I just learned about the annular solar eclipse of October 14, 2023, which will be passing right over my house

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
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That said, I do live in Oregon, and my history with attempted eclipse viewing has been less than stellar. There may still be some posters on here who were with me at Jonathan Chance’s viewing party in South Carolina, where it got rained out. But I’m not sure if I mentioned the fact that I had also been living in L.A. when there was an annular eclipse in the late afternoon, and that too got clouded over. I’ll never forget the sense of disappointment in the crowds milling around at Pacific Palisades, while vendors were still hopefully working the crowd trying to sell viewing filters, and all this in the face of a cold breeze welling up from the ocean while this sky got more and more gray. If you want to see the 2023 eclipse, you probably should be anywhere near me.

Still, the third time might be the charm! And if the weather works against me once again, then at least I didn’t need to travel anywhere to have that happen.

The path of annularity runs from the central coast of Oregon over the southern Willamette Valley, then arcs generally southeastwards through bits of Idaho, then Utah, New Mexico, and Texas. From there it continues on over the Yucatan peninsula, and finally over several Central and South American countries.

I am by turns tremendously excited and worried that the weather won’t cooperate, and keeping my fingers crossed through all of it.

Great American Eclipse of October 14, 2023

Time And Date provides further details.

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Wow, thanks so much for posting this. I had no idea this was coming - I live in Santa Fe, and we always have a high probability of clear skies. I’m not sure I would necessarily have traveled a large distance for an annular eclipse, but I certainly would have felt pretty dumb if I had made plans to travel away from one that’s happening in my back yard because I didn’t know it was happening.

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And it looks like there’s a total eclipse coming through Texas in April 2024. That will be another one for my diary, should be worth the trip for me, fairly high probability of clear skies. It’s a shame that it just misses Big Bend NP, it would have been incredibly cool to camp out there.

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There’s a whole thread about the 2024 total eclipse:

That one’s exciting for me because it’s local.

I was wondering why I had not heard about the one next year, but had missed the fact that it’s an annular eclipse. Pretty cool, I guess, but not like a total eclipse.

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For whatever reason, maybe the size of the Pacific Ocean, I don’t know, I have never seen a total solar eclipse in my lifetime. A few partials, but they barely affect the light at all. Some more of those will happen down here over the next few years.

But in 2028 there’s a biggie covering both Australia and New Zealand in totality. So I’m looking forward to that.

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I’ve seen a couple of good partial eclipses in which upwards of 75% of the sun was obscured. It’s certainly true that you don’t get to see the corona, same as with an annular, but you do get to see some interesting effects regardless. The most important is the diminuation of light, which you might not even take in until you notice that the light generslly seems weak and pale as on a cloudy day, yet with clear shadows on the ground.

A huge swath of western North America, including most of California, will experience 75% or greater solar obscuration; and I’d still be marking the day just to see that much.

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Thanks for posting this, @Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus. I wasn’t aware it was happening. From near San Francisco this would be a short road trip to get to, at least 7 hours away.

The 2017 one was my first total solar eclipse and this would be my first annular one. Not sure yet that I’m going, but it’s on my calendar. And a 7-8 hour drive isn’t all that far.

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To give a little more detail about the “path of annularity” (is it called that?), it begins off the Pacific coast to Oregon, and touches 9 states in this order:

OR CA NV ID UT AZ CO NM TX (some are only a little)

It then goes into the Gulf of Mexico, then it touches 8 other countries in this order: MEX GTM BLZ HND CRI PAN COL BRA.

At the far eastern end of Brazil it exits over Baía Formosa at sunset. That would be something to see!

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glares
< rolls up magazine >

10

Use the glasses, you lunatic.

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LOL.

That reminds me, I’ll be buying glasses soon.

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I think I’ve known about that one for a while, it’ll pass almost directly over my nephews in Austin. October 2023 will pass almost directly over my niece in Eugene.

13

I’d rather you hit me with a skipper’s hat, if available.

Seriously though, fall '23 will be time when I’m hoping for a DRY and CLEAR October!

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The most interesting, and for me, unexpected thing about the 2017 total eclipse, was the way the world seem to go from color to black and white as we passed about 95% coverage.

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Party at @Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus’s place!

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I wouldn’t recommend it.

My past record with eclipse viewing and weather conditions at those times and places strongly suggests that anyone wanting to see an eclipse shouldn’t come within a hundred miles of me.

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I’ve only seen one solar eclipse, the one in 2017. It happened to pass right over the house of one of my cousins, so a bunch of us got together and had a great several days talking and laughing and cooking and playing some domino game and, yes, watching the entire eclipse. The one in 2024, I think, is supposed to pass darn close to her place but it won’t be totality there.

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I’ve witnessed four total solar eclipses, and 2024 will be my fifth (passing directly over my house).

But I’ve never witnessed an annular eclipse. Don’t know whether I ever will.

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Awesome! It’s going in the calendar. Obliviously the OP missed the Aug 2017 total solar eclipse that went through central Oregon. I caught it in Shaniko, with something like 2 minutes of full solar eclipse. It was great. Definately worth going out of your way to experience.

And don’t be a dork and sit at home where it is 98% total like my college roommate did 'cause he was too lazy to drive 30 minutes to experience the full monty. Completely dissimilar experience to have a partial vs full. It is really cool to take off the glasses and look at sun during the full part of the eclipse. The street lights come on, animals start acting wierd, the 4 horsemen of the apocolypse shimmer on the horizon (ok, I made that part up), it gets cold, a wierd twilight occurs, etc.

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I knew nothing about this one, either. Looks like I’m 2 miles outside the annularity path in southern Oregon. I think I can manage the trip to see it. On the calendar!