I’ve seen 4 Total Solar Eclipses and one Transit of Venus. I’m just as excited about this on as I was for the first. If you don’t like it, stay home.
Yeah, Mr. White!!!
A sufficient number of blood sacrifice will bring the sin back.
Now, now: no pouting. This thread is mostly in jest, although my rant is real.
I strongly recommend that everyone stay indoors so that they are not mutated by this event.
To the OP: Be patient. It will all be over a week from now. There will be nothing left except pictures, video, and memories.
Yes, we must all stay inside with the blinds pulled down. Haven’t you people seen Day of the Triffids? Or read the book? The triffids will take over after we’ve all been blinded by the solar eclipse!
(Yes, I know that was a meteor shower, not an eclipse. But I think the triffids might be behind all those cheapo eclipse glasses that are NOT CERTIFIED BY NASA and will result in your retinas being fried like a flour tortilla.)
I have always thought that this response is the stupidest one possible.
You can say the same thing about any event.
is there nothing you like to experience first-hand?
My boss is very excited about the eclipse. Me, not so much. And when I told the boss my opinion, she went all lunar and blocked my raise.
I’m just jealous of everyone who lives in the direct path. When this started cropping up in the news a few months back I looked at the track and thought “Wow, that’s not too far to drive from Jersey”
And that is still true, but everybody on the East Coast will be thinking similar thoughts, and it’s unlikely that I would be able to get there and back.
I’ll be at work in my basement, as usual.
ETA: I have been looking forward to this eclipse ever since the 1979 eclipse where the teachers wouldn’t let us out of the classroom for a peek. “2017” seemed like another world back then.
Some years ago somebody on this board* said that he’d been to the Grand Canyon and, “It was just this big hole in the ground.” He was pretty well excoriated by a lot of folk.
*I don’t remember who and wouldn’t give his name here even if I did.
It wasn’t me (at least I don’t think it was), but I was totally underwhelmed by the Grand Canyon. I far prefer stuff like Arches, Horseshoe Bend, Antelope Canyon, Yellowstone, etc. I can totally understand someone just assessing the Grand Canyon as “just this big hole in the ground.” Of course, one can reduce any of the places I just listed in a similarly pithy way if they wanted to. But, yeah, for me a total eclipse is the coolest natural phenomenon I’ve ever witnessed.
The coolest thing I remember about the eclipse is how the sun starts to disappear, then there’s just a tiny sliver of it left, and then BAMMMMM!!! it bursts into a ring of fire. You can see the effect here. It’s freaking surreal and completely surprising, if you’re not expecting it. It looks like it’s going to just settle into a completely black disk when, wham!, all of a sudden you get all this light surrounding the sun, like somebody just flicked a light switch. This is what I mean by there’s no comparing a total eclipse to a 99% eclipse or an annular eclipse. I’m just praying we get clear skies in Clarksville, TN, when the day comes.
Yeah, I was lucky enough to be right smack dab in the middle of one back around 1970, and it was awesome. I was in Jr High at the time, so I probably wouldn’t have been aware if tourists were flocking to the area, but I don’t remember quite the hype we are seeing today.
Worth seeing once in your lifetime, for sure.
I haven’t spent the last year drinking spinach juice and taking vitamins that look like a cross between Raisinets and a rat turd to protect my retinas just so I can fry the damned things on some damned sun and moon fancy tricks.
Actually, I do think the eclipse will be pretty cool, but I have to protect my eyes if I don’t want to go the way of my dad. I plan on watching all the people watching the eclipse, but I will not be looking at the sun myself.
Is it worth seeing if you won’t get totality? Like, will there be anything besides a bit of a shadow in front of the sun?
It’s marginally interesting, but I found solar eclipses pretty meh until I saw a total eclipse. It’s just completely different.
Looks like I’ll be stuck in Chicago with something less than totality. I wonder if any of the 360 VR streams will be worth streaming. I guess I’ll dust off the Samsung VR and make sure it still works with my mothballed phone.
I remember the solar eclipse in February 1979 - I was in Kindergarten and they kept us all in for lunch and had the curtains drawn across the windows.
I’m only agreeing with the OP because I am absolutely terrified of accidentally looking at it and blinding myself. It’s scheduled to happen during my lunch break so I’ll probably stay inside at my cubicle being paranoid until it’s over.