Solar Eclipse chasers

the sublime majesty of the totality was slightly tainted by everyone in our neighborhood blasting off fireworks for the entire time but still a good show overall. absentmindedly glanced at it unprotected for a moment like a moron but dont appear to have gone blind yet as far as i can tell

it was already overcast and then at peak time -3:08 - it was p indistinguishable ( i never know how to spell that wd) from moments prior.
the 2017 eclipse was something to behold

I feel like it was only in the couple of minutes leading up to the totality that I really noticed any difference really (other than by looking at the sun with my glasses), so I guess you really need >95% to really start having noticeable changes to darkness and temperature.

xp

^^^^ Yes, here as well; peaked just over an hour ago, as foretold. Sky was full of grim cloud cover since morning, but cleared to blue skies after noon.

(86% here, no perceptual darkness)

It was definitely a lot darker here. As if someone attached a dimmer switch to the sun

97% eclipse in Washington I think, it got pretty dim. I saw a sliver of sunlight hit a power line, and for that moment, the powerline was just...so...beautiful (tearing up because I gave myself cataracts looking at the sun).

it definitely got dim and shadowy here. like me.

Will the real dim shady please stand up ..

95% in Boston, apparently, but really the darkness was barely noticeable (I didn't use special glasses, was just sitting in the yard waiting for the gloom to envelope me.) If you hadn't known about the eclipse you'd have just assumed some random cloud cover passed over.

you guys, it looked really cool. 90% or whatever. and i hate everything.

Clear skies but only 50% coverage in SoCal, though I still noticed a change in the light (not so much darker, but oddly "different," like approaching dusk but without any of the golden-ness of dusk). I work next to an animal shelter and the dogs were barking more than usual.

i think i got too much sun though. i should know better than to go outside. i feel woozy.

It's very cloudy in Austin, and the clouds peaked right for me right at the point of total eclipse. Still, I was able to catch a few seconds of it, and quite a lot of partial eclipse before and after. Got a whole bunch of cool videos on my phone.

the dimness did have an ominous feel to it. but maybe i was imagining that.

It felt sort of like how you feel before you faint or pass out.

91% occlusion here. It was too cloudy to see the disc, but it got dark enough for the streetlights to come on. My wife and daughter were at a park in Conway AR with mostly clear skies and said it was amazing.

The peak here (NYC) was 90%, which was enough to give the light outside a kind of eerie quality. I think it's because the light was dimmer than usual, but the spectrum of light was whiter, like when the sun is directly overhead, rather than the redder light typical of sunsets and sunrises (when its light passes through more of the earth's atmosphere).

Yeah that's a good point, it was stilly fully and recognizably daylight out but it wasn't any yellower. But yeah that 10% that we weren't occluded made it almost unnoticeable. It's remarkable that we normally get 90% more sun exposure than that and it feels almost the same (to a person) but makes a huge difference to the natural world and the available energy.

Even with the cloud cover, it was pretty cool in Rochester. From the George Eastman House: https://www.facebook.com/reel/410729598372567

ok so here in ne Knoxville the eclipse lacked luster. we were 89% totality here. I guess that 11% matters

It definitely does - I found this video from 2017 just to get an idea what totality would be like and at the end the guy mentions how even the smallest sliver of sun makes a huge difference (and you see it by how fast everything darkens and lights up - it’s not very gradual, it's surprisingly fast).

yeah, they said the shadow travels around 1,500 miles per hour on the ground

It's really cool how some of the accounts I found from lifelong chasers talk about how various animals react differently. Like bees will suddenly swarm back to their hive, cows will start walking back to the barn, some marine mammals will pop up to the surface and kind of look around, and of course the crickets start chirping...next total eclipse passes through Spain (between Madrid and Barcelona) and Iceland in 2026 and I think a year after that it'll pass through Spain again. I've been meaning to go to Iceland someday and have been hoping to go back to Spain soon so who knows, would be great to make that work.

I was surprised to learn that total eclipses happen 2-5 times every year, but rarely over such a populated path as today

IM me if UR a fellow millennial who read Edward Bloor's Tangerine in eight grade and were left wondering (after the big reveal) if it might actually be okay to look directly at the sun without protection during an eclipse

I spent this eclipse (Southern New Hampshire, 97% obscuration) sitting alone in the middle of a town hall green and looking at the sun every few minutes through a cardboard pinhole camera. I got a barebones view of the progression and noted a slight dimness/chill, but overall it was kind of a bummer, and I was mostly just disappointed that I didn't have the foresight to get the special glasses. I looked directly at the sun for a second during peak coverage, but the only impression I got was "IT BRIGHT". oh well

Already scheming on getting out to Spain for that 2026 one.

at the end the guy mentions how even the smallest sliver of sun makes a huge difference (and you see it by how fast everything darkens and lights up - it’s not very gradual, it's surprisingly fast).

Yes, that's what I found in the moment of totality. Just the shift from 99.5% to 100% coverage seemed incredibly dramatic. The light on the horizons was amazing too, like simultaneous sunsets in both directions.

I didn't even realize until getting there that when the sun is fully covered, it's safe to take off your glasses and look at the eclipse.

It definitely does - I found this video from 2017 just to get an idea what totality would be like and at the end the guy mentions how even the smallest sliver of sun makes a huge difference (and you see it by how fast everything darkens and lights up - it’s not very gradual, it's surprisingly fast).

― birdistheword, Monday, April 8, 2024 6:05 PM (forty-two minutes ago)

if you've ever tried to blackout curtain your bedroom because you're very sensitive to light...

Made it to just SE of Llano, Texas and watched it from the side of the road. That wall of dark that comes at you is something - birds were restless, the wind kicked up

Little late posting this, but this is pretty cool: weirdest things that happen during a total solar eclipse.

This is hilarious:

“It turns out that Galapagos tortoises had a remarkable reaction,” Hartstone-Rose says. “Right at the moment of totality, they started mating behaviour. As in, they literally started breeding in front of everybody, before our eyes.”

it's from the Daily Mail so you know it's been well-researched

Americans suffering from 'eclipse sickness', including insomnia, headaches and changes to women's periods

* Eclipse sickness has been used to explain weird side effects of the event
* People have also reported feeling more anxious and emotional

(strangely, I had a bout of insomnia last night which is not all that common for me)

I think i have it. I changed into a locust.

My wife and daughter have a hotel room in Little Rock tonight, but my wife's cousin had to get back to Birmingham for a work meeting. It took her four hours to get from LR to Memphis.

It doesn't look like fun over there.

https://i.imgur.com/RYelXVI.png

https://i.imgur.com/8mid9GK.png

My shot of the day.

https://i.imgur.com/AJNi0Bq.png

Memphis didn't get 100% totality, but Chip Somodevilla did get this:

https://i.imgur.com/WfMlcag.jpeg