Yes. It’s a much, much, MUCH bigger difference than anyone who hasn’t seen it would think.
That spike in the XKCD graph isn’t nearly tall enough.
The eclipse expert who usually accompanies us on our trips summarises the difference between a partial and total eclipse by quoting an elderly French astronomer who said it is like the difference between (imagine French accent here) “a peck on the cheek or A NIGHT OF PASSION!”
Totally @#$%& skunked!
We were in Western NY state; talked to friends in VT on Sun & there looked kinda iffy, too; otherwise, we would have headed up to them. Looked at cloud forecasts both NE & SW of where we were, say Erie to Syracuse but they didn’t look much better so decided to stay put; even thought about heading towards home because 90-92% is better than 82% chance of cloudy, which is exactly what we ended up with. Heard from multiple sources on Sun, including park PD that I stopped to chat that the park was expected to be busy & they were planning on closing when it got to capacity. They had No Parking signs up everywhere on Sunday when we went into the park for sunrise, even where people normally park on Memorial Day weekend. When I eventually read the brochure they gave us at the entrance; it stated the best place to see it was the other end of the park, 20 miles away so it ended up not all that busy where we were as we were in the gorge but if the sun was out it lined up perfectly over the RR arch bridge, where I’ve previously shot Milky Way (this isn’t mine, it’s by John Kucko, who we know, but it’s similar to what I’ve taken). I could have stacked a couple of photos to make it really really cool looking shot of eclipse, bridge & waterfall.
Mon morn UPS guy said park was busy for a Mon morn when he stopped by our local for a delivery. Loaded up & got into the park around 5+ hrs early. Got the fifth parking space & grabbed tripod & walked over to my desired location but the wind was blowing, which meant spray from the waterfall, yanno, water droplets are not good on a camera lens/filter but I was the first photographer there. Another guy came & started setting out his stuff so I parked my tripod to reserve my spot & then we hiked/walked 4-5 mi round trip to the Nature Center as they have wifi there & there’s no cell service in the park only to find that that deal ended & since the sponsor isn’t paying anymore they no longer have it. At least the rental cabins took off the password but that’s close to where we were & would have allowed us to do a real hike; the lack of service at the Nature Center will suck for Memorial Day weekend. The last time we could even tell where the sun was in the sky was about 1pm. Totality came behind heavy clouds & it got dark, & then it was like someone turned off the switch because it got even darker. Couldn’t even listen to the aminals get quiet with 2500 ft3 / second falling 70’ < 100 yards away
Lots of traffic on the way home, but not until we got near I-81, hours from where we were; WTF, did that many people from NY metro area go to Syracuse? I thought I-87 would be the bad one, not I-81.
So on top of expense of one good glass 20-stop filter & a couple of the inexpensive ones for the cameras, all unused, gas, tolls, food, & everything, the clouds are now going to cost me a trip to Egypt in three years cause I wanna see one for myself.
Yeah. On a dollars per minute basis this was one of the more expensive gifts I’ve ever given myself. Probably the peak in fact, but I’m reluctant to add it all up. Lots of other fun was had over 9 days away from home, but the 4 minutes of totality was the reason to do any of it.
I just hope Egypt isn’t in the middle of a civil war when the eclipse fairy visits their country.
I know I’m repeating myself, but I shudder to think how close I came to missing the whole thing. Since the weather was predicted to be bad and I had been up late the previous night, I decided not to bother with the ~60 to 80 minute drive to my friend’s place in the totality zone. To compound the problem, I had to drive to Enterprise to get a rental because I didn’t trust my own car which had been diagnosed with intermittent alternator problems. So I just said to hell with it.
And then I started thinking – hmmm, not another total eclipse around here for another 120 years, and I’m not likely to be going to Iceland or Egypt. So just as I was about to cancel the rental car, I impulsively decided to just go ahead and do it. Turned out to be an inspired decision of a lifetime! The weather was indeed crappy at the beginning (complete overcast, no exaggeration) but cleared like magic as the eclipse started.
I have mixed feelings about witnessing the eclipse from my friend’s back yard. It was super comfortable to sit around with snacks and drinks and occasionally go out to see the progress towards totality. However totality itself would have been even more impressive in wide open spaces. He’s close to (but not in) wine country, and it would have been great to have seen it standing in the middle of a vast vineyard. But to get there we’d have had to fight massive traffic and huge crowds and likely complete lack of parking. C’est la vie.
The bag check line for Southwest in Austin goes around the outside of the building, and the entire length of the drop-off zone. Very lucky to be on a trial A-list preferred from work with priority boarding, so shouldn’t be any issue getting overhead space.
Eclipse Tour #57 “Total Solar Eclipse” – Southern Mediterranean Cruise – www.eclipsetours.com
those who would like to plan for the next one(s).
The Mediterranean cruise looks like fun. But … it starts at $5K, average seems to be around $10K per person. So double that for two, and add at least another 50% for flights and things not included, so …
at least USD $30K in total, and likely more by the time you’re done. With the risk of crap weather.
Still, I might be on it – the next time the guy at the gas station asks me if I want a lottery ticket, I’ll say “sure – in fact, give me four”! 
My Dad and I traveled about 2 and a half hours west (from Lexington, KY) to Santa Claus, IN to see the Eclipse. Traffic was heavy, especially on the return trip, but the only thing that counted as a snarl was the area around the Bridge in Louisville, which is nearly always a problem.
We parked in the parking lot of Holiday World-- which is a much bigger amusement park (or at least associated parking lot) than my dad would have guessed. Not the most scenic of surroundings, but unlimited free parking and reasonably accessible restrooms were the amenities we were most interested in. Lots of Indiana Highway Patrol visible coming and going-- mostly speed traps, but also, one could tell that they were directing traffic and some interchanges that don’t usually have that much traffic.
Little Brother lives in Upstate New York-- an hour north of NYC. He drove 210 miles north to Keene, NY, which he says should have taken him 3 hours, but actually took 4 heading north . . . and eight hours returning home.
I think he did stick around for the whole eclipse-- Dad and I hit the road once light had gone mostly back to normal, but the Sun was stil kinda banana shaped. (We’d left Mom at home alone, which may have been a mistake).
Both my dad and my brother took lots of pictures, I just sat there with my knitting in my lap and enjoyed the experience.
In 2017, we’d traveled to Kansas, and met up with my mom’s siblings there. That was a good trip from most perspectives, but the weather was less co-operative that day, and we didn’t get a real good view of totality. This time, there were intermittent clouds during the partial eclipse, but by totality, the sun was high in the sky and the clouds were hanging out along the horizon.
I’m in the Austin airport now too. My buddy is flying Southwest and spent about 2.5 hours getting through bag drop and TSA. I’m flying Alaska Air and have Precheck; it took me about 25 minutes.
I think a lot of people flying SW will be missing their flight today if they don’t get here way earlier than usual.
The playlist was mine, and no, I did not think of those. I also did not think of Spirit In the Sky! Oh well; we only had so much time.
Yes, we get it about totality. And we did intend, up until about a year ago, to travel to totality. But our schedule has gotten crazy, so for the greater good of our state and its workers, we were among the few people who didn’t say, “Sorry, can’t: gonna go see the eclipse!” We’ve seen some stuff. And we’ve missed some stuff. So it goes.
I saw a partial at University of Rochester back in the early 1970’s.
Here Comes the Sun was blaring out of all the dorm windows. It’s firmly stuck in my head as connected to the eclipse.
– Our back roads are maybe more back-roadsy than some of yours. The clouds got us; but the traffic wasn’t bad at all – moderately bad on what we consider a main road, a bit extra on what I think of as major secondaries; once we got onto the real back roads no extra whatsover, only an occasional tractor or car and very few of those.
Might have been different if we’d tried to get to maximum totality instead of settling for over two minutes in an excellent location. But, if the clouds hadn’t rolled in, that would have been enough to give me the experience. At least I didn’t miss it due to living ten miles south of the totality line – if it had been clear, even briefly at the right time, I wasn’t going to take a chance on missing it for ten miles. (As it was we drove about 25 miles from here; as long as we were driving, I wasn’t going to stop at ten seconds’ worth either.)
You could go to Libya (or perhaps not)? There is a good map I posted above which shows all the various possible countries. Anything in North Africa…
Spotify reported a huge surge in people adding “Total Eclipse of the Heart” to playlists
Did anyone mention “Ring of Fire” by Johnny Cash?
Or an old one - “Dark Moon” by Gale Storm.
My daughter and I ended up in Westmore, VT on the shore of Lake Willoughby with probably 500 other eclipse viewers. Great time all around, and the eclipse itself was just astonishing.
As was the traffic getting back to SE Mass. 10.5 hours, almost 6 of them in Franconia for what took 4 hours heading up. Rte 93 from there to Boston was the worst I’ve ever seen.
I’d do it again in a heartbeat.
Here’s a page with several views of the eclipse as seen from space.
The wife and I, we just pulled into Gallup NM into our hotel room after a 950 mile drive from San Antonio. We took the scenic route. We’re beat. At least we get to sleep in until 0900.
Near Fredericksburg TX we found some fields full of blooming bluebonnets. Beautiful. Along our drive there were many blooming wildflowers. I only took a handful of pictures.
Same with us. We ate in Littleton, giving traffic time to dissipate, or so we thought.
Hah!
It too us four hours to go south on I-93 to go a distance we should’ve covered in, less than 30 minutes. The problem is that
1.) I-93 condenses down to ONE LANE going through Franconia Notch, and
2.) The state police closed off the exits, preventing you from going down any alternate routes… This is insane.
Fortunately, although the signs said they had closed off exit 38, they really hadn’t (I suspect they relented to let people get off the interstate to refill gas tanks depleted by the wait in line), and we were able to go on side roads, avoiding the Notch altogether. By the time we rejoined I-93, traffic was flowing pretty freely. But the rest stops were all jammed when we tried to use the bathroom.
We didn’t get home until almost 4 AM.
Talk about lick.
In Waco, the clouds evaporated as the eclipse was happening (nice!) then reformed as the moon was receding.
And then in the evening it was pouring rain, thunder, lightning and tornado watches. The next day was more rain and complete overcast. Wednesday was clear skies in West Texas on the way home.
Sometimes you get lucky.
The campsite store had only Texas souvenirs, of the variety “Texas is great - the rest of you can go to hell!” (literally, it was a Davey Crockett quote!).
Not even any good eclipse stuff, like Oregon 2017. I still have my Smokey Bear wearing sun viewing glasses stickers!