We have a place booked in north-central New York. My daughter will be joining us from Vermont (we first tried to book places in Burlington, but they were all insanely priced) which will be some odd travel for her - she’ll have to catch a bus to Albany, then a train up to Plattsburgh. A friend is coming from Chicago - likely will drive to our place in Virginia, then ride up with us.
The place is on a lake, and there’s a bit of a pier, so we should have an unobstructed view - if weather cooperates. In 2017, we were on a beach in SC and watching the overcast sky with great dismay. Luckily it cleared up JUST in time for the big show.
We might see if there are any public gatherings nearby - because part of the fun is sharing it with a crowd.
We should have 3+ minutes of totality. My husband already ordered viewing glasses for everyone - hopefully he remembers where he put them!!
Mine are in a desk drawer where I keep important papers, otherwise I’m pretty much guaranteed to misplace them.
I’m not terribly concerned about traffic as I’m already in the path of totality and will just be trying to get further south to meet up with friends, which is also closer to the center line. Some of the travel will be pretty rural so I don’t expect much traffic, but who knows. April 8 is Monday so a lot of folks will be tied to their jobs or won’t care enough to take a day or half a day off (I hope!).
I wouldn’t worry much about traffic. Especially if there’s lots of warnings about it in the press immediately before. It’s what I call the Carmagaddon Effect. All those warnings are taken seriously by most people, so there won’t actually be a traffic problem in the event.
Woo hoo, my brother’s house has 3 min 30 seconds of totality, AND it’s during spring break week, so Kid Cheesesteak is going to be dragged along with me.
Buy your eclipse glasses now, while they’re readily available! It’s fun to have some extras on hand to give out. Even to folks who won’t be in the totality path.
Before the eclipse the traffic and crowds build more slowly and were less of an impact, but after it’s over there was LOTS of heavy traffic as everyone left all at once. I was sitting in jam-packed traffic for hours in central Idaho. That’s what I learned in August 2017, my first total eclipse.
For the October 2023 annular eclipse I made local plans for after it was over, and that worked perfectly. I’m doing the same for this eclipse.
So the key planning is for when the eclipse is over.
We’ve thought about traffic. My cousin is more worried about finding a place to pee… I did get my eclipse glasses and have them stashed where I can see the box but they’re not in the way.
In 2017, we had a rental house about 4 blocks from the beach - so we just walked to and from the beach. Being right on the coast, there was not a lot of through traffic to deal with.
This time around, we’ll be able to see it right from our rental (weather permitting), and will also be far away from any major highways. So even if we go “into town” (such as it is, the nearest town is not entirely worth the name) traffic should not be an issue. My WAG is that places nearer large cities will have more issues, with people going there to see, or from there to a place on the path.
In terms of not forgetting the glasses: about a month beforehand, I’m going to designate the corner of the living room as a staging area, to put things we need to bring along (since we’re staying at the rental for a full week). Games. Non-perishable foods. Spare pillows. And protective glasses! So if my husband cannot find the ones he bought, there will be time to fix it.
It seems that this eclipse will be even more spectacular than the previous one over parts of North America in 2017, because the sun will be in a heightened state of activity and the corona more spectacular:
NASA doesn’t recommend specific brands, but they do have an eclipse safety page to let you know what to look for. Any eclipse glasses should comply with ISO 12312-2
Some brands that should work include Lunt, Soluna, and Celestron.
Yes, as antiBob said they should meet the ISO standard. I haven’t looked into it but that might be a standard the manufacturers self-certify to (as opposed to a 3rd party independent verification). Anyway I’ve only been to two eclipses, Aug 2017 and Oct 2023, and haven’t had any problem buying the basic ones off of Amazon.
We’ll be in NW Ohio, I’ll wave in your general direction.
A friend of mine from grad school teaches at Defiance College, which is just inside the zone of totality. Hopefully we can drive a ways further south before the eclipse starts to get more totality time, so to speak.
After the one a few years ago, I called ‘dibs’ on a friend’s house but have kind of lost touch with her as she’s stopped coming to most of the events we would both do & would think it a bit awkward to reach out & say, “remember when you promised me a room?” so I’ve been telling the SO we need to book something (for western NY)
I’m really pissed at myself because B&H had a Nisi solar camera filter on the ‘Deal of the Day’ a couple of days ago & I forgot about it & never ordered one; $80 off.
I did get my eclipse glasses and have them stashed where I can see the box but they’re not in the way.