What is the Ballon Project About?
The Balloon Solar Eclipse Project is pleased to announce that it will project images from its high-altitude balloon to 5 different locations in the Western Valley of New Brunswick as follows:
- Florenceville-Bristol: Northern Carleton Civic Centre, 40 McCain Street
- Woodstock: McCain Community Theatre, Woodstock High School, 144 Connell Park Road
- Hartland: Hartland Community School – Cafetorium, 217 Rockland Road
- Perth-Andover: The River Valley Civic Centre, 11 School Street
- Plaster Rock: Tobique-Plex, 159 Main Street
The Balloon Solar Eclipse Project, with Bell Canada’s assistance as Partner to the project, will relay live images of the total solar eclipse back to earth. Teams at each location will provide on-site assistance as well as the audio-visual projection of the relayed images.
Everyone is welcome to watch these images of the eclipse from one of the locations above. This is a FREE viewing event for the public to enjoy and remember! Doors to each location will open at 2:30 pm, with images beginning at 3:30 pm. There will be a narrator at each location to provide context and describe the content of the images from the six different cameras showing the sun, the earth, and the horizon, providing epic views from above. If the sky is clear, everyone will be encouraged to go outside around the time of totality to see it themselves.
The solar balloon will launch privately from the Amsterdam Inn grounds in Florenceville-Bristol at approximately 3:30 pm on April 8th, as the moon starts covering the sun. Totality will occur at 4:32 pm and will end after about 4 minutes, so the images will finish around 4:45-5 pm.
This volunteer effort to capture live images of a total eclipse of the sun is the first time a non-governmental group has attempted such a feat. The last time there was a total eclipse of the sun in central New Brunswick was in the year 932, so this is a rare opportunity to experience one of nature’s most spectacular events!
