My partner and I already have tickets for an eclipse-based festival outside of Burnett. We went to a similar festival in Oregon in 2017 and are very much looking forward to a similar experience.
I have reservations at a campsite in Southern Oregon for the annular eclipse in October. This is a dry run for the total eclipse in April and I’ve already made camping reservations in Texas for that event.
Should be interesting…
Durango Mexico seems like a good option, significantly better chance of being cloud-free in April than anywhere in the U.S., and it looks like a moderately interesting place to hang around for a few days.
I just booked on American via DFW, the flight was fairly expensive, I think that’s partly because Dallas itself is an eclipse destination, but it looks like that route is always expensive because there’s no competition, the only nonstops from the U.S. to Durango are American from DFW and Volaris (a Mexican budget airline) from Chicago MDW. But since I booked the flight on points, I can cancel flight, car, hotel all without penalty right up until departure, so I can take a look at the weather forecast and make a decision whether to go. The prices for hotel and car rental in Durango seem no higher than normal, bookings are wide open.
I’d rather be out camping in the mountains or something, but I don’t see any good option for that. It misses Big Bend.
I was ordering some stuff from Amazon the other day and – ever the optimist that I am – decided to throw in these eclipse glasses for the total eclipse next April, lest they run out. I say “optimist” because statistically the chances of significant cloud or total overcast in this area are at least 50% for that time of year. Still, one has to have hope!
Celestron are the folks that make telescopes and these are claimed ISO 12312 compliant so I assume they’re decent enough.
n/m. The Amazon link has been glitching between the product being available and not available. Seems fine now.
With the annular eclipse this weekend I finally got organized enough to book rooms in the Austin area for the April event. Not lots of availability, and most rooms are at premium prices.
There are a few hotels (in the Hilton chain for example) that open the week after the eclipse. Idiots! They could be making lots more just a week earlier.
Cool. We’ll be about 1-2 hours away from each other. I’ll be near Fredericksburg TX.
Today is eclipse day! Hello from Monument Valley. Here was yesterday’s sunrise, shot from the balcony of my room at The View hotel.
Nice! I saw some of your pics on the Annular thread and it looks like you had about the same skies. Definitely helps to be at higher altitude where it’s drier.
So onto this eclipse in April 2024! I hope I have enough funds to fly from the UK either to the USA or Mexico. Some of NASA’s coverage today was from Kerrville TX and they get totality in April too. Lucky! Also Mazatlan - one of the places I considered besides Mexico City in 1991 (I went to Hawaii) has totality again. I seem to recall on average any given location gets a total every 110 years or so. (ETA: If I can get this in before the edit window closes:)
From Astronomy.com: A key question that often comes up is “About how often is a particular spot on Earth in the path of totality?” On average for the whole Earth, the answer is 375 years.
So a lot longer than I thought.
My brother is planning to go upstate to Buffalo yet totality is under 4 minutes there and for all I know it’ll still be snowing in April!
It was mentioned on the other thread that Durango, Mexico would be good - that there are a good number of flights from Dallas. Otherwise I’m thinking Tex/Arkana where I could more easily rent a car and be able to drive to where the clear skies are.
We had very clear skies (annular) and it was great, and I enjoyed the photos where the skies were somewhat hazy. That’s a nice effect.
The next eclipse goes over Niagara Falls, and that would be a great location to see it, but I’m concerned about overcast skies. I hope your brother has clear skies there. If they are it would be a spectacular location for it! I hope southwest Texas will be clear for the day. It’s highly likely to be.
Onward to April 8, 2024!
This is likely the easiest viewing spot for me. I have flexible travel I need to fit into April and might as well route myself through DFW (with some buffer on the early end to account for travel disruptions.)
Anyone know if there are good maps of average cloud cover by date? Obviously it’s a gamble, but I might as well target an area that’s less likely to be cloudy.
Search for your location or click on the map to find details. Dallas average cloud cover is 60%.
The US goes from around 75% expected cloud cover in the NE to 50% in southern Texas. Parts of Mexico are as low as 20%. American has flights from DFW to Durango and Mazatlán.
In the end, the weather wasn’t good in Southern Oregon for viewing the eclipse. So I cancelled that and booked a site near Bryce Canyon Utah. Weather was good for me, got some pictures and it was a good dry run for next year.
“Average cloud cover” is a good start yet none of those meteorological charts take into account what happens if a certain amount of moisture is in clear skies yet suddenly the Sun gets turned off.
Fog & clouds is what happens. Might only be passing yet could be an obscuring layer.
Bullitt was like a mile-plus high in Monumental Valley for this past Annular and could almost be assured the already-thin-dry air wasn’t going to condense. Some friends who went to Mexico City (even higher elevation) in the 1991 total had clear skies before and during the event.
DFW towards Arkansas have pretty good chances of somewhat clear skies. I’d only be going with my brother to Buffalo or Niagara if I still lived in NYC.
If I’m going this will be the first eclipse I’m taking someone - my wife - along. Due to various visa issues for her it looks like Mexico - perhaps Mazatlan or Durango or whatever is from there to Tejas is the only option.
Think of me next April 8 when I’ll be seeing the same. Technically, the chance of the eclipse being obscured by clouds is around 50% at that time of year, but since this is the first time in my life that a total eclipse will occur right where I live, and I’ve been anticipating it for more than two years, we can safely conclude that the chances that it will be obscured by clouds is more like 99.99%.
Just got an invite from my BIL to come up to his house in upstate NY to view the eclipse. Might as well combine it with some late season skiing at Whiteface.
Well there’s also a Floyd soundtrack for that.
Sounds about right. I don’t know how much attention people paid to our location information when it was more easily available, but I have actually lived most of my life in L.A., and I doubt the truth of that statement will ever change.
It’s just over three months away. I’m still planning to go to Texas for it. Another road trip!
From the October annular eclipse, here are about a dozen or so pictures I took that day, including some of my wife and family.
Similar. I live in SE Michigan, but wife and I have a hotel room reserved near Sandusky, OH for the night before the eclipse so we can be in the totality zone when it happens. But being near the shore of Lake Erie in April gives pretty good odds of having cloud cover:
The month of April in Sandusky experiences essentially constant cloud cover, with the percentage of time that the sky is overcast or mostly cloudy remaining about 53% throughout the month.
The clearest day of the month is April 25, with clear, mostly clear, or partly cloudy conditions 49% of the time.
My wife and I plan to be in south central Texas. It would be nice to meet other Dopers who will be there. If anyone wants to meet us, we’ll be in Ingram. Let me know!