Juliana Monsalve shrieked and gripped onto her friends as the group of students at Bishop’s University pulled off their eclipse glasses and whipped out their phones to capture the total solar eclipse as the moon covered the sun and darkened the skies in Sherbrooke, Que.
“What is happening,” she cried.
“I’m shaking right now. I’m still shaking just because I never would have thought that I would get to experience something like this.”
Her friend, Ruth Aluha, said she felt the energy shift.
“This is my second total eclipse and I could say that it’s even better than the first. It’s something everyone should experience. I’m very grateful to be here.”
The moon’s shadow bathed Sherbrooke in darkness for nearly three and a half minutes, making it one of the areas that experienced the longest totality, the full blocking of the sun’s light.
It made parts of southern Quebec a hub for those looking skyward.
Fellipe and Manuela Thurler were farther from home and got emotional as they looked up into the darkened skies in Sherbrooke.
The father daughter duo from Rio de Janeiro had never been to the Eastern Townships before but started planning their journey a month ago after finding out that Sherbrooke would be one of the best places on Earth for Monday’s phenomenon.
It took nearly 14 hours of travel.
‘It’s not easy coming from Brazil,” joked Fellipe Thurler.
“We love these kinds of phenomena. In October, we watched an annular eclipse in Brazil and we decided to come here to watch the total eclipse.”
U.S. residents headed north for optimal experience
As forecast by Environment and Climate Change Canada last week, the skies were clear in southern Quebec and the weather is mild, with highs of 16 in Montreal and 15 in much of the Eastern Townships.
“It was amazing,” said Brian Mcfarland. “It gave us a place to come and be with a lot of other people.”
He drove from Boston to Sherbrooke with Yun Lester. While they both saw the 2017 eclipse, Lester says this edition was more impressive.
“This was way more incredible,” said Lester. “We diverted to come up here literally on Thursday, last minute.”
She says it was worth it and that she might even look into travelling to Spain in 2026 for the next total solar eclipse.
It wasn’t just the path of the eclipse that made the Townships so prized today.
“On the path of totality today, we are one of the few spots that has a zero chance of clouds,” said Dominic Denault Pilon earlier on Monday.
One of the co-ordinators for Éclipse Estrie and operator of Bishop’s University telescopes, Denault Pilon set up five telescopes across Bishop’s University campus for the visitors.
He says he has been working toward this day for two years and has visited schools across southern Quebec to help get kids prepared and know what to expect.
Josiah Lim, 8, travelled with his family from New Jersey to see his first eclipse. They were among those who changed their travel plans to head to southern Quebec after seeing the weather forecast in parts of the U.S.
Lim says he has been learning about what to expect by watching TV.
“There were scientists talking about it,” said Lim. “The moon blocks the sun and then we can see the corona.”
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David Phillips, senior climatologist at Environment Canada, says Quebecers won the lottery in terms of the best viewing conditions for the much-anticipated total solar eclipse.
Frumie Shelchen and Doug McVicar from Wonalancet, New Hampshire, wanted to travel to a city to experience the eclipse in a group.
“We were looking for a place that was right in the path of totality,” said McVicar.
“This is going to be like theatre or a sports event.”
‘A religious experience’
Jean-Louis Heudier, an astronomer from Nice in France, was invited to Bishop’s as a lecturer ahead of the eclipse.
“It will be my fourth total eclipse,” said Heudier.
He says every eclipse feels different and that people looking skyward might even find themselves getting emotional.
“It’s so surprising that when you’ve seen one, you want to see another one.”
“It’s like a religious experience,” says Jake Capalan, who is from Los Angeles.
He says he cried when witnessing the 2017 eclipse.
“If you think about it, we’re just living at this time in history where the moon fills up the entire sun and we have the science and mathematics and knowledge to know where to be to actually witness that,” said Capalan.
“There’s just something magical about that.”
Reflecting on the experience moments after the eclipse, Bishop’s student Juliana Monsalve said she’ll forever remember this moment.
“I’ll keep this in my heart,” said Monsalve.
“It makes it so emotional because, as you guys saw, we kind of had the same reaction — just screaming — because what else are you supposed to do?”
CBC Montreal is gathering video of how people are watching the eclipse for a project on this once-in-a-lifetime event we are all experiencing together. We’re looking for video of what you do during those minutes of totality.
You can send it to videoquebec@cbc.ca, or tag us on Tiktok or Insta @cbcmontreal. We will credit all the video we use in our final production and you will be able to see it later in the day.
Reminder, you should not look at the eclipse with the naked eye or try and record it with your unprotected phone.