'Perfect clear, blue skies' as dozens watch solar eclipse from Kitchener's Victoria Park
Despite the cloud cover that threatened to obscure the solar eclipse Monday afternoon in Kitchener, dozens of people gathered in Victoria Park.
"I'm very excited! It is cloudy so I don't know if we'll see anything but I was very excited and we have a little picnic set up so it will be fun either way," said Nikita D'souza, who was with a group of her friends.
Not long after, the clouds cleared out and the partial eclipse reached its peak over the downtown Kitchener park at 3:18 p.m.
"It was dreary overcast and now it's perfectly clear blue skies," said David Wilson, who came to the park with friends.
David Wilson watches the solar eclipse on Monday afternoon in Kitchener's Victoria Park. (Ieva Lucs/CBC)
The sky darkened and many say they felt a drop in temperature. Despite the dusk-like haze that was cast over the park, the majority of onlookers had their eclipse safety glasses to take in the celestial event.
For Michael Darien, 54, this wasn't his first time experiencing an eclipse.
"The last eclipse in Kitchener-Waterloo was amazing, it was a full eclipse," he recalled. "It was 20 something years ago."
Many could be seen wearing their eclipse protective glasses to watch the celestial event. (Karis Mapp/CBC)
Though a near-total eclipse could be seen in Kitchener, many traveled to locations to see full totality.
The Hamilton-Niagara region was a prime viewing area in Canada and thousands of visitors traveled there to watch the historic event.
This family from Waterloo traveled to Port Stanley for a better view of the eclipse. (Kate Dubinski/CBC)
