An event being held at Desert Park in Osoyoos for the eclipse on Monday has sold out, but organizers are promising not to turn away anyone at the gates.
鈥淲e鈥檙e the kind of folk who want to do everything possible to welcome people to our facilities,鈥� said Desert Park president Bruce Fuller. 鈥淚f folks are prepared to work with us a little, we鈥檙e prepared to make a full house work.鈥�
Desert Park had set a limit of 250 attendees for its special Science of the Sun brunch and celebration, scheduled for Aug. 21 to coincide with the Great American Solar Eclipse.
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The 250-limit was based on the number of viewing glasses available to Desert Park for the event. The glasses are mandatory for a safe look at the sun.
鈥淲e鈥檝e had a large number of people disappointed they couldn鈥檛 get tickets for the event, so we did a little research, put some minds to work and came up with some additional viewing options,鈥� said Fuller.
Those options, he explained, include the creation of viewing cards and eclipse viewing boxes.
鈥淥ur team will be busy over the weekend putting together as many of these viewing tools as we can.鈥�
Desert Park is also inviting anyone who has their own viewing glasses 鈥� or is prepared to make their own viewing box 鈥� to join the party.
鈥淲e may not be able to serve a big breakfast to you, but we are planning to have at least a continental offering for those who didn鈥檛 purchase tickets,鈥� Fuller said. 鈥淎nd children attending can still participate in the educational component.鈥�
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Between 9 a.m. and noon on Monday, the moon, the sun and Earth will align in an almost perfectly straight line and the moon will cast its shadow on Earth. From Osoyoos, it will look like the moon has taken a 90 per cent bite out of the sun.
The Park鈥檚 Science of the Sun event will be especially geared to youngsters 鈥� offering a fun, affordable, educational way to fully appreciate the solar eclipse. Admission to the event for those who haven鈥檛 already secured tickets will be by donation.
The event will result in an almost total loss of sunlight 鈥� which can cause the temperature to drop 10 or more degrees 鈥� while the change in lighting will makes shadows look sharper on the ground.
Outside of the continental United States, Osoyoos is among the very best places to view the eclipse.
For more information about the event, visit osoyoosdesertpark.com.
