It’s Aug. 14, 2003, shortly after 4 p.m., and Todd Carlson is lying on his sofa in Goodwood, Ont., about 60 kilometres northeast of Toronto, when the power goes out. At first, he doesn’t think much of it. Maybe it’s a local transformer issue.

But then something occurs to him. What if this lasts into the night?

“Ten seconds later, it hit me: this could be good for the selfish astronomy guy,” he said.

The sky was clear, the atmosphere was stable and the lights were out. It was an astronomer’s dream.

The power didn’t come back any time soon. Instead, it was knocked out in parts of Ontario and the U.S. northeast and Midwest for hours. In some places, the blackout lasted two days. While cities like Toronto, New York and Cleveland were bogged down in traffic congestion and chaos, Carlson was in his element.