Solar Eclipse chasers

This guy needs to stick it where the sun don't shine - o wait.

posted by a local on FB:

These are things I have either heard people say or seen posted re the eclipse:

"Will cell phones still work?" (at VD)

"There won't be another one for 830 years." (facebook)

"Are you guys worried about shortages? Everything will be closed for a while cause of the eclipse, so people are going to stock up on food and water." (Kiva checkout line)

"How many days will it be dark for?" (at VD)

"Make sure you charge your phone Sunday night, because the grid will go down." (at VD)

"They're going to charge $25 per person for everyone who is outside for it, and all those people from other states are coming here because there's no sales tax in Oregon." (in line at ATM near Saturday Market)

"I'm requesting to take Monday, 8/21 off because it will be way too dangerous to come to work." (VD)

"All the computers will stop working, so get your cash out of the bank before it starts." People I was eavesdropping on by river)

"It's going to be 100% dark! Nobody will be able to see unless they wear special glasses." (Friend's mom)

"Cats and dogs need to be kept indoors or they will go blind." (At VD)

also re: an "Eclipse Party" - "my kids are in school that day, can it be postponed?"

http://time.com/4902109/total-eclipse-of-the-heart-bonnie-tyler-cruise/

i'm thinking about a spur of the moment all-day drive to see eclipse in nebraska, a little near omaha. any denizens in the area know of traffic snarls or other concerns?

traffic already backed up for 14 miles in central Oregon

http://www.bendbulletin.com/localstate/5523721-151/eclipse-traffic-already-backing-up-begin-in-central

i like that this dude in the 1st post was already cognizant of the upcoming 1

The next one in the States won't happen until 2017, I think.. and it's only going to brush the Northwest.
― Brian MacDonald, Sunday, October 28, 2001 8:00 PM (fifteen years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

keep chasing that darkness, brian

i'm thinking about a spur of the moment all-day drive to see eclipse in nebraska, a little near omaha. any denizens in the area know of traffic snarls or other concerns?

Keep an eye on @Nebraska511 on Twitter. It's the Nebraska Dept. of Transportation and they're updating. There's also phone apps.

(on my way to Alliance, Nebraska in the western part of the state)

things I have either heard people say or seen posted re the eclipse: "Will cell phones still work?"

This one has a sort of tangential relevance, at least here in Oregon. Near the path of totality there will be far more people than normal, no more cell towers than before, and much of this combination will occur in highly rural areas. The cell phone capacity is likely going to be totally overwhelmed.

"Are you guys worried about shortages? Everything will be closed for a while cause of the eclipse, so people are going to stock up on food and water." (Kiva checkout line)

people are totally stocking up on food and water. everybody has gone batshit crazy about this for the past week. at my workplace we've gotten special emails about how to prepare for the emergency, with stuff talking about the power grid going out, nobody being able to get anywhere, etc., etc. it's not like there are a whole hell of a lot of roads that will take you to salem.

I'm drunk in a Nebraska cattle pasture. AMA.

So, then, everything's just fine for the nonce.

my house is in 99.6% coverage area. path of totality is 15 miles north. but that 15 miles could take a couiple hours to travel thx to traffic.

def the "once in a lifetime" opportunity appeals to me, and everything you read says "if you can get to totality, you MUST!" but i'm also wondering if i should avoid the stress and just enjoy 99.6% from the roof of my house.

thoughts, ilx?

i vote totality.

99.6%, but I'm not that excited by the whole thing anyway.

If you could do the 15 miles by bike I'd say totality. Wrap up a picnic basket and find a quiet spot if possible.

If not: 99,6%. You won't even notice the difference, really. I went to France with some buddies to see one, 15 years ago or so. We made a camping trip out of it which turned out to be memorable, one for the ages. And worth way more than the eclipse itself. We found a spot by a small lake. Went there an hour early - it was in the afternoon - and it was p magical to see all the birds and swans in the lake going to sleep again, thinking it was night. Then after an hour waking up again as if nothing happened, as if it's completely normal to sometimes have an extra 'night' during the day.

If anything, the effect of a solar eclipse is best seen in nature, in animals. So I'd advise a spot like that. It doubles your value and is much preferred to standing in a loud crowd going ooh and ahhh with their spex on.

and taking photos with a flash...

I love you but I've chosen totality.

I also saw the France one (18 years ago, if we're being precise) - instead of driving to Cornwall like everyone else (idiots!) we got Le Shuttle and watched it from a field just outside Amiens. A+ would gawp again etc

Ha, we were near Amiens! 18 years ago already, sheesh.

this eclipse glasses shortage business is totally bogus tho fwiw

Finally, all those oversized Amazon boxes reveal a purpose

http://i.imgur.com/UYuFldx.jpg

huge recall of glasses that a coffee chain was giving out, this will end well

Have ye ever tried blinking, but for longer.

Also holy shit @ sleeves overheard quotes. Poll that shit.

I got a refund and a "we can't guarantee these" for the glasses I got, but I looked at the uneclipsed sun with them for a few seconds at a time the other day and I think they'll be ok for my purposes -- just a few seconds every few minutes.

from a friend - "It turns out there are all types of fake eclipse viewing glasses. My mother the scientist called me yesterday to give me the tip of how to test whether you have safe eclipse glasses. Put on your glasses and look directly at a bare light bulb. If you can see the light bulb filament, they're no good, if you see darkness, you are good to view the sun. Keep your eyes safe!"

my house is in 99.6% coverage area. path of totality is 15 miles north. but that 15 miles could take a couiple hours to travel thx to traffic.

def the "once in a lifetime" opportunity appeals to me, and everything you read says "if you can get to totality, you MUST!" but i'm also wondering if i should avoid the stress and just enjoy 99.6% from the roof of my house.

thoughts, ilx?

― alpine static, Monday, August 21, 2017 3:10 AM (seven hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

can't beat the roof of your house imo

i have to work today but at least the astronomy department is hosting the eclipse party right outside the library where i work

we're a few hours from totality, i think we will have 80% here

I think I have one incandescent bulb left in the house.

"Nitrous Oxide while we climax and experience totality and conception, is OK with me."

the new Adam Ant single

http://i.imgur.com/cvTCQib.jpg

NASA Raw feeds https://www.nasa.gov/eclipselive/#NASA+TV+-+Eclipse+Views+(Raw+Feed)

i'm about to experience this the best possible way (i.e. w/ 30 excitable teenagers who don't know a whole lot about how the sky works)

Dying at sleeve's overheard quotes

Most popular guy at Homestead National Monument? Has to be @BillNye. He stopped by our NET table, but has been on the move! #Eclipse2017 pic.twitter.com/3kkt6KYO6X

— Dennis Kellogg (@Dennis_Kellogg) August 21, 2017

not in path of totality, don't care

we'll add that to not_good_enough.xls

92% or whatever in Seattle was reasonably cool, v satisfied with my eclipse, glad I didn't try to haul myself down to Salem

NASA feed couldn't even stay on the eclipse for the whole totality, kept breaking away to show us some random website. And went back to the presenters just as the sun was reappearing through the mountains. Pah.

92% here. Cloudless and dusky at 1:20.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RFVTWEVhxY8

I have decided that the funniest part of Trump going blind would be that he would NEVER admit that he went blind

— slackbot (@pareene) August 21, 2017

Here just south of Portland, we reached a maximum of about 99.5% occlusion, so we missed seeing the corona and having stars visible, as you get with totality. Still, it very cool. At the moment of max it was about as dusky as fifteen or twenty minutes after sunset, but only briefly. When the light came back, it seemed to do so very rapidly, because my brain had slowly adjusted to the light diminishing and was surprised by the sudden reversal.

Best observation of the day: the dappled sunshine that filtered through the trees and shone on the ground was all crescent-shaped as the moon occluded the sun, and when the moon had passed its max and began to move off, the crescent-shapes flipped over. Kind of like having a natural pin-hole viewer. Cool!

That's the bit I remember from the UK partial eclipse in 96, walking to the dentist with crescent shaped dapples.

it is incredible to me how bright the sun is, even at a distance of 93 million miles, even when it is more than 60% occluded as it was here

also keeping in mind that we only get about 0.00000005% of the sun's radiation

crescent shadow photo

here to report eclipses are really cool. it made a bunch of tiny half-moons (well ~actually~ half-suns) appear in this tree shadow! v neat pic.twitter.com/r2byoU4iaX

— Haley Byrd (@byrdinator) August 21, 2017

somewhat underwhelming in the northern climes :(