Posted on: Thursday February 29, 2024

UPDATED 5 April 2024 10:08 a.m.

NOTE: The Museum is SOLD OUT of eclipse glasses, and no more can be obtained from suppliers. They are sold out all over North America. Instead, use one of the indirect methods linked below to observe the eclipse safely.

WARNING – COUNTERFEIT ECLIPSE GLASSES: There are unsafe eclipse glasses being marketed online through various online retail outlets. These counterfeit glasses are unsafe and can cause permanent eye damage or blindness. The Manitoba Museum recommends you only buy eclipse glasses from an established telescope dealer, and not from an international distributor that doesn’t specialize in astronomical equipment.

Monday, April 8, 2024: Eclipse Day!

On Monday, April 8, 2024, viewers across North America will have an amazing opportunity to experience the motions of the solar system in real time. On that afternoon a solar eclipse will be visible across the province and across the continent. For viewers in a narrow path from Mexico through the central United States and across eastern Canada, the Moon will appear to completely cover the sun, producing one of nature’s most beautiful sights: a total solar eclipse.

For most of the rest of the continent (including all of Manitoba), the eclipse is not total. The Moon will cover only a part of the Sun, resulting in a partial eclipse. This article will describe how to allow your students to view the eclipse safely and demonstrate how to turn this rare celestial event into an amazing experience for student learning. Experiencing an eclipse first-hand helps students make direct links between science as learned in class and science as it shapes the world around us.

The solar eclipse of April 8, 2024 as seen from southern Manitoba. [Credit: Stellarium.org/The Manitoba Museum]

Eclipse Viewing Events

Winnipeg

WHERE: Community Gardens, east of The Leaf in Assiniboine Park in Winnipeg

WHEN: Monday, April 8, 2024 from 12:30 p.m. to 3:15 p.m.

Join members of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada (Winnipeg Centre) and staff from The Manitoba Museum’s Planetarium for a free eclipse viewing session at Assiniboine Park. Safe solar telescopes will be set up to view the partial solar eclipse, and personal eclipse glasses will be available for sale. In case of cloudy weather, live streams from other locations will be provided. The award-winning astronomy show Dome@Home will broadcast the event live through the Manitoba Museum’s social media channels.

Know of a public observing session elsewhere in Manitoba? Let us know at space@manitobamuseum.ca and we’ll add it to our page!

Eclipse times and circumstances for every town in Manitoba: https://eclipse2024.org/eclipse_cities/states.php?type=partial&state=Manitoba&country=Canada

Eclipse Safety

Manitoba Association of Optometrists eclipse safety page

Observing the sun safely requires some preparation.

It is true that looking at the Sun directly with unprotected eyes can cause permanent eye damage – but this is true all the time and not just during an eclipse. The sun is no more dangerous to look at during an eclipse than it is at any other time. However, people don’t usually look at the sun repeatedly over the course of several hours on a normal day, so student safety must be considered when an eclipse occurs during school hours.

The safest way to observe the eclipse is by using special solar eclipse glasses from a certified dealer. The Manitoba Museum Shop is now SOLD OUT of eclipse glasses. Do not order them from unknown sources on the internet 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. If you were unable to secure glasses in time for the eclipse, check out the indirect viewing options further down on this page (instruction links are at the bottom of the page).

Binoculars project a safe image of the Sun onto a white screen.

Indirect Viewing

This is the best way for a group to observe the eclipse safely but requires a little preparation. In all cases, sunlight passes through an aperture and projects an image onto the ground or a white projection screen. People do not look at the sun, but at the magnified image cast on the screen. This results in a safe view that many people can see at once.

One method or projection often suggested is to make a pinhole camera out of a cardboard box. In our experience, this does not provide a very satisfying view unless it is made with an exceptionally long box. A cardboard tube from wrapping paper with a length of about a meter is a good choice for this.

Build a pinhole camera (bilingual instructions):https://www.asc-csa.gc.ca/eng/youth-educators/activities/fun-experiments/eclipse-projector.asp

One of the best overall viewing methods for a class is to construct a binocular eclipse projector. This will show a large image of the Sun that can be viewed by several people at the same time and is completely safe for the viewer. (However, it may not be completely safe for the binoculars, depending on their design… do not use expensive binoculars for this!)

Binocular Eclipse Projector (PDF file): Binocular-Solar-Projector

A woman looks at the Sun using safe eclipse glasses.

Direct Viewing

For direct viewing, the special solar filter is placed between the eye and the Sun, and the observer looks at the Sun through the filter.

There are only two types of safe filters for direct solar viewing. First are certified eclipse glasses, as mentioned above. The other safe filter is a piece of #14 welder’s glass (and ONLY #14). Both of these materials filter not only the visible light, but also the harmful and invisible infrared and ultraviolet rays that can cause permanent eye damage.

NOT SAFE FOR DIRECT SOLAR VIEWING: most eclipse glasses bought off the internet (there are MANY scammers selling fake eclipse glasses); sunglasses; CDs or DVDs; Mylar (silver) balloons or wrapping paper; any kind of photographic film; smoked glass; any other filter material you read about online that isn’t #14 welder’s glass or a pair of certified eclipse glasses.

ARE CLOUDS A SAFE FILTER? If the sky is cloudy, sometimes it is possible to see the Sun through the clouds without it feeling overly bright. While this dims the visible light from the Sun, it may not block the harmful infrared and ultraviolet light and is not a safe method to observe. Of course, if the clouds are too thick, we will not be able to see the Sun at all except via live stream.

WHAT ABOUT TELESCOPES AND BINOCULARS? If you have access to a telescope or binoculars, you cannot use eclipse glasses or welder’s glass with them. You need a special solar filter that fits over the front of the telescope lense, filtering the light before it enters the telescope. It is probably too late to try and get one of these now, as they have been selling out for months. If you already have one of these, you can use it to view the eclipse safely, but it is essential to make sure the filter cannot be removed from the front of the telescope by wind or curious hands. (Duct tape is your friend.) If you are unsure about the safety of the gear you have, email us at space@manitobamuseum.ca and we can advise you. If in doubt, do not risk it and find another way to observe the eclipse.

Links

MANITOBA ECLIPSE LIVESTREAM LINKS: https://Youtube.com/ManitobaMuseum https://facebook.com/ManitobaMuseum

Eclipse times and circumstances for every town in Manitoba: https://eclipse2024.org/eclipse_cities/states.php?type=partial&state=Manitoba&country=Canada

NASA’s 2024 eclipse page: https://science.nasa.gov/eclipses/future-eclipses/eclipse-2024/

Build a pinhole camera (bilingual instructions):https://www.asc-csa.gc.ca/eng/youth-educators/activities/fun-experiments/eclipse-projector.asp

Binocular Eclipse Projector (PDF file): Binocular-Solar-Projector

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.

Manitoba Stories: In the Sky

Astronomy

Friday March 1, 2024

In Manitoba there are many different types of fungus, some of which are even parasitic! In this video, Curator of Botany Dr. Diana Bizecki Robson introduces us to a few of the species that can be found here in the province.

Winter in Manitoba is not generally a time for animals to breed. Resources are scarce – many species have migrated and those that remain are often struggling to survive or have slowed their metabolism, perhaps to hibernate or essentially freeze solid.

But two Manitoba bird species are unusual finches known to breed through the winter months! Learn about these birds’ special adaptions in this video with Curator of Zoology Dr. Randy Mooi.

Posted on: Friday February 16, 2024

Animals today are mindbogglingly diverse, encompassing flies and flamingoes, elephants and earthworms, sharks and snails, and of course, ourselves. It’s hard to even imagine a world before animals, or how such staggering diversity came to be.

My name is Dr. Joe Moysiuk and I am the new Curator of Palaeontology and Geology at the Manitoba Museum. It’s my job to reconstruct ancient worlds through scientific study of the evidence that remains – fossils and rocks – and bring them “back to life” for museum visitors. I’m particularly fascinated by the evolution of major groups of animals and have devoted the past several years to researching fossils from the Burgess Shale, a UNESCO World Heritage Site and one of the world’s most significant palaeontological discoveries.

Famous shale

The Burgess Shale is located high in the mountains of Yoho and Kootenay National Parks in British Columbia. Fossils were discovered by workers during the construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway in the 1880s. Although a few sites were explored by earlier researchers, it wasn’t until 1909 that Charles D. Walcott of the Smithsonian Institution made the famed discovery of a particularly diverse excavation site and provided the name Burgess Shale after the nearby Mount Burgess. Subsequent expeditions by Harvard, the Geological Survey of Canada, and Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) have yielded large research collections that have been scrutinized by countless scientists and popularized in books like Wonderful Life by legendary palaeontologist Stephen J. Gould. Collection and research continues, notably at ROM, my previous institutional home.

The Burgess Shale fossils date back roughly 506 million years, to the Cambrian Period – long before the dinosaurs or even the earliest evidence of large lifeforms on land. At first glance, they are not particularly charismatic; most appear as small, dark stains on dark rocks and are difficult to see without special lighting conditions. Contrary to their modest appearance, these fossils have had an outsized impact on our understanding of the origin and evolution of animals.

Four people viewing a fossil in Walcott's quarry. The face of the quarry is a vertical cliff about 8 meters high

Walcott’s quarry today, showing the marks of 100 years of excavation.

Not your ordinary fossils

When I mention the word fossil, dinosaur bones may come to mind. Alternatively, you might recall seeing the shells of molluscs and corals in the Tyndall stone walls of buildings that dot the streets of Winnipeg or other Canadian cities. These sorts of hard, mineralized remains of organisms are resistant to decay, scavenging, and breakage, so they have a decent chance of persisting long enough to become fossilized. The softer parts of organisms, like eyes, digestive tracts, or brains tend to be lost long before they can be buried and preserved from further degradation.

However, there are some fossil deposits that defy these rules, preserving traces of the soft tissues of organisms alongside their mineralized bits. In technical parlance, we call these sites Konservat-Lagerstätten, deriving from an old German mining term for “conservation motherlode.” The Burgess Shale is one such Lagerstätte, and the exceptional quality and quantity of fossil material has made it among the most renowned.

A fossil of Stanleycaris, showing the head on the right and multisegmented body extending to the left. The eyes are large and situated on stalks. A pair of claws extend forward from the head and a circular mouth is visible. Inside the body we can see remains of the gut and nervous tissues

A specimen of Stanleycaris, a smaller relative of the more famous Anomalocaris. This fossil is exceptional even by the standards of the Burgess Shale – the dark matter in the head and extending into the bulbous eyes is the remains of the brain and associated nervous tissues. Photo by Jean-Bernard Caron, © Royal Ontario Museum, used with permission.

A pair of flattened jellyfish fossils with bell-shaped bodies lined with dozens of short tentacles.

A pair of Burgessomedusa phasmiformis, the oldest jellyfish known from the fossil record. These fossils were collected in the 1980s, but the species was only formally described last year. Photo by Jean-Bernard Caron, © Royal Ontario Museum, used with permission.

As you can imagine, soft tissue preservation provides unique insights about past life. For example, we recently uncovered fossilized elements of the nervous system of Stanleycaris hirpex, a distant relative of modern insects, spiders, and crabs, giving us extraordinary direct evidence of the form of the brain in the common ancestor of these disparate animals. We also find representatives of entirely soft bodied groups of organisms, which would never be found in a typical fossil deposit. For example, my colleagues and I recently described the oldest definitive swimming jellyfish.

The reasons behind the exceptional quality of preservation at the Burgess Shale, and other similar sites around the world, remain the subject of research. It’s generally thought that a combination of factors played a role: rapid burial of the organisms in undersea mud flows, low oxygen near the sea floor, and unusual sea water chemistry during this time in Earth’s history. Subsequently, chemical reactions during rock formation reduced the organic remains to carbon-rich traces which were resistant enough to survive for over half a billion years.

Aside from the quality of preservation, the age of the Burgess Shale makes it particularly significant. The Cambrian Period witnessed a spectacular diversification of animals. Essentially all major groups that are with us today can trace their roots back to this time. The Burgess Shale provides a window into life on Earth shortly after this pulse of animal diversification.

Opening new doors to ancient worlds

I started my museum career at a particularly exciting time. Field work at the Burgess Shale had just resulted in the discovery of a brand new Burgess Shale site in the vicinity of Marble Canyon in Kootenay National Park. This site lies a mere 40 km south of Walcott’s quarry, but differs substantially in terms of the fossil species present. For several summers between 2014 and 2022, I joined international crews in exploring the region and excavating several dig sites systematically. Access to the sites is challenging and mostly by helicopter. We would camp in these remote settings for 2-6 weeks at a time, hiking long distances to reach fossil-rich outcrops. The work was hard and physical, but the rewards were truly spectacular. In the early days of exploration, new fossil species tumbled out of broken shale on a near daily basis. Some of these finds have now been formally published, but many still await attention and will be the basis of years of research to come.

Campsite from 2018. Finding a flat area to pitch multiple tents can be challenging in the mountains.

One of several excavation sites developed over the past decade in the vicinity of Marble Canyon, Kootenay National Park.

Using a rock saw to extract fossils from a block of shale.

A fossil of Marrella splendens, showing curving spines on the head, antennae, and numerous feather-like limbs. This animal is extremely common at the Burgess Shale and is a distant relative of insects and spiders.

The feeding claw of Anomalocaris, one of the largest predators from the Burgess Shale. This animal belongs to an early branch in the arthropod group, close to the common ancestor of insects, spiders, and crabs.

Getting fossils out of the mountains is no easy task! Here we employ a net suspended on a longline below a helicopter.

Given its protected status, collecting fossils at the Burgess Shale is by permit only. However, guided hikes are available to the intrepid fossil enthusiast through Parks Canada and the Burgess Shale Geoscience Foundation. For those unable to make the somewhat arduous journey to the site, a selection of Burgess Shale fossils are on permanent display in the Earth History Gallery of the Manitoba Museum.

As I begin my tenure here at the Manitoba Museum, I feel equally excited about the potential for fantastic scientific discoveries. A legacy of field work has yielded important collections from three Konservat-Lagerstätten here in Manitoba. At roughly 445 million year old, these deposits are slightly younger than the Burgess Shale. They therefore provide complementary snapshots of early animal diversification. I look forward to “digging into” these collections and sharing new insights in the coming years.

A display case showcasing fossils from the Burgess Shale. Several specimens are mounted in a line, with a sliding magnifier for viewing.

The Burgess Shale display in the Manitoba Museum, Earth History Gallery, featuring a selection of different organisms.

Dr. Joe Moysiuk

Curator of Palaeontology & Geology

Joe Moysiuk recently completed his doctoral dissertation at the University of Toronto and Royal Ontario Museum. His expertise centers on the oldest animal fossils and insights they provide about the evolution…

Meet Dr. Joe Moysiuk

Museum Stories: Palaeontology & Geology

Palaeontology & Geology

Friday February 16, 2024

Turning over half-billion-year-old stones at the Manitoba Museum

Animals today are mindbogglingly diverse, encompassing flies and flamingoes, elephants and earthworms, sharks and snails, and of course, ourselves.

Palaeontology & Geology

Thursday October 6, 2022

Time's Waypoints

As we pass through life we accumulate scars, each of which tells a story about an event that affected us. This white line on my hand shows where I fell hard…

Palaeontology & Geology

Friday March 18, 2022

A Bison Rubbing Stone in the Prairies Gallery: How Did That Boulder Get There?

Bison rubbing stones are icons of the prairies. These large stones were originally transported south by Ice Age glaciers, then left behind on the prairies…

The city of Winnipeg turns 150 this year! Join Curator of History Dr. Roland Sawatzky in the Winnipeg Gallery to learn about some of the history of Winnipeg as an Indigenous homeland.

This series will continue throughout 2024, so keep an eye out for more #Wpg150 videos!

Do you know the history of valentine’s cards? Learn more about Valentine’s Day and check out some unique valentines cards from the Manitoba Museum Collection in this video with Cortney!

Posted on: Wednesday February 7, 2024

As you trek across the snowy landscape in a (typical) Manitoba winter, one of the last creatures you might expect to be sharing the trail with is an insect. One of the reasons you are in the woods during this season might be to avoid insects! But as the temperatures hover around the freezing mark, keep your eyes open and you might be lucky enough to see a snow fly walking alongside you. Snow flies (genus Chionea) are harmless and flightless species of crane fly (family Tipulidae) (Fig. 1). Crane flies are more likely recognized as the long-legged, skinny flies that are often mistaken to be giant mosquitoes (but don’t feed as adults or only sip nectar) (Fig. 2).

Figure 1: A female snow fly (Chionea valga), a wingless member of the crane fly family (Tipulidae), walking on snow in January 2010 (© P. Taylor, used with permission).

Figure 2: A more typical warm-weather crane fly with wings and very long, thin legs from the Museum collection with a pencil for scale.

Snow flies are highly specialized, as you might expect given they are active in winter rather than in summer as other crane flies. Their odd habits have made them difficult to study; much less is known about the lives of snow flies compared to their relatives. They are usually found under the snow in what is called the subnivean zone, the space between the snow pack and the ground (Fig. 3). Here, there is an insulated layer with stable temperatures just below or near the freezing mark that harbours an entire community of lichens, mosses and other plants, mice, voles, shrews, and many invertebrates. Snow flies live in the decaying, woody debris of the forest floor under this snowy blanket. Eggs are laid in winter and the larvae are thought to feed on plant debris or, perhaps, are coprophagous – that is, they might eat mouse or vole poop (yum!). They pupate in late summer or fall and emerge as adults in winter, under the snow. The adults, like most other crane flies, are not known to feed, although they do sip water and readily drink maple syrup when offered in lab conditions.

A cross-section view of snow and earth that shows how plants and small rodents can live under the snow.

Figure 3: A cutaway view of a layer of snow and the forest floor to show the subnivean zone, the space between the snow and the ground that provides a stable and relatively warm environment for small mammals, invertebrates, and plants to survive the winter. This is a mini-diorama in the Arctic/Sub-Arctic Gallery of the Manitoba Museum.

Warm-weather crane flies live for only a few days, just long enough to find a mate and have females lay eggs. Snow flies are known to live for as long as two months, perhaps tied to a slower metabolism in a colder environment, but also perhaps a specialization that provides time to wait for favourable conditions to permit emergence from beneath the snow. When daytime highs go above -2°C, they go walkabout for tens of metres, perhaps farther, to find a mate (Fig. 4).

Two photos: One the left, a snow fly from the side, stepping forward. On the right, a male snow fly, a wingless crane fly with long legs, walking on snow.

Figure 4: A female (left) and male (right) snow fly (Chionea valga) walking over snow one January, searching for each other along a trail in Pinawa, Manitoba (© P. Taylor, used with permission).

A snow-covered trail through a boreal forest.

But why come to the surface in winter at all? The reason remains obscure, but it has been suggested that winter activity might help avoid predation; there are far more hungry organisms about in the warmer months. Another suggestion is that snow provides a uniform substrate on which to walk; it is easier for a flightless fly to cover more walking-distance and find a mate on a smooth flat surface than the rough, uneven, and complex terrain of the boreal forest floor (Fig. 5).

Figure 5: A trail near Pinawa, Manitoba showing typical habitat where snow flies can be found on warm winter days. © P. Taylor, used with permission.

An illustrated view of the head and thorax of a female snow fly to show eggs in the thorax where there would normally be flight muscles.

And, indeed, these flies can’t fly. They have lost their wings and flight muscles. Their subnivean (under-the-snow) habitat does seem to make wings redundant and, even when above the snow, temperatures are likely too low to permit extended flight. But how loss of wings evolved along with this winter life-style is not understood. The females of at least some species take advantage of the loss of flight muscles by using that space to store more eggs (Fig. 6).

Figure 6: The head and thorax of a female snow fly. The thorax is shown in cross-section. Like all snow flies, the wings are absent, as are the flight muscles that would be located in the thorax. In this species, the area where the wing muscles would normally be is used to store additional eggs. From Byers (1983).

Many insects avoid freezing over winter by producing sugars and proteins in their body fluids to create an ‘anti-freeze’; they can lower their internal freezing temperature by keeping ice crystals from forming as early as they would ordinarily. Many freeze-tolerant insects can survive temperatures well below -25°C. Surprisingly, snow flies aren’t particularly good at producing antifreeze nor are they very freeze tolerant; they freeze (and die) at body temperatures below about -6°C. This means that they are restricted to the (relatively) warm subnivean world most of the winter, and explains why their mate-searching activities are limited to warmer days (as noted, about -2°C or higher). One of the snow fly’s more important adaptations is that they appear to have modified nerve and muscle function to operate at low temperatures. They can remain active to the point of freezing! This means, that on a sunny day when the dark body can absorb solar heat and remain above air temperature, a snow fly can be actively walking at -10°C (Fig. 7).

A female snow fly, a wingless crane fly, walking on snow.

Figure 7: A female snow fly (Chionea valga) actively walking on the snow near Pinawa, Manitoba on January 27, 2015. © P. Taylor, used with permission.

A more astounding adaptation: it has recently been discovered that a snow fly can self-amputate its legs to keep a freezing limb from transferring killing ice crystals into its body and destroying critical internal organs. Many insects, and especially summer crane flies, lose their long, spindly legs quite easily if held; mechanical amputation of a leg can help to escape a predator. But the larger, more substantial legs of snow flies do not come off by pulling; rather, they are triggered to amputate by temperature-regulated nerves so that when a freezing leg is detected, amputation occurs. When air temperatures drop quickly, this can buy a little more time for a snow fly out on the surface, allowing it to seek shelter under the snow and avoid a frosty death.

You can learn more about amazing snow flies in the articles listed below; both provide excellent summaries on these surprising winter insects. You can explore the life of insects throughout the year and discover their incredible diversity in the Museum’s Boreal Gallery and Prairies Gallery, where you can get up-close and personal with hundreds of species, beautiful and bizarre.

Taylor, Peter. 2016. Snow flies and other winter invertebrates near Pinawa, Manitoba. Blue Jay 74(2): 18-22. https://bluejayjournal.ca/index.php/bluejay/article/view/6112/6101

Golding, D., Rupp, K., Sustar, N., Pratt, B. and Tuthill, J. 2023. Snow flies self-amputate freezing to sustain behavior at sub-zero temperatures. Current Biology 33: 1-8. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2023.09.002

Dr. Randy Mooi

Curator of Zoology

Dr. Mooi received his Ph.D. in zoology from the University of Toronto working on the evolutionary history of coral reef fishes. Following a postdoctoral fellowship in the Division of Fishes of the Smithsonian Institution…

Meet Dr. Randy Mooi

Museum Stories: Zoology

Zoology

Wednesday February 7, 2024

The surprising snow fly – an insect that defies winter

As you trek across the snowy landscape in a (typical) Manitoba winter, one of the last creatures you might expect to be sharing the trail with is an insect…

Zoology

Wednesday May 31, 2023

A-toad hunting we will go

Zoology

Monday March 27, 2023

A Bird in the Hand: Museum Collections and Conservation

It’s teamwork! Badgers and coyotes sometimes use their unique adaptations to work together in hunting small rodents like the Richardson Ground squirrel. Learn how in this video from the Prairies Gallery with Learning & Engagement producer Erin.

Posted on: Friday February 2, 2024

By Roland Sawatzky, Curator of History at the Manitoba Museum

This year is the 150th anniversary of the City of Winnipeg. In 1874 it promoted itself from a small village nestled within the larger Red River Settlement, to a bona fide City, with all the aspirations of growth and importance it could muster. The Winnipeg Gallery at the Manitoba Museum is a great place to explore the fascinating history of our city.

The Winnipeg Gallery was completed at the end of 2019, so if you haven’t seen it yet, this year would be a great time. The gallery includes a seven-metre long wall of artifacts, related to seven themes that run through the history of Winnipeg, including Indigenous Homeland, City of Newcomers, and Celebrations, to name a few. And with special digital kiosks, you can do a deep dive into the story of each artifact, like Sergeant Tommy Prince’s authentic war medals, or a billy club from the 1919 General Strike.

This set of medals was awarded to Sergeant Tommy Prince, one of Canada’s most decorated Indigenous war veterans. Sergeant Prince was born on the Brokenhead Ojibway Nation.. The medals reflect his service in WWII and the Korean War. Loan from the Prince Medals Committee. ©Manitoba Museum

Many Winnipeg Grenadiers servicemen were imprisoned during WWII at Sham Shui Po Camp in Hong Kong. One prisoner made this chess set with scraps found at the camp. H9-37-547 ©Manitoba Museum

Discover Winnipeg’s changes over time through our ground-breaking interactive digital map, which lets you explore the city from seven time periods, right up to today. You can release the floodwaters over our unsuspecting city, trace the growth of your neighbourhood, or track the various epidemics (and pandemics) that have hit the city over the last century and a half.

Indigenous history is integrated throughout the gallery, including a nine-Nation treaty established at the Forks in 1285 CE; John Norquay, the Métis premier (1878-1887); the story of Shoal Lake 40 and the Winnipeg Aqueduct; and the 1972 establishment of the era-defining “Professional Native Indian Artists, Inc.” art collective, plus much more.

The inspiring experiences of immigrants in Winnipeg are told through old artifacts and new stories, accessed through a “kitchen table,” where you can sit and listen to the challenges met and overcome by new Canadians, like adapting to the extreme cold, establishing a business, and learning a new language.

This jingle dress was made by Linda Tait from Swan Lake First Nation around 1970. Pow wows are important cultural events in Winnipeg today, and the Jingle Dress Dance is a major feature. H4-0-377 ©Manitoba Museum

During the catastrophic flood of 1950, this pair of hip wader boots was used by a volunteer to assist with relief. Around 100,000 people had to be evacuated from their homes. H9-37-632 ©Manitoba Museum

This is a Kaba dress made by Olayinka Ali in 2018 for the Manitoba Museum. Olayinka is a fashion designer and dressmaker for communities from Africa in Manitoba. H9-38-824 ©Manitoba Museum

Then explore the changes in “Winnipeg 1920.” Most visitors call it the “little town,” but Winnipeg in 1920 was Canada’s third largest city. We’ve made changes to populate it with the diverse peoples of the time.

Our city has had its fair share of important events and contributions to the Canadian story, along with deeply challenging social disparities, from 1874 right to this moment. Winnipeg’s history is tumultuous ever-changing, and contentious. But it isn’t dull. See for yourself!

Plan your visit today

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

Posted on: Wednesday January 31, 2024

The Sky for February 2024

February skies usually mark a transition point between winter and spring, with Imbolc (the Celtic “first day of spring”) occurring at the beginning of the month. Many ancient cultures marked the start of the seasons not using the solstice and equinox, but with the dates halfway between them, since it suited their local weather patterns better. (As a Winnipegger, I’ve never bought into the idea that winter doesn’t start until December 21st!) The modern Groundhog Day draws its inspiration from this custom, falling on Imbolc.

Of course, weather is a local phenomenon, and climate is changing rapidly, so many of these dates seem increasingly out of touch with actual events. In southern Manitoba this year we’ve already had autumn, winter, and spring since the beginning of January, and expect second winter in a couple of weeks – or is it third winter?

Either way, February skies will offer some great sights – if we manage to get any cloud-free nights!

The Solar System

The planets are described in the order they are most visible in this month’s Manitoba skies.

Saturn is visible very low in the southwest after sunset but sets before 7:30pm in Early February. It disappears into the glare of the Sun later in the month as it passes behind our star. It is on the far side of its orbit on February 28th.

Neptune is low in the southwest as darkness falls and sets soon after. You’ll need a telescope and good star-hopping skills to be able to spot it this month as a faint dot.

Jupiter is still high in the southwest after sunset, the brightest object in the evening sky (other than the Moon). Telescope users should enjoy watching as they pass in front of or behind the planet from night to night. Jupiter’s four largest moons can be glimpsed in binoculars, but a telescope allows viewers to see the passing in front of or behind the planet, casting their shadow on the cloud tops, and even reappearing from eclipse as they exit the giant planet’s giant shadow.

Uranus is still about halfway between Jupiter (on the right) and the famous Pleiades (or Seven Sisters) star cluster on the left. You’ll need binoculars to be able to spot it as just one more star in a sea of stars. Point your binoculars halfway along and just below a line from Jupiter to the Pleiades, and Uranus will be in your field of view. If you make a sketch of all the stars you can see and then go back to the same area a few days or a week later, one of the “stars” will have moved. That’s Uranus.

Venus rises early in the morning in the southeast, a brilliant “morning star” that many will notice as during their morning walk or commute. It gets lower each morning as it moves around the far side of the Sun. Also see “Mars”, below.

Mercury drops back into the twilight early in February after a mediocre showing in January’s pre-dawn skies. It passes around the far side of the Sun on February 28th, after which it will reappear in the evening sky this spring.

Mars is still too close to the Sun to be easily seen in the first half of this month, rising just before the Sun in the morning. It passes close to Venus on the 22nd but being much fainter it is unlikely to be seen by most observers.

The dwarf planets are all too faint to be seen without large telescopes, except Ceres, which can sometimes be spotted in binoculars. Unfortunately, Ceres is just coming out of the morning twilight this month and won’t be easily visible until later in the spring.

Celestial Calendar

Fri Feb. 2, 2024: Last Quarter Moon

Tue Feb. 6, 2024 (morning sky): Venus and a thin crescent Moon are both low in the southeast during morning twilight.

Wed Feb. 7, 2024 (morning sky): Theoretically, Venus, Mars, Mercury and the thin crescent Moon are all above the horizon by 8am, but the sky is likely to be too bright to see anything except Venus.

Fri Feb. 9, 2024: New Moon. It’s also the monthly meeting of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada’s Winnipeg Centre. The meetings are open to the public; find details here.

Wed Feb. 14, 2024 (evening sky): The Moon is to the right of Jupiter in the evening sky. Both fit comfortably into the field of view of typical binoculars (e.g. 7x50s).

Fri Feb. 16, 2024 (evening sky): The First Quarter Moon is close to the Pleiades star cluster.

Tue Feb. 20, 2024 (morning sky): Mars and Venus are in the same telescopic field of view for the next few mornings. You’ll need a clear horizon to the southeast and crystal clear skies to be able to spot Mars against the bright colours of twilight.

Sat Feb. 24, 2024: Full Moon

Thu Feb. 29, 2024: Leap Day plus Dome@Home! We add an extra day in the calendar every four years to keep the calendar in synch with the4 Earth’s orbit around the sun. It actually takes us 365 and a quarter days to orbit the Sun, so every four years we have an extra day to account for. (It’s more complicated than that, since it’s not exactly a quarter day extra, but 0.2422 days… so we don’t have leap years in century years like 2000 and 2100, unless they are divisible by 400. So, 2000 was a leap year; 2100 will not be. Got it?)

Dome@Home, the Manitoba Museum’s award-winning online astronomy show, runs the last Thursday of every month on the Museum’s Facebook page and YouTube channel. This month’s episode will be on February 29th.

Other Events

Zodiacal Light: Towards the end of February, the zodiacal light becomes visible from dark locations. This ghostly cone of light rises into the sky from the horizon along the ecliptic, with its broad end roughly centered on the sunset point on the horizon. The light is the combined glow of myriad dust particles in the plane of our solar system, being backlit at just the right angle to be seen from Earth. See Roy Bishop’s excellent article on this dust on p.268 of the 2024 Observer’s Handbook, published by the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada.

To learn when the International Space Station and other satellites are visible from your location, visit Heavens-Above.com and select the closest city or town to you.

For information on Manitoba’s largest astronomy club, visit the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada – Winnipeg Centre.