If anyone has a route that takes them by White Sands, they’re testing rockets Saturday morning and 70 will be closed between Alamogordo and Las Cruces. Subject to change.
It’s going to be about 80% where I am. Which is nice, but not dramatic. The closest to totality I’ve yet seen was the 2017 eclipse, which was about 90% at the location I was.
You should hope for haze or very thin cloud cover. While that would spoil a total eclipse, for partials and annulars they can lead to some dramatic images. I took this photo on May 20 2021 when the annular eclipse was near its local maximum of about 78% obscuration.
Also this one. (If you’re reading this on a phone, you might need to download this to your gallery to properly see it.)
The second photo isn’t so much about the eclipse itself as the effect of the eclipse on the landscape.
I’m in west Texas. Not in an area that will experience totality itself, but conveniently placed so that I can drive either north or east and pick up the eclipse around midday. Looking at the forecast, I expect east is going to be the way to go.
I was ignoring this as the path is nowhere near where I live, but it turns out it will be a partial here of a little less than 30%. Would have been nice to have my eclipse glasses which I ordered for the April 8 total eclipse, but they won’t be here til Monday. Oh well, the weather forecast basically says “cloudy, clearing after the eclipse is over”. I will be mighty, might pissed if that happens for the total next year!!
I picked up a “Solar Snap” kit at Lowe’s with 2 camera phone lens filters and 2 pairs of (flimsy cardboard) glasses. We’re only getting 77% obscuration but it still should look pretty cool.
Absolutely. You need it to be #14 glass - which I recall is fairly high in terms of welding glass measures. I recall before going to my first eclipse walking into a plumbing/hardware store and interrupting a coffee klatch of tradesmen sitting around talking about trade and asking for #14 glass. Before he could say “what for” I answered “To look at the sun” and they all quite understood.
Too bad they won’t be there till Monday yet it is a good thing to get those glasses well in advance.
I bought 100 of them a month before the 1999 Europe eclipse. I was in front of Bucharest University with my little Celestron scope basically giving them away and some enterprising folks made a few Lei (the Romanian currency) on the 2nd hand market selling them to others. But all good.
That’s what I thought. I posted a link to the Amazon site in the other thread about the April, 2024 total eclipse, but they now appear to be sold out. I suspect that’s because of tomorrow’s eclipse, and there will be lots more in stock in plenty of time for next year. They’re Celestron brand, which I assume are trustworthy.