The rare occasion of a partial solar eclipse over Cochrane had people seeking ways to safely view the heavenly phenomenon and some were even willing to share the experience with others.

Among those was West Cochrane resident Darren Hill, who set up his telescope, equipped with a safe white light filter, on his front lawn to the delight of over a dozen people who dropped by to witness the almost perfect alignment of the sun, moon and earth.

A partial eclipse hasn't occurred here for 38 years and many stopped by to looked through the telescope and take keepsake photographs, thanks to his setup.  

Hill has been gazing at the wonders of our skies for about 14 years after his wife purchased him a telescope and got him hooked. He's continued to upgrade over the years and now is about $6,000 into the hobby.He's quick to point out there are many others who invest much more time and money, but to him if it gets to the point where it becomes work it would eclipse the fun.

Hill doesn't do much solar gazing and instead focuses upon other celestial delights and he gets the itch when the conditions are right.

"Everytime there's a clear night out and there's not a full moon in the sky, I'm usually keeping an eye on the weather forecast and trying to head out somewhere," says Hill.

Light pollution makes it challenging to do astrophotography in Cochrane. 

"I think the maximum exposure you can do in the Cochrane town is usually about one to two minutes before the light pollution starts to wash out the sky pretty badly, whereas if you are in a true dark sky location you can  exposure for five to 10 minutes as long as your mount is tracking the sky properly."

He is pleased with some of his time lapses and has had good response when he posts them online.

"I've done a number of time lapses of the meteor showers and Northern Lights and such and put them online and I've actually had some good success with those."

 It was just shy of an 80 per cent eclipse and the moon began its pass to block the sun around 10:20 a.m. and reached its maximum coverage at 11:33 a.m. before completing its pass by12:50 p.m.

Solar eclipses aren't rare if you look at it from a global perspective. Worldwide there are two annually and the next is on February. 15, 2018. We won't see it here, though. In fact the next partial ecilpse won't be visible from the Calgary area until October 14, 2023. The last one visible from here prior to yesterday was in 1979.

Many found ways to safely view the eclipse around here and the Glenbow Ranch Provincial Park was one of the places hosting public viewings.