The show is open from October 4, to November 7. The opening is on Saturday, October 18 from 2pm-4pm

James Wilson

James Wilson is a fine art photographer living and working from his home based studio in Hampton, New Brunswick. His art works are in many public, corporate, and private collections throughout North America and Europe. He specializes in large format rural landscapes, still-life, and natural-light black and white studio portraits which he calls “Social Studies”. He has been teaching photography and mentoring people on the art of the medium internationally for 19 years, with annual workshops in Mexico, Italy, and Japan.

“…My approach to making these photographs was not as a scientist, but as an artist. So I experimented slightly to explore different effects mostly through exposure changes and zooming in and out.

Properly exposing the image of the corona of the sun around the moon would stay white like one would naturally expect as shown in this first image. (Leftmost)

Underexposing the image the corona would take on a much warmer look which some might find more appealing as shown in the image. (#2)

There was a point when the corona expanded and as I remembered it seemed to have a slight cyan colour. (#3)

This is a classic shot that eclipse photographers try to always get when the sun is slightly exiting its hidden stat behind the moon with a bright flare. It’s called the ‘Diamond Ring Shot’. (#4)

This image I took just after putting my solar eclipse filter back on the camera lens. It exaggerated the flaring of the sun coming out from behind the moon and added more drama to the event. (Rightmost)” -James Wilson

“Total solar eclipses are very rare occurrences for any given spot on Earth…Prior to 8th April, 2024, the last total solar eclipse in central New Brunswick happened in 932! Therefore, since the last total solar eclipse in Central NB has been more than 1000 years ago, and that the path of 2024 totality went through Central Carleton County, a special effort was mounted to bring this to the attention of the community and nation. However, there was a potential problem: there was a 70% probability that it would be cloudy on the day of the eclipse. Therefore, a project was started to send a stratospheric balloon above any clouds to observe the eclipse.” -David Hunter

Science Engineering Team for the Total Solar Eclipse Balloon Project

David Hunter, BSc, MSc

In his professional life he was involved in the development of high resolution X-ray digital mammography systems based on the material amorphous selenium. This work was conducted at the University of Toronto and the affiliated Sunnybrook Research Institute. He has had a long standing interest in physics, astronomy, meteorology, and electronics, which all contributed to the development of the Total Solar Eclipse Balloon Project.

Lewis Cobb, MSc

An Electrical Engineer from the University of New Brunswick, his career is in industrial microcontroller system design and he was involved in contributions pertaining to 3D modeling, 3D printing, and CNC routing.

Stephen Downward, BCS

A graduate of the University of New Brunswick, he worked in communications, programming, and electronics.

Dr. Don Plewes, Phd

Professor Emeritus from the Department of Medical Biophysics of the University of Toronto, his contributions related to the engineering design of the project testing, analysis and mathematics, and general advice.

Tom Sisk, MSc

A retired Electrical Engineer who worked at NB Power, Irving, and Coleson Cove, contributed to the engineering design of the project and payload, as well as general advice.

Ken Strauss, MSc

A retired Electrical Engineer who worked with Comshare and Ontario Hydro made contributions related to the mechanical design and testing of the Balloon Solar Eclipse Project.

University of New Brunswick Student Engineering Team

UNB Liaison and Faculty

    Troy Lavigne, Project Officer, Electrical and Computer Engineering, UNB

    Andy Simoneau, Chair, Department of Mechanical Engineering, UNB 

UNB Engineering Student Project Group 1

    Roshan Peri

    Savishta Rattun

    Jacob Snider

    Benjamin Thomson

UNB Engineering Student Project Group 2

    Ethan Albert Garnier

    Spencer Frederick Gowlett

    Alex Thomas Johnson

    Zachary Michael Titus

UNB Engineering Student Project Group 3

    Olivia DeMerchant

    Zachary Demerson

    Matthew Snell

    Zoe Devries

To learn more about the Total Solar Eclipse Balloon Project, click the button below.