My eclipse is full of eels.
Big spill of hagfish (sometimes called a slime eel, although it’s really not an eel) at Depoe Bay OR, which is just south of the centerline. From reports, the mucus these guys release is nasty stuff and will be stinking things up as it decomposes in the ditches alongside the road.
BTW, it’s actually a month plus a week until the big day.
My sisters and I had planned to meet mutual friends to view the eclipse in Beatrice Nebraska. But it sounds as if it will be overrun with people, and hard to get around.
My friend from Bellevue Nebraska says there’s a tiny town south of Auburn called Dawson. I mean, really a small place, but they drive through it a lot when going south to visit relatives. I checked it out and it sounds kind of cool. There is, of course, a Facebook page and it says a car dealership will be hosting a watch party. The following was part of their invitation:
*Join us while we await the end times in abject terror. Food, frivolity and drinks will be provided as long as the sun shines.
Conveniently located nearly dead center along the path of darkness that may consume us all, you’ll be privy to 2:37.64 minutes of rapturous darkness. All the while on a hill tall enough to watch the rest of the county be blanketed in shadows at least 10 miles in any direction!
As always, clothing optional.*
Sounds better than the frustration of fighting crowds in Beatrice.
I wish I could understand this.
Oh, I understand why there are eclipses. What I don’t understand is why the excitement?
A big chunk of rock gets between us and the sun for a moment. It’s not unexpected. People will take pictures. NASA’s pictures will be better.
I’m about a 45 minute drive to a place where there will be about 2 and a half minutes of total eclipse. Will I bother? Probably not. Will I be out in my yard while the partial eclipse is happening? Probably. The grass needs mowing.
Since you’re only 45 minutes away from totality, and since there are so many sources saying how wonderful and amazing it is, then why not just go on a leap of faith and check it out?
It’ll only cost you:
45 minutes to get there, plus the gas
30-60 minutes of a partial eclipse, waiting for totality
2 minutes of totality
45 minutes to get back
So, 2½ hours to take a chance, on a leap of faith, that it’ll be worth it. Why not?
Experiencing a total solar eclipse is almost beyond description. A partial is no comparison. Even NASA’s pictures do not convey the awesomeness.
This is understating the time involved. There’s going to be heavy traffic anywhere near the path of totality in the couple-three hours before (and after) the eclipse. It’s hard to say exactly how much time you should allow to get there, but probably at least twice as long as usual, possibly much longer.
This is what everyone says, so it must be true. I’ve never seen one, so there’s no way you’re going to keep me away.
BTW, if you really can’t make this one, there’ll be another in 7 years, on April 8, 2024. Its path is from Mexico to Newfoundland. Cities in totality are Austin, Dallas, Little Rock, Indianapolis, Cleveland, Buffalo, Rochester, and Montreal. Cities just outside it are San Antonio, Memphis, St. Louis, Louisville, Cincinnati, Columbus, Detroit and Toronto. This one will be longer, over 4 minutes at the longest point, which will be in Mexico. Expect heavy traffic for that one too.
I have already seen 3 total eclipses, and I’m just as excited over the 4th as I was over the 1st. There is nothing in your experience that prepares you for seeing “a hole in the sky”. That’s exactly what it looks like, and no photograph could compare with the actual event.
I don’t understand the angst about it being crowded for the Total Eclipse. There is literally hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of acres where there is going to be totality.
Find a deserted gravel road in the path. Park your car. Bring a cooler and other supplies. Watch Eclipse.
You don’t have to go to one of the viewing parties.
It’s the roads, man.
It’s deserted now; it may (probably won’t) be deserted on The Day. Everyone has access to maps and lots of people are trying to find a good spot to view it. You won’t be the only one who sees that road on a map and thinks it’s a good viewing spot.
They expect something like a million people to visit just the state of Oregon for the eclipse. That’s about one-third the population of the state. Yes, there’s lots of low population density areas in Oregon, but for that reason, those areas have relatively few roads. There are even fewer highways to get to those areas in the first place. And those highways are going to be a big bottleneck for getting people in and out of the path of totality.
This sounds a lot like people who say “Why bother seeing that band live? It’ll just be crowded and people will be singing over the band and you could just listen to the album at home.” Which is all true but, I dunno, if you don’t get it then I’m not sure if there’s a way to adequately explain it. Some things are just better experienced live.
Maybe this attitude explains the explosion of porn on the internet…
That’s why I’m avoiding interstates and US highways. I’m going for smaller state highways and local roads in less populated areas. And from those, I’m also looking at Jeep trails, forest roads, and BLM trails off of those roads. As notfrommensa said, there are acres and acres (and acres!) of open land out there, all in the path of totality.
So yes it’s the roads, and it’s the crowds too. I hope my plan gives me roads to totality while minimizing the crowds and traffic.
How about viewing the eclipse through the “selfie” camera on your smart phone, with the sun over your shoulder?
https://eclipse2017.nasa.gov/can-i-photograph-eclipse-my-smartphone
The problem is that, for this eclipse, the sun will be fairly high in the sky.
Why is that a problem? Just hold the camera low and angle it up somewhat. It’s not always a flattering angle for a selfie, I suppose, but I can’t see any other reason it would be a problem.
I work in Georgetown, SC, about 20 miles from the center of the path of totality, right on the East Coast
I’d love to be the last person in the continental US to be passed over, but they are predicting total gridlock on Route 17 at that point in McClellanville, SC.
I live in Murrells Inlet, SC, which is a few miles outside of totality, but I can be in a good spot in 10 minutes.
DSLR with 300 mm zoom? Check.
Tripod and remote trigger for DSLR? Check.
Solar Filter for lens (and glasses too) so I don’t cook my eyeballs? Check.
Nice spot on the beach to set up? Check.
I’ve been waiting for this event since I learned of it around 7 years ago.
Looking online for a friend, I’d say 99.99% of the hotel rooms within 30 miles of that centerline are booked up on the 20th
I had to get some groceries, and by the check-out they were selling glasses for viewing the eclipse. These are like the cardboard 3-D movie glasses, but with different lenses. I decided to pick up a couple.
The girl bagging my groceries said, ‘These are selling like hotcakes!’ The 20-something girl at the register asked, Oh, I have a question: How long do you have to wear them?’ I told her, just during the eclipse, which peaks around 10:21 on the day. She said, ‘Oh, I thought you had to wear them all day. That would be weird, everyone walking around wearing them all day.’
You might want to go back and correct that answer. You MUST wear them any time you’re looking straight at the sun, EXCEPT for the two and a half minutes of totality. THEN you can safely take them off.
But they aren’t like sunglasses. You can’t just wear them while you’re going about your daily business, because they pass almost no light. And if you want to look straight at the sun at any time, on any day, eclipse or not, you MUST wear them.
Looks like for that you’d need to be at Cape Romain a tiny strip of land (at points only around 500 feet wide) called Cape Island. Looks like a super-mega awesome place to watch it, if you somehow managed to do it. Probably a more convenient place to be would be at the little dangly bit at the bottom of Pauleys Shore.