# USA TSE, total solar eclipse: April 2024 (was "three years away for USA" when started) **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [March 27, 2021, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/usa-tse-total-solar-eclipse-april-2024-was-three-years-away-for-usa-when-started/938873 "2021-03-27T21:36:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 52
**Author:** ![muldoonthief](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muldoonthief/32/3188_2.png) [@muldoonthief](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/muldoonthief)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2024, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/usa-tse-total-solar-eclipse-april-2024-was-three-years-away-for-usa-when-started/938873/1021 "2024-04-09T16:31:03Z")
I saw it in Waterbury VT, about 30 miles east of Burlington. We originally planned to go to the state park there, but wound up in the parking lot of a Cabot Creamery. Got there in time to see the whole thing luckily. The weather was pretty cooperative, some high thin cirrus but the big show was very impressive. Could see the big prominence at 7 o’clock with the naked eye, and a bunch more with binoculars. Managed to see Jupiter and Venus as well. Regarding traffic - I live about 20 miles north of Boston It would normally be about a 2 1/2 hour drive. Took us just over 5 hours to get there, and over 4 hours to get home. Which was fine - I allowed 6-7 hours travel time in my plan, and I was just happy to get home before midnight. But I’m guessing all the people from Boston who were in Burlington took several extra hours - there’s only one way in & out, and we were near the head of the pack. ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2024, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/usa-tse-total-solar-eclipse-april-2024-was-three-years-away-for-usa-when-started/938873/1022 "2024-04-09T16:31:47Z")
> [@Horatius](#): > > > [@ftg](#): > > > > The weird light made things seem gray only not really. Just “odd” in some undefinable way. > > I was thinking about that. I think it’s your brain realizing it’s dim enough to be “twilight”, and we expect the light to be more orange-tinged at that time. But the light we got from the Sun still had the mid-day color balance, it was just the intensity that was decreasing. So your brain thinks it’s twilight because of the intensity, but gets confused because there isn’t the orange tinge that you’d expect. The light looked normal until the eclipse was well advanced, as has often been noted. Even a fairly small amount of the sun’s disc being exposed produces enough light to resemble just an overcast day. But when only a sliver of the sun is exposed, the light is indeed very odd. I was pointing out how odd various objects looked. I think I said upthread that the light was distinctly orange-ish, but you’re right, there’s no reason the colour should change, so this was a peculiar optical illusion. Incidentally the Celestron eclipse glasses were very effective and a great part of the experience. The Celestron brand uses a filter that gives the sun a natural yellow-orange tint. I had difficulty using them with my regular glasses and ended up just holding the eclipse glasses up against my regular lenses. ---
**Author:** ![Shoeless](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shoeless/32/7099_2.png) [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2024, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/usa-tse-total-solar-eclipse-april-2024-was-three-years-away-for-usa-when-started/938873/1023 "2024-04-09T16:50:27Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > Never let last minute people or people with scheduling conflicts force your hand on anything with a fixed start time. Yeah, in hindsight we should have picked up my sister early in the morning and headed out of town, and told my brother and SIL “we’ll see you down there.” But seriously, who expects traffic to be _that_ tied up (four lanes of traffic at a standstill) that you can’t even go fifty miles in three hours? They said plan ahead, but that’s just nuts. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2024, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/usa-tse-total-solar-eclipse-april-2024-was-three-years-away-for-usa-when-started/938873/1024 "2024-04-09T16:55:55Z")
> [@Shoeless](#): > > But seriously, who expects traffic to be _that_ tied up (four lanes of traffic at a standstill) that you can’t even go fifty miles in three hours? The problem isn’t the number of cars. It’s the accidents. With that many cars, somebody is going to be inattentive or get antsy / aggressive and a crash is statistically inevitable. Which then backs up traffic for miles since the response will be slow since the problem is out in the boonies far from ambulances, tow trucks, and all the rest. Which slow-down only increases the antsiness of everybody else on the road. Once it snowballs, it’s not going to get better for a very very long time. These sorts of antsiness snowballs are a daily occurrence on the freeways here in Miami. You’ll often inch by two fresh accidents on the way to the last remnants of the first accident that started it all. I Pit my fellow Floridiot drivers. ---
**Author:** ![rocking\_chair](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rocking_chair/32/2918_2.png) [@rocking\_chair](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rocking_chair)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2024, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/usa-tse-total-solar-eclipse-april-2024-was-three-years-away-for-usa-when-started/938873/1025 "2024-04-09T17:02:04Z")
this is amazing. what a great get. ---
**Author:** ![muldoonthief](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muldoonthief/32/3188_2.png) [@muldoonthief](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/muldoonthief)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2024, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/usa-tse-total-solar-eclipse-april-2024-was-three-years-away-for-usa-when-started/938873/1026 "2024-04-09T17:10:14Z")
You don’t need accidents to have slowdowns. Fear of accidents is enough. When the number of cars on the roads exceeds the capacity of the road, slowdowns are inevitable since you can no longer maintain the 1 car length/10 mph of speed spacing. Here’s [a 40 year old straight dope article.](https://www.straightdope.com/21341189/the-freeway-has-no-stoplights-so-why-does-traffic-halt) Here’s [Another article.](https://www.thezebra.com/resources/driving/what-causes-traffic/#:~:text=When%20the%20amount%20of%20vehicles,of%20vehicles%20to%20available%20space). ---
**Author:** ![Mark\_Finn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/34f0e0/32.png) [@Mark\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mark_Finn)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2024, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/usa-tse-total-solar-eclipse-april-2024-was-three-years-away-for-usa-when-started/938873/1027 "2024-04-09T17:10:28Z")
One last eclipse photo: **Total Eclipse of the Cat…** [GKj6CdcW4AAIiSf (680×500) (twimg.com)](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GKj6CdcW4AAIiSf?format=jpg&name=small) ---
**Author:** ![robby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robby/32/11048_2.png) [@robby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robby)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2024, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/usa-tse-total-solar-eclipse-april-2024-was-three-years-away-for-usa-when-started/938873/1028 "2024-04-09T17:26:07Z")
> [@Robot\_Arm](#): > > That was the only real frustration of the day. I had a hotel room reserved in Springfield, about 120 miles away. Google Maps picked a route for me that would put me on a side road to miss some traffic on Route 7. Something in their algorithm must be broken. There were hundreds of cars. Took me 90 minutes to go 3 miles, with the road showing blue the whole time, and the projected arrival time ticking up and up. I suspect the speed limit was 25 mph, and 2 mph didn’t register as a slowdown. So Google kept sending more cars there, expecting the road to be free and clear. I test software; that’s a bug. We had a similar experience. I met my son in Brattleboro, VT on Sunday night and we drove up to Colebrook, NH, which was a little more east than we had originally planned because there were some clouds predicted to be coming in from the west. The drive up took about 3-1/2 hours (180 miles). The drive back to Brattleboro took over 8 hours! This despite the fact that the route on the back roads showed blue on Google Maps the whole way. And the time predictions on Google Maps were completely off too. We kept expecting traffic to break, but it never really did, even after we got back on the interstate. At least there we could see the backups in advance. However, every time we tried to get off the interstate to take a supposedly faster route on a back road, we found ourselves in an endless line of traffic. The cell towers appeared to be completely overloaded as well. Even when we had a signal, I could rarely get a connection to the internet. At one point, I started trying to book a hotel in Brattleboro VT or Greenfield MA, but my connection kept dropping. I finally found a hotel in Deerfield MA, but we didn’t get there until nearly 2 am! My son got an energy drink around midnight and was still wide awake, so he decided to press on all the way home to Connecticut, getting in around 3:40 am. I went to bed at the hotel in Deerfield MA, then got up this morning and went straight to work. I talked to a friend who drove down from near the Canadian border, and it took them 4 hours to travel 50 miles to their hotel following the eclipse on a back road. The map kept showing blue for them the whole way as well, with the time of arrival slowly ticking up as the hours went by. ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2024, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/usa-tse-total-solar-eclipse-april-2024-was-three-years-away-for-usa-when-started/938873/1029 "2024-04-09T18:01:07Z")
The method by which traffic congestion causes slowdowns is an interesting study in traffic dynamics, and a prime example of the value of simulations to establish road capacity. It’s of little concern to me now but when I was working and had to commute via freeways, man, that was at the top of my mind. Despite having to travel maybe some 50 km to get to my friend’s house in the totality zone, I had no traffic problems at all because I knew enough to avoid the QEW, which would have been a horror show because that’s a freeway that leads to Niagara Falls where untold numbers of eclipse watchers were congregating. As I was getting home, the news was alternating between breathless reports about the eclipse and reports about traffic jams, this time heading **away** from Niagara Region. It was interesting to see temporary signs on some of the highways stating something like “No Stopping for Eclipse”! ---
**Author:** ![Machine\_Elf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/82dd89/32.png) [@Machine\_Elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machine_Elf)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2024, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/usa-tse-total-solar-eclipse-april-2024-was-three-years-away-for-usa-when-started/938873/1030 "2024-04-09T18:12:35Z")
> [@BobLibDem](#): > > My photos didn’t turn out, but we made it to Toledo barely in time. Abandoned my first choice of viewing due to traffic jam on US-23 would up racing through the streets of Toledo and parked in a lot. We saw maybe 2 or 2 1/2 minutes of totality. Bucket list no more. Wife and I came to Sandusky on Sunday afternoon. Late Monday morning and early afternoon, we were bemused as we watched (via Google Maps) traffic jams develop on southbound US23, knowing that many of these people would probably not reach their planned destinations in time for the eclipse. Glad you weren’t one of them. ---
**Author:** ![Horatius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/horatius/32/3572_2.png) [@Horatius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatius)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2024, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/usa-tse-total-solar-eclipse-april-2024-was-three-years-away-for-usa-when-started/938873/1031 "2024-04-09T18:16:34Z")
the more I read about traffic jams elsewhere in Ontario, the more glad I am that I decided to drive from Ottawa to somewhere south of Montreal. I drove until I hit more traffic than I wanted to deal with, which I’m pretty sure was just regular traffic, and then found a spot in a nearby park to set up for the day. Coming home, there were a few minor slowdown until you got within 10km of Ottawa, at which it was backed up, due to an accident as I heard on the radio this morning. But that back-up just happened quite close to a turn-off I could use to cut the diagonal on my drive home, so I got off the highway, and it was smooth sailing all the way home. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2024, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/usa-tse-total-solar-eclipse-april-2024-was-three-years-away-for-usa-when-started/938873/1032 "2024-04-09T18:26:49Z")
> [@Robot\_Arm](#): > > That was the only real frustration of the day. I had a hotel room reserved in Springfield, about 120 miles away. Google Maps picked a route for me that would put me on a side road to miss some traffic on Route 7. Something in their algorithm must be broken. There were hundreds of cars. Took me 90 minutes to go 3 miles, with the road showing blue the whole time, and the projected arrival time ticking up and up. I suspect the speed limit was 25 mph, and 2 mph didn’t register as a slowdown. So Google kept sending more cars there, expecting the road to be free and clear. I test software; that’s a bug I had a similar experience. That back road added about 3 hours to my trip home. We reported the problem to Google until it told both of us we were spammers and it didn’t care. 😉 I imagine someone is working on that bug today. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2024, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/usa-tse-total-solar-eclipse-april-2024-was-three-years-away-for-usa-when-started/938873/1033 "2024-04-09T18:48:06Z")
We were able to see the full solar eclipse yesterday from our backyard; my niece and her husband drove up from Columbus, Ohio to see it with us. It was a warm spring day and the temperature dropped noticeably during totality. Our old dog didn’t react at all, but our neighbor’s dog barked nervously just before that. We could see a red solar prominence at about the 6:30 position during totality. Absolutely _stunning_ to see that dark disc with its eerie white rim. Loved the experience. ---
**Author:** ![robby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robby/32/11048_2.png) [@robby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robby)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2024, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/usa-tse-total-solar-eclipse-april-2024-was-three-years-away-for-usa-when-started/938873/1034 "2024-04-09T18:55:50Z")
The eclipse itself was wonderful, though. We ended up at a parking area north of the town of Colebrook NH just over the Vermont state line overlooking the Connecticut River. The town had helpfully designated this area with free parking for eclipse viewers along with a couple of portable toilets. Our original plan was to go to a beach on Lake Champlain in St. Albans VT, then to a park along a lake in Newport VT because some high clouds were predicted to come in from the west in the afternoon. Once we got on the road, I adjusted our planned viewing location even further east for the same reason. It cost us another hour of driving and about 20 seconds of totality, but the benefit was that no clouds whatsoever were predicted there before 5pm. There were several dozen cars there already when we arrived, and it seemed to be filling up so we went ahead and grabbed one of the last parking spots around 12:20 pm. U.S. Route 3 was about 30 yards away in front of us with the Connecticut River right behind that. I wish we had gotten a viewing spot that was a little further away from a main road, but didn’t know what to expect north of us and we were already within 5 or 6 miles of the Canadian border. I didn’t want to find ourselves stuck somewhere with no viewing spot. Rural Vermont/New Hampshire has a lot of trees, after all. At least traffic was pretty low (i.e. a vehicle going by every couple of minutes), with people frequently stopping, seeing that there was no more parking and moving on. A friend of mine was coming from the other direction, and they ended up in Beecher Falls, VT right on the Canadian border. They were right next to the falls, with a peaceful setting and some Wiccans performing a ceremony. (Which is Vermont for you!) I wish we had compared notes sooner, but they got to their spot only 20 minutes or so before the eclipse started, and we wouldn’t have wanted to relocate at that point. This was my second total eclipse in seven years, so I tried to soak in the experience. The light got more and more wonky as we approached totality. Venus and Jupiter were both quite visible. Then traffic stopped on the road during totality and everything got very still. I looked around, and just like the previous total eclipse it was not as dark as I expected. The sun’s corona blazed beautifully and we watched it intently. Totality lasted for just over three minutes in our location but it only felt like a few seconds. Before I knew it a bright spot reappeared and we had to look away. We hung out for a while longer until near the end of the partial eclipse and then packed up for the long drive back. At the time, we had no idea just how long it would be! All in all, it was a worthwhile experience. I’m sad I couldn’t experience it as planned with my mom in Texas. She decided to not travel to the zone of totality there because of the predicted overcast skies, but did get a glimpse of the partial eclipse for a moment when the clouds opened up for a few minutes in Houston. I’ve been wanting to see a total eclipse my whole life. I considered traveling to see the first one I was aware of in 1991, but as a new college graduate I didn’t have the money or inclination to travel to Mexico or Hawaii (which was a good thing, because Hawaii was reportedly clouded over during the eclipse). I therefore made a real effort to see the eclipses in 2017 and 2024. Having now seen two, I’m not sure I would make a huge effort to see another, especially if it involved international travel. As for domestic eclipses, we’ll see how I feel in 2044 or 2045! ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2024, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/usa-tse-total-solar-eclipse-april-2024-was-three-years-away-for-usa-when-started/938873/1035 "2024-04-09T19:47:25Z")
Now that the eclipse is over, I imagine a lot of people have some eclipse glasses they have no need for. [https://astronomerswithoutborders.org/programs/solar-glasses-distribution](https://astronomerswithoutborders.org/programs/solar-glasses-distribution) > **[Donate Used Eclipse Glasses | Eclipse Glasses USA](https://eclipse23.com/pages/donate-eclipse-glasses)** > > Not sure what to do with your used eclipse glasses now that the October 2023 eclipse has passed? Donate them to Eclipse Glasses USA. We will send them to school children in other countries for those countries' eclipse viewing experiences. These organizations are accepting used and unused eclipse glasses. They will be donated to schools for use in future eclipses. ---
**Author:** ![Cheesesteak](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cheesesteak/32/3694_2.png) [@Cheesesteak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cheesesteak)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2024, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/usa-tse-total-solar-eclipse-april-2024-was-three-years-away-for-usa-when-started/938873/1036 "2024-04-09T19:57:44Z")
Very disappointed we had thick cloud cover in Rochester, it got dark and it got light, but I didn’t get to see any sort of details or interesting effects. However, I did have a wonderful visit with family, who I don’t get to see near often enough. I think my drive back was about 2hrs longer than normal, 6 vs 4, but I expected something like that. Kid Cheesesteak promised to bring my ashes to the eclipse of 2079, so I can _actually_ experience one. ---
**Author:** ![Eureka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/74df32/32.png) [@Eureka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eureka)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2024, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/usa-tse-total-solar-eclipse-april-2024-was-three-years-away-for-usa-when-started/938873/1037 "2024-04-09T19:59:25Z")
Cool, thanks for sharing. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2024, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/usa-tse-total-solar-eclipse-april-2024-was-three-years-away-for-usa-when-started/938873/1038 "2024-04-09T21:00:14Z")
> [@muldoonthief](#): > > You don’t need accidents to have slowdowns. Fear of accidents is enough. When the number of cars on the roads exceeds the capacity of the road, slowdowns are inevitable since you can no longer maintain the 1 car length/10 mph of speed spacing. Quite right. But the inevitable accidents take what would be an e.g. 40mph cruise in dense but not jammed traffic on the interstate and convert it to a 5mph crawl. And then the 40mph traffic behind the jam is able to deliver fresh cars into the back of the jam far faster than they’re being cleared at the front. So very quickly a half-mile backup is 5 miles long. Then 8 miles long. Then an accident happens inside the backup. Then … Further, as to 1 car length per 10mph, the 1960s called and want their traffic volumes back. Nobody anywhere I’ve lived in urban or suburban settings can leave nearly that much space between vehicles. Even at 70mph it’s more like 1 car length per 20 miles per hour. If that much. If you try to leave more, a car will enter the ginormous gap you’ve left in front of you. Unrelated to the above … All the folks commenting about being on back roads loaded with traffic while Google is reporting clear. Many of those folks are also reporting they had no cell signal. Those two things are connected. E.g. Google Maps only knows about the traffic on a road because the cars there are phoning home with traffic updates. No cell signal, or jammed cell signal, and all those messages never get to Google. So the road appears clear to them since they’re not getting reports it’s not. Oops. ---
**Author:** ![aurora\_maire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aurora_maire/32/328_2.png) [@aurora\_maire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aurora_maire)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2024, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/usa-tse-total-solar-eclipse-april-2024-was-three-years-away-for-usa-when-started/938873/1039 "2024-04-09T21:26:15Z")
> [@Dorjan](#): > > Note: Go ahead and mute it, the music I attached is terrible LOL. I clicked on the video before I saw this note. I was thinking that the video was great but the music sucked. 😄 I’m glad it was unintentional. Thanks for sharing. ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2024, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/usa-tse-total-solar-eclipse-april-2024-was-three-years-away-for-usa-when-started/938873/1040 "2024-04-09T21:27:18Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > Now that the eclipse is over, I imagine a lot of people have some eclipse glasses they have no need for I’m keeping mine for the next total solar eclipse in this area on October 26, 2144. I know 120 years is a long time but I’m an optimist. 😉 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/usa-tse-total-solar-eclipse-april-2024-was-three-years-away-for-usa-when-started/938873.md?page=51) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/usa-tse-total-solar-eclipse-april-2024-was-three-years-away-for-usa-when-started/938873.md?page=53)