At the Canadian National Exhibition, a crowd of hundreds waited in line for eclipse glasses as the moon began to creep ahead of the sun. Red t-shirt-clad University of Toronto students stood in waiting, explaining the mechanics of the eclipse to viewers. Matt Russo, a theoretical astrophysicist at the university, pointed to the white space in their projectional telescope where the eclipse and sunspots, or dark patches, could be viewed in real-time. But other, simpler methods were being used across the lawn. Parents reminded their kids to shield their eyes with glasses as the excited call started to ring out around 1:15 p.m. “It’s starting!” Like a bite out of an apple, viewers could see a small black semicircle beginning to cut into the still-bright sun. Audrey Diamantakos and Travis Vrbos, a pair of students on the lawn, showed up around 11 a.m. to beat the lines and get their hands on viewing glasses. Dimantakos called the day a “once in a lifetime chance.” Their sentiment was echoed by viewer Bob Wegner, who was mesmerized by the opportunity. “Carl Sagan once said that 99 per cent of us die without knowing our place in the cosmos,” Wegner said. “Days like this are an opportunity for those seeds to be planted to take an interest in astronomy.”While photographers snapped away, Christine Chung sat beneath a tree in the grass and sketched the sun and the moon`s progression, marking the time with each new drawing. Chung said she just wanted to document the moment.
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