August is shaping up to be a genuinely good month for anyone who likes getting lost in the clouds. Quebec will get not one but two eclipses within a few weeks of each other, and they couldn't look more different from one another.
The first one takes place on August 12 in the early afternoon, when a partial solar eclipse passes over the province. The moon slides between the sun and the Earth, blocking out part of the sun's disc depending on where you're standing. In Quebec, that blockage tops out at around 25%. That's nowhere near the total darkness Montrealers got a taste of back on April 8, 2024, but still a nice excuse to dig those eclipse glasses back out.
Elsewhere in the world, including parts of Iceland and Spain, the eclipse will actually be total. Viewing here is expected to run roughly between 12:50 p.m. and 2:45 p.m., though the exact timing shifts a bit depending on which part of the province you're in. And yes, the usual warning applies: the sun's rays are just as harmful during a partial eclipse as any other day, so proper eclipse glasses are a must if you want to actually watch it happen.
Two weeks later, on the night of August 27 into the early morning of August 28, it's the moon's turn to put on a show. According to the Rio Tinto Alcan Planetarium, the eclipse begins at 9:23 p.m. EDT as the moon enters Earth's outer shadow, known as the penumbra. The more noticeable part kicks in around 10:33 p.m., when the moon starts moving into Earth's darker inner shadow, the umbra. Things peak at 12:12 a.m., with about 93% of the moon's diameter covered by that shadow, before the partial phase wraps up around 1:51 a.m. and the whole event ends by 3:01 a.m.
Unlike the solar eclipse, there's no equipment required, and no risk involved either. You can watch the whole thing unfold with the naked eye right from your backyard, though a pair of binoculars will pull out a bit more detail if you've got them handy. As the moon passes deeper into Earth's shadow, sunlight stops reaching it directly, and what's left takes on a reddish glow similar to a sunset. This also happens to be the last lunar eclipse Quebec will see in 2026. After this, the next partial lunar eclipse won't roll around until the night of January 11-12, 2028, and a total lunar eclipse isn't due again until the night of June 25-26, 2029.
For anyone interested in photographing it, the Planetarium recommends shooting at ISO 400 with an aperture of f/8, and using the strongest zoom available, ideally somewhere between a 300mm and 500mm focal length. During the partial phases, shutter speeds between 1/500 and 1/60 of a second tend to work well, while shots closer to the eclipse's peak call for longer exposures, somewhere between 1 and 15 seconds, which is where a tripod comes in handy.
Shooting on a phone works too. Switching to video mode, zooming in as far as possible, and lowering both the focus and exposure manually will help bring out the moon's craters and darker plains more clearly, and you can pull still photos from that footage afterward.
Between the two eclipses, Quebec's also in for a strong showing from the Perseids, one of the year's most reliable meteor showers, which peaks the night of August 12 into 13. A new moon falls on that exact night too, meaning there won't be any moonlight competing with the meteors.
This story was inspired by the article "2 éclipses partielles seront visibles au Québec au mois d'août et ça s'annonce magique" which was originally published on Narcity.
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