The Maritime sky has been full of astronomical events this year. “It’s a little bit of just yearly sequences of things and it’s a little bit of coincidences and lucky opportunities,” explained Tiffany Fields, the astronomy technician at Saint Mary’s University (SMU). “Over the last couple of months, it’s been pretty exciting in terms of space stuff. The Persian meteor shower peaked in the middle of August. We had the partial solar eclipse on Aug. 12. We are having tonight a lunar eclipse. It is a partial lunar eclipse, but it’s almost total. And then indeed, there have been instances of northern lights being visible across Canada and maybe a little bit tonight as well, if we’re lucky.” CTV meteorologist Kalin Mitchell said conditions could be favorable for some to look up Thursday night. “The partial eclipse begins at around 11:33 p.m., and it reaches a maximum at around 1 a.m. or just after 1 a.m.,” he explained. “Conditions look okay for the Maritimes for tonight, there’ll be a few clouds around. It’s not going to be a perfectly clear night. “Some of the best few in conditions look like they’ll be in the province of New Brunswick, and maybe parts of the north and west in Nova Scotia, away from the Atlantic coastline, because I’m thinking there might be a little bit of fog, a little bit of low cloud that develops for coastal areas.” Fields added Maritimers can set an alarm to look outside. “You don’t have to watch the whole thing, but you’ll be able to observe the moon turning red from all of the sunrises and sunsets that are happening on Earth, all of that light being directed onto the moon,” she says. “So later tonight, definitely recommend you get up, have a look, and then go back to bed if you need to.” As for why Atlantic Canada is seeing more activity in the skies, it falls to the sun. “2026 has been really nice for a lot of Atlantic Canada with northern lights activity. So, we are at the peak of this solar cycle. The sun goes through 11-year periods of activity and then decreases and goes back up, we are just past the peak of activity. So, between 2024, 2025, 2026, we’re really seeing that peak solar activity,” explained Fields. “And it’s the activity from the sun, the sunspots, the coronal holes, the coronal mass ejections that travel across the solar system interact with our Earth’s magnetic field and atmosphere to cause those northern lights, and so increased sun activity, even though we’re sort of on the downtrend now of solar activity, we’re still near the peak. There’s still quite a bit.” “These are all predictable events that we can calculate,” added Tim Doucette, owner and operator of Deep Sky Eye Observatory just outside Yarmouth in Quinan, N.S. “And it just happens that, you know, we’ve lined up with the first meteor shower. We’ve got a solar eclipse that happened on the 12th at the same time. So, it’s just a predictable event that we can actually calculate and see in our night sky. And it just happens to be closer in the Maritimes this year.” While the past few years have been active with eclipses, tonight will be the last for a few years. “There’s no more solar or lunar eclipses planned for the rest of 2026,” said Fields. “And actually, the next good solar or lunar eclipses are not until 2029. So, it is still a little while before we have another repeat of what we’ve seen in August. It’ll be January and June 2029 before we get a good solar and lunar eclipse.” “I love when eclipses happen, the solar eclipses and the lunar eclipses, because it’s something that many people across a wide range of areas can experience together and share,” she added. “And it’s sort of the same for the northern lights. It’s this thing that’s happening in the sky that’s not just like localized to one small area or one small group of people.” Though eclipses may be gone for now, there are still going to be many reasons to continue looking up. “This this fall, of course, we got a whole bunch,” said Doucette. “We’ve got the Draconian meteor shower. One that’s actually kind of fun and it’s a fairly narrow window and area. And that’s the Jupiter moon occultation. So the moon will basically block Jupiter from our view for about an hour or so.” “That’s going to happen on Oct. 6. And that’ll be a fun thing to watch,” he added. “A lunar eclipse happens when you have the moon passing into the shadow of the Earth, sort of making our moon change color, if you will. And a Jupiter or an occultation is basically where the moon is blocking a planet or a star, from our view, for a short time.” As for how to watch tonight, all three were on the same page. “Anywhere, you can just stay in your bedroom,” said Fields. “If you’ve got a view of the moon through your window anywhere that you can see the moon is going to be perfect, but for the northern lights. Those individuals that are further north perhaps have a better chance. And with the northern lights, because there is a full moon tonight, even though there’s a lunar eclipse, and it will be dimmed because there’s a full moon; you really need to be sure that you’re somewhere way out of the city lights.” “Tonight’s lunar eclipse, for example, you can look at just with your eyes or a pair of binoculars. Cellphones now have a really great cameras that you can use to photograph the eclipse,” added Doucette. “And we’ve actually put a post up today that if people, you know have taken pictures, you know, leave it in our comment section and we’d love to see them.” “The aurora that’s forecast for tonight is a pretty moderate G2,” said Mitchell of the northern lights. “So, if we do see anything in the Maritimes, I would expect it’d be like a curtain aurora. So that’s a very faint aurora, very low on the northern horizon and best captured through things like digital photography, long duration kind of kind of pictures. I think we have a much better shot tonight of seeing some of the lunar eclipse.” For more Nova Scotia news, visit our dedicated provincial page
