People across the Maritimes take time to observe historic eclipse

Chris Hadfield was one of thousands of people across the Maritimes who observed the celestial event, which won’t repeat in the region until 2079.

Chris Hadfield is best known as an astronaut, but despite his adventures outside the Earth’s lower atmosphere, he’d never seen a full solar eclipse until Monday.

“When I was a kid growing up on the farm, we had a partial eclipse and I was more excited than anyone in the family,” Hadfield told CTV News Atlantic. “I got a piece of paper and I punched some holes in it and with the sun coming down through the paper, I could watch that partial eclipse happen.

“Never in all that time since then have the stars aligned for me so I could see an eclipse until today.”

Hadfield visited Florenceville-Bristol, N.B., on Monday to see the path of totality of the solar eclipse. He was one of thousands of people across the Maritimes who observed the celestial event, which won’t repeat in the region until 2079.

Thousands of people flocked to Fredericton, N.B., situated in the path of totality, to cap off Eclipsefest in the city. The Garrison District was packed with onlookers and vendors providing information on the once-in-a-lifetime moment.

Traffic was heavy in many parts of Prince Edward Island as thousands of observers moved around to catch a good view of the eclipse.

Most of Nova Scotia may have been outside the full path of totality, but that didn’t stop residents from seeing the moon partially obscure the sun. In Halifax, people filled the field at Saint Mary’s University to witness the eclipse, enjoying an extra-special view thanks to high-powered telescopes from the astronomy department.