When day turns into night: Canadians, Americans prepare for total solar eclipse

For Katrina Ince-Lum, the countdown to this summer's total solar eclipse has been on since December 2012.

That's when the Canadian travelled to her native Australia to catch her first solar eclipse, an event often touted as "life-changing."

But in a cruel twist of fate and to Ince-Lum's extreme disappointment on a mostly clear day,a rogue cloud drifted in front of the sun right at totality, when the moon covered the disk of the sun.

But now, she's getting a second chance.

On Aug.21, a total solar eclipsewill take place across the continental United States, the first in 99 years. It'san event dubbed the "Great American Eclipse."

And Ince-Lum, of Toronto, is ready.

"I've been planning it for a while and I'm really looking forward to it," she told CBC News. "It's a phenomenon that they say is life-changing."

• It's worth the drive to totality: perspectives from an eclipse chaser
• Cool science for 2017
• Eclipse thrills skygazers in Asia

Like many Canadians, Ince-Lum will be travelling to the United States to capture the rare and unique event.

The path of totality stretches from Oregon to South Carolina. In those states, millions of people will experience approximately 2 minutes of darkness in the middle of the day.

Ince-Lum, an amateur astronomer for the past 20 years, intends to enjoy the experience without any telescopes or fancy equipment.

"I'm not going to do anything particularly complicated," she said. "I just want to enjoy the experience.... I'm just going to sit in my chair and look at it, safely of course."

What is a total solar eclipse?

Though there are other types of solar eclipses partial and annular, for example, where only part of the sun is covered nothing compares to a total solar eclipse.

As the mooncovers the sun's bright light, its corona or outer atmosphere becomes visible.

Somewhere on Earth, there isa total solar eclipse about once every 18 months through a strange scientific fluke. By chance, the moon, at an average distance of about 386,000 kilometres from Earth, just happens to be the same size in the sky as the sun, which is at an average distance of 149.6 million kilometres.

Every so often, it all lines upand, as the moon orbits Earth,it passes in front of the sun, blocking it out entirely.

One of the most anticipated sights is something called Baily's beads. This effect is created around the moon as sunlight travels through mountains and valleys on the moon's surface.

When darkness descends, it will likely give those in the shadow of the moon an eerie feeling: darkness during the day. Birds and other animals will begin their twilight routines, believing that night is about to settle in.

"It'll be dark enough that you'll have difficulty reading print on the page," Paul Delaney, an astronomer and professor at York University in Toronto, told CBC News.

"But all of the bright stars come out; it's twilight. You'll begin to see Venus and Jupiter. But to have this black disk in the sky surrounding by the white halo, the corona, and all the starsand planets around, it really is an awe-inspiring feeling."

Canada's partial solar eclipse

About 200million people are within one day's drive of the path of totality, MartinKnopp, associate administrator at the office of operations of the U.S. Department of Transportation, said at a recent NASA news conference.

In Canada, there's the chance to enjoy a partial eclipse, with the moon covering the sun anywhere from 89 per cent in Victoriato 13 per cent in Resolute, Nunavut.

Try very hard to sit back and enjoy the experience.- Paul Delaney

When the eclipse begins, you'll barely notice it. But then you'll begin to see that it looks like someone took a bite out of the sun, in roughly the 1 o'clock to 4 o'clock positions, depending on your location. From there, the moon will slide across much of the lower half of the sun, blocking out its light.

But neverlook directly at the sun without proper protection: you can seriously damage your eyes.

Try to obtain special eclipse glasses, which you may find at local science stores or science centres. Do not look at the sun, even if a sliver of it is visible

"Just because 80 per cent of the sun is missing, 20 per cent of the sun is there. You only need a fraction of a per centof the sun to be visible to generate eye damage," Delaney said.

"It'snot safer today than it is on eclipse day in Canada unless you have the appropriateprecautions: that means solar safety glasses. It doesn't mean wearing two pairs of sunglasses."

Numerous events are taking place across the country, including at universities or local astronomy clubs like the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada. Many locations will have telescopes with special solar filtersor solar glasses to give away. There's even a way to watch an eclipse by making a pin-hole camera.

"Try very hard to sit back and enjoy the experience," Delaney said. "It really is wonderful."

That's exactly what Ince-Lum plans to do.

"I want to look around me, see what my friends are doing, observe what the people are doing and just see how the sky changes, how the light changes. I just want to soak it all in."