While it may have been cloudy in Niagara Falls, the total solar eclipse was even more visible here in Hamilton, where sunny skies made for a better view.
In the city east end, there was a smaller crowd than expected at a viewing party at Tim Hortons Field, but the eclipse didn’t disappoint.
Just after 3 p.m. Monday afternoon at Tim Hortons Field there were cheers, excitement and a lot of smiles.
“It was the most amazing experience ever, just the dawn of new things,” one spectator said.
“It was just incredible, the feeling, just the overwhelming feeling, the goosebumps. I got goosebumps, not because it’s cold but just because it was incredible,” another person said.
But before totality happened, it was a cloudy afternoon in Hamilton’s east end.
Slowly, the sun started to eventually break out, and people put their glasses on to see the partial eclipse.
“It’s pretty red right now with the outline, but you can see like a quarter of it covered by the moon which just looks incredible,” one of the viewers of the partial eclipse said.
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Many people from all over the GTHA made their way into Hamilton to view the event, and they all had their own reason why.
“I’ve been wanting to see this for a long time, back in like January I was like ‘we got to go to Hamilton for this’,” another viewer said.
“This is magic, and this is the best way that I know how to connect to the earth. We need to honour what happens, so I think it’s really incredibly exciting”
Hamilton Mayor Andrea Horwath was also in attendance.
“It was so exciting because we really didn’t expect to see much with the cloud cover,” Horwath said.
“And then as things progressed, the clouds started to dissipate and the crowds started to grow, and we got the most fantastic show in… well a century.”
READ MORE: Solar eclipse observers react to afternoon darkness in Niagara Falls