Solar Eclipse chasers

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