Video produced by Blair Stunder  illustrates  how the eclipse will look in Prince George.

Prince George, B.C.-  Monday morning, Prince George will  be able to see a partial eclipse.

In Prince George ,  watchers will  see the moon start  to move in  front of the sun  at 9:17  Monday morning, and  will  reach maximum coverage around 10:25  “We will see  abut 70% of the sun’s surface eclipsed by the moon” says Blair Stunder,  President of the Royal Astronomical Society- Prince George Centre.  “That’s actually a  fair bit” says Sunder  “a lot of times  you only get 50%  depending  how far off the central line you are.”

Stunder says the  event will  end  11:40  Monday  morning.  “It will take about two hours and maximum (coverage)  will be around 10:20- 10:30 in the morning.”

Stunder says  even if there are smoky skies  or  low level cloud cover,  people should notice the effects of the eclipse “It will noticeably  dim,  so by around  10:30 in the morning it ( daylight) will have dimmed out.”

Stunder will be heading to the United States,  where  central States will experience a total eclipse. “For the continental United States,   the last  (full) eclipse was 99 years ago and  the next 10 years  there will be seven total eclipses ( around the globe).  We are going through an alignment phase and Australia will  see three of them in seven years,  there will be another one across the United States  from Mazatlán  to  Newfoundland  on April 8th of 2024.”

It will be  another  20 years later   when North eastern BC will  be  closest to a centre line path  and  able to  see a near full eclipse,  on August 23rd, 2044.

Of course,  one should never  look directly at the eclipse without proper  eye protection. NASA  advises one of the  widely available filters  for safe viewing is a number 14  welder’s glass.  Viewing the eclipse without a filter  puts  you at risk of permanent eye damage.