Chris Shortall, from Osoyoos, marvels at the eclipse as it passes its peak and the sun reappears. (Richard McGuire photo)

There weren’t enough protective glasses to go around, but that didn’t stop an estimated 500 people from enjoying a view of a rare solar eclipse at Desert Park on Monday.

People shared glasses and some tried other methods of viewing the eclipse, including making pinhole cameras, projecting the image through cards, making improvised viewers with solar filtration materials and even trying out a welder’s helmet.

“We originally planned for about 250 people and that was based on how many of those viewing glasses we could find,” said Bruce Fuller, president of the Desert Park Exhibition Society, which organized the event.

“But people were just phoning and phoning and phoning, so we thought we would just open it up and feed as many as we could,” he continued. “And it’s worked out very well. Everyone was sharing glasses and making their own. We set up a table for people to make their own and that’s worked out very well.”

Fuller said the feedback from visitors was “terrific” and many people had never visited Desert Park before.

“That’s one of the things we want to do is expose Desert Park to people, so that’s worked out,” Fuller said.

Mark Tupper, from Osoyoos, said he brought his daughter to the event and both were impressed.

They couldn’t obtain tickets, which would have provided the much sought-after glasses, but they were lucky enough to get some glasses from some people who were leaving, allowing them to watch part of the eclipse.

“It was amazing,” said Tupper. “Just the difference in the daylight. It was almost like a dimmer, but just a completely different kind of light.”

Michael Spangler was down from Edmonton for a wedding, but he made a point of coming out to view the eclipse with a pinhole camera he made.

“It was great,” he said. “It’s such a beautiful place here. It did get cooler (during the eclipse), which was surprising. It’s also surprising how much light there still was (at the peak of the eclipse).”

At its peak, the moon covered about 90 per cent of the sun – less than the coverage of the total eclipse that crossed the United States, but more than most other locations in Canada.

Tamara Niemi, also from Edmonton, flew down to Kelowna on Sunday specially to see the eclipse and she met Spangler, who is a friend.

“I was super impressed by it,” she said. “I was here 30 years ago for a Mount Kobau star party, but I haven’t been here in 30 years. I wanted to be as close to the full eclipse as I could be. I wasn’t going to miss this one.”

Like many others, Niemi couldn’t obtain a ticket that would have got her the glasses, but she was lucky enough to obtain a broken pair that allowed her to view the eclipse using only her right eye.

“It worked really well,” Niemi said. “And I love this kind of community. It’s beautiful. And I hope they do more here (at Desert Park).”

RICHARD McGUIRE

Osoyoos Times

A composite photo shows the sun at different stages of a solar eclipse as the moon passes in front of it on August 21, 2017. (Richard McGuire photo)

Colton MacPhee, 10, tried out a welder’s helmet to view the eclipse. (Richard McGuire photo)

Evelyn Giesbrecht and Trudy Hanratty tried viewing the eclipse with pinhole camera made from shoe boxes. The images of the sun were pretty small. (Richard McGuire photo)

Jacob Berg, 10, who came down from Kelowna to watch the eclipse, was one of the lucky ones to get a pair of eclipse viewing glasses. (Richard McGuire photo)

Singer Mat Duffus provided musical entertainment as the eclipse started to unfold. (Richard McGuire photo)

Because eclipse glasses were in short supply, a table with materials was set up with materials for people to make their own eclipse viewers. Some people made pinhole cameras and projectors and others made viewers will multiple layers of window tinting sheets. (Richard McGuire photo)

Michael Spangler, from Edmonton, was in Osoyoos anyway for a wedding, but he used a pinhole camera made from a cracker box to view the eclipse. (Richard McGuire photo)

Steven Theimer and Shantal Iverson used a giant pinhole camera. Shantal lifted her daughter, Serenity, 7, for a look at the image of the eclipse on the bottom of their device. They came down from Penticton for the event at Desert Park. (Richard McGuire photo)

Shannon Culbert, from High River, Alta., watches as the sun starts to grow again after the eclipse passes its peak. (Richard McGuire photo)

Liz Esquivias, from Mexico, watched the eclipse using an improvised viewer together with a group of others from Mexico and a few other Latin American countries. (Richard McGuire photo)