark glass, mylar balloon material, exposed photographic film, or CDs to watch the eclipse.

The safest way to observe the eclipse is by using special solar eclipse glasses from a certified dealer. You can get them at the Manitoba Museum’s giftshop for $3 a pair (discounts for class sets of 25 are available). You can email the shop to reserve your pair, or arrange for class sets for your school. Do not order them online at this point, as unfortunately there are more fake eclipse glasses than real ones available this close to the event. Saving a dollar while risking your eyesight for the rest of your life is not worth it. (Besides, all money spent at the Museum’s Shop goes to support our programs and activities!)

Buy your eclipse glasses today!

If you’d like a closer view of the eclipse, you can follow these instructions to make a solar projector out of a pair of binoculars and some cardboard.

Another safe way to view the eclipse is to join an eclipse party. Many astronomy clubs, planetariums, and science centres will host events to share the eclipse with their audiences. In Winnipeg, the various astronomical groups are joining forces to host a free eclipse viewing party at Assiniboine Park in the Kitchen Garden, just outside The Leaf. Solar glasses will be available, and safely-filtered telescopes will provide close-up views as the Moon moves across the sun’s face.

Circumstances for Manitoba

Eclipse Phases	Time
Eclipse Start	10:28 am CDT
Eclipse Maximum	11:42 am CDT
Eclipse End	1:00 pm CDT

Depending on where you are, you will have a different view of the eclipse. In general, locations in the southwestern part of the province are closer to the center line, and will have a longer eclipse with more of the Sun covered. In Winnipeg, the solar disk will be about 40% covered, with a duration of just over two-and-a-half hours. In contrast, Churchill, Manitoba will only see the sun about 25% covered.

To get a detailed set of times for your location, you can visit this site and enter your location in the search bar at right. It will calculate exactly when the eclipse begins for your location and what you can expect to see.

Scott Young

Planetarium Astronomer

Scott is the Planetarium Astronomer at the Manitoba Museum, developing astronomy and science programs. He has been an informal science educator for thirty years, working in the planetarium and science centre field both at The Manitoba Museum and also at the Alice G. Wallace Planetarium in Fitchburg, Massachusetts. Scott is an active amateur astronomer and a past-President of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada.

Did you know there’s not one, but TWO solar eclipses coming up over the next few months?

In this video, Planetarium Astronomer Scott Young tells us when the eclipses are and why eclipse glasses are so important if you’re planning to watch them.

By Amelia Fay, Curator of Anthropology & HBC Museum Collection

With Orange Shirt Day (National Day for Truth and Reconciliation) on the horizon, folks might be thinking about their role in Truth and Reconciliation. Many Indigenous leaders have argued the need to understand the truth before reconciliation, and this is where museums can step in and play an important role.

Although museums carry a lot of colonial baggage, my colleagues and I at the Manitoba Museum (past and present) have been working hard to make our museum a safe space to learn about history. Not only do we have some great exhibits and programs to help visitors engage with difficult histories, we also have a lot of resources available on both our website and YouTube channel that you can view from home.

Not sure where to begin? Below are a few topics that I think are a great starting place, no matter where you are in your reconciliation learning journey.

The colonial process in Canada started long before Confederation, so I encourage visitors to reconsider the history of the fur trade, including the early beginnings of the Hudson’s Bay Company. Watch the following video to learn more about the Hudson’s Bay Company Royal Charter.

What does the phrase ‘We Are All Treaty People’ mean? Visit our friends at the Treaty Relations Commission of Manitoba’s Agowiidiwinan Centre at the Forks and then come check out the numerous Treaty exhibits throughout the Museum Galleries.
Take time to learn more about Residential Schools in Manitoba, visit the schoolhouse exhibit in the Prairies Gallery and use the digital kiosks embedded in the desks. You can also see the same information on our website when you visit ManitobaMuseum.ca/ResidentialSchools.

For many non-Indigenous readers, learning more about these topics might bring up a lot of feelings and make you uncomfortable, and that’s okay. The important thing is to not dismiss information that challenges what you knew about Canadian history, but instead sit with the discomfort and think about why you might feel this way. Part of our shared journey towards reconciliation involves hard work like this, but it’s important work that we all must undertake.

The digital kiosk in our Prairies Gallery Schoolhouse exhibit provides opportunities for learning and reflection about the truth of residential schools. Image © Manitoba Museum/Ian McCausland

The Orange Shirt Day Reflection Wall encourages you to share
your thoughts and make a commitment to reconciliation. Image © Manitoba Museum

Visit the HBC Gallery to learn about the history of the Fur Trade and the
relationships between Indigenous Peoples and Euro-Canadian fur traders. Image © Manitoba Museum

Join us for a time of learning, reflection, and response at Orange Shirt Days @ the Manitoba Museum. Three days of free admission to all areas September 30 to October 2. No tickets required.

Dr. Amelia Fay

Curator of Anthropology & the HBC Museum Collection

Amelia Fay is Curator of Anthropology and the HBC Museum Collection at the Manitoba Museum. She received her BA in Anthropology from the University of Manitoba (2004), an MA in Archaeology…

Meet Dr. Amelia Fay

Did you know that Star-nosed moles can smell underwater? Learn more in this video with Aro, Collections Technician of Natural History.

What year would you guess the first colour photograph to be printed the day after it was taken came out in a North American newspaper? Did you know that it was printed in Manitoba’s own Winnipeg Free Press?

The Manitoba Museum has 103 cameras in its collection, but one donated this year has a fascinating history! Learn more about this special discovery in this video with Curator of History, Dr. Roland Sawatzky.

Keep learning with Dr. Sawatzky’s blog post The Devin Tri-Color Camera here.

Hi Barbie!

Did you know that museums collect contemporary objects in anticipation of future research, education, and exhibits well after we’ve all retired? This includes items like toys! Learn a bit about the history of Barbie with Rylee in this video in the Human History Collection.

Did you have any of these Barbies or their accessories?

CW// Death, thoughts of suicide.

When Sonia Eckhardt-Gramatté’s beloved husband Walter passed away, she kept many mementos of him. In this video, Collections Technician Cortney talks a bit about the Eckhardt-Gramatté Collection and the material culture of death.

The Manitoba Museum is no stranger to cameras in our collection. We care for 103 of them, to be exact, ranging from the old tripod box cameras to some early digital cameras. But what was offered to us this year was very different from anything I had seen.

It was a 1930s Devin Tri-Color camera, made to take colour photographs in an era when artistic and journalistic black-and-white pictures dominated. Our newest camera donation became even more intriguing when I learned it was used in Winnipeg to take a very special picture.

The camera works by actually shooting three simultaneous black-and-white large negatives through three different filters (red, green, and blue), in different chambers. Additionally, inside the chambers are two reflective filters that allowed light through and reflected light to another chamber. As you can see, this makes for an oddly-shaped, heavy, unwieldly tank of a camera, one that could only be mounted on a tripod. But it worked!

In the hands of a professional, the results could be astonishing.

The Devin Tri-Color camera with its three glass coloured filters removed.

Three film holders for three negatives to be used simultaneously. These would be placed directly behind the glass plate filters.

A clip from the May 25, 1939 edition of the Winnipeg Free Press found in a scrapbook in the Museum collection. H9-24-665

Our particular Devin Tri-Color camera was used to take a picture of the royal visit of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth in 1939. It was then printed in the Winnipeg Free Press as a colour image, the first time in North America that a news event picture was printed in colour on the following day.

The picture shows the King and Queen with the Strathcona Horse escort on Main Street just north of Portage Avenue. The picture was taken at 11:05 am on Wednesday May 24, 1939, by Maurice Lyall who worked for Brigden’s of Winnipeg. His negatives were made into enlarged positives which were then processed by employees at the Winnipeg Free Press. They were printed in the newspaper in colour, a mere 18 hours after the photograph was taken.

David McMillan, retired professor of Photography and the History of Photography at the School of Arts at the University of Manitoba, purchased the camera from Brigden’s around 1975, and he donated it to the Museum in 2023.

But what did the printed Free Press picture look like? Archives usually only keep black-and-white microfilm or digital copies of old newspapers, so the colour image would have been lost in this transfer process. Luckily the Manitoba Museum has a big collection of keepsakes from the 1939 royal visit, and I remembered having seen some scrapbooks as part of that collection. Sure enough, one of scrapbooks held a clipping of that original May 25 newspaper print, in the original colour.

So the Museum now has both the original camera and an original newspaper print of the picture the camera took. Together at last!

Dr. Roland Sawatzky

Curator of History

Roland Sawatzky joined The Manitoba Museum in 2011. He received his B.A. in Anthropology from the University of Winnipeg, M.A. in Anthropology from the University of South Carolina, and Ph.D. in Archaeology…

Meet Dr. Roland Sawatzky

Did you know that water was once transported within Winnipeg in wooden pipes?

Join Learning and Engagement Producer Corinne in the Winnipeg Gallery to learn what else these wooden pipes brought to Winnipeggers in the late 1800s.

By Scott Young, Planetarium Astronomer

Have you ever seen the stars? Like, really SEEN them, from a dark place, far away from the lights of the city. If you have, you’ll know what I’m talking about. If you haven’t, you are missing one of the great beauties of the natural world.

The night sky is magical. Take even the most jaded person and put them under the stars, and it gives them a sense of awe and wonder. We can’t help it – we are hard-wired to be amazed by the stars.

I’m sure there is some explanation for why that is. Probably, because our ancient ancestors who *didn’t* like the stars also didn’t figure out the cycles of the heavens and the progression of the seasons, and so didn’t make it through a winter that they couldn’t predict. The sky has given us clock, calendar, and a certainty about our understanding of the universe around us, and civilization was built upon that knowledge. The sky was one of humanity’s greatest discoveries, right up there with fire, the wheel, and chocolate.

Today, with satellite weather and pocket-sized supercomputers, we don’t need the sky for such basic purposes. (It still works, by the way, in case the zombie apocalypse or robot uprising sets us back to the dark ages.) We have telescopes in space and are flying drones on other planets. Yet more than ever, people are looking to the sky with interest. Even with all the things we know about the universe, there’s still a sense of mystery and wonder that makes us want to experience it ourselves.

And you can. You don’t need a telescope to start exploring the sky tonight. All you need is a clear sky, and a place even a little sheltered from nearby lights. Even from downtown Winnipeg you can see the Moon, the brighter planets, and many of the familiar star patterns like the Big Dipper or Summer Triangle. An ordinary pair of binoculars can give you a closer view and expand the number of objects you can track down. Books, apps, and online videos can teach you the sky one piece at a time, and each discovery you make will be yours. It doesn’t matter that Galileo discovered the moons of Jupiter four centuries ago – when you discover them for the first time in a pair of binoculars, you will feel the same thrill of excitement he did, and your personal universe will have gotten a little bit larger.

Silhouettes of an adult and child. The adult points up into the night sky full of stars, as the child looks up through binoculars.

Exploring the sky has another important benefit: it’s fun and relaxing, and it gives you a broader sense of perspective. When contemplating the three hundred billion suns that make up our own Milky Way or if any of their trillions of worlds are inhabited, our smaller earthly concerns fade into the background. The pale blue dot we live on is just a speck in the vast universe, and the things that divide us are outnumbered by the things that unite us. We all live under the same sky, and the stars belong to everyone. Get to know our sky, and you get to know yourself and your place in the grand scheme of things.

Explore Manitoba’s Skies!

Visit the Planetarium this summer to venture to far-off galaxies, witness spectacular solar systems, and get to know the stars in our very own skies.

Buy your tickets today to reserve your seat under the stars!

Museum Galleries

Planetarium

Science Gallery

See October's Eclipse (safely!)