A local skywatcher and his family have made their way to eastern Oregon in order to watch the solar eclipse in totality Monday.

Ken McAllister says there is a band in the United States stretching from the west coast of Oregon and then diagonally south to South Carolina where people will witness the solar eclipse in totality, whereas, the rest of North America will see a partial solar eclipse. Steinbach, in particular, will see a 70% partial solar eclipse.

"A lot of people talk to me and they say, well, there's been eclipses before, but this is different," notes McAllister. "From here (Steinbach) we will not see the sun turn completely black, it won't get cold out, birds and animals won't start freaking out. But all of this will happen if you want to travel south into the path of totality, and that's what my family and I are doing."

Partial solar eclipse visible October 23, 2014.McAllister says the solar eclipse event lasts about three hours, while totality lasts half a minute to two-and-a-half minutes, depending on where along the line of totality you are located. He explains the difference between a solar and lunar eclipse.

"When thinking of a solar eclipse versus a lunar eclipse the key is that the word involved in the phrase is what is being darkened. So, in a solar eclipse the sun is being darkened because the moon is in the way, so the moon is getting in between the sun and the earth. In a lunar eclipse, the moon is being darkened because the earth is casting its shadow over the moon, so the moon gets darker."

He says there was a solar eclipse visible in Winnipeg in 1979 and there have been a few partial solar eclipses over the years such as in October 2014 and May 2012.

"The last one, there was no opportunity to travel further to see it total, it was only partial. If you don't know it's coming and you see a partial eclipse, you may not notice. But if you don't know it's coming and you see a total solar eclipse, you will know it's happening because it will get dark, the sun is completely gone and it's like, what's happening?"

McAllister reminds people to only look at the sun through solar approved eyewear or a pin-hole viewer.

He says the next total solar eclipse visible in North America is in 2024 where the eclipse will be visible in totality in a line starting in Mexico, traveling up through Texas, hitting the Great Lakes, and then visible in Canada near Niagara Falls, Ste. Catherine's, south of Montreal, and over into New Brunswick and Newfoundland.

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