Watching the eclipse?

[Smellincoffee]

I live in an area of the United States that will experience 85% totality, and I've been monitoring it for the last minutes or so. I'm at work, but occasionally I can step onto the outside balcony and take a peep. This is my first time experiencing a really visible solar eclipse .

 

[Thorgalaeg]

85% is practically like 0%. With eclipses is all or nothing. You will only notice a slightly weaken daylight you wouldn't even notice if didn't know there was an eclipse. In 2005 there was a annular eclipse in Spain which reached 90% totality and it was barely noticeable unless you looked at the sun through a radiography. Tree shadows turned a bit weird though. Like blurry.

 

[Darsnan]

We will be in total eclipse in Syracuse in about an hour. Work is throwing a little party, complete with commemorative glasses.

 

[Smellincoffee]

85% is practically like 0%. With eclipses is all or nothing. You will only notice a slightly weaken daylight you wouldn't even notice if didn't know there was an eclipse. In 2005 there was a annular eclipse in Spain which reached 90% totality and it was barely noticeable unless you looked at the sun through a radiography. Tree shadows turned a bit weird though. Like blurry.

So I'm seeing. The sun looks like a crescent now and even still, there's so much light it appears to be late afternoon.

 

[EgonSpengler]

They're predicting 93% around here, at about 3:30pm.

 

[Smellincoffee]

Sun has completely been covered by thick cloud cover, so I think that's my experience done. Significant drop in temperature.

 

[Moff Jerjerrod]

I'm also at work and stepping out every so often to see if the day is a bit darker. Sun still looks normal to me. I only looked at it really quick!

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

Don't look at it without the proper sunglasses. You'll burn your eyes.

 

[Smellincoffee]

Don't look at it without the proper sunglasses. You'll burn your eyes.

Even with the glasses I wouldn't stare for too long. I checked on it every ten-fifteen minutes. It disappeared deep into cloud cover, so I missed the ending.

https://thisweekatthelibrary.files.wordpress.com/2024/04/pxl_20240408_185230876-1.jpg

 

[Klaus Hergersheimer]

There was a partial one here only a few years ago, too. So I'm not that enthused.

The whole sky is noticeably dimmer, though, which is creepy fun

 

[lymond]

i just watched the totality in Vermont on ABC …as I post…it is truly amazing. Too far from it here in Virginia to be of any note, though the light outside has been very eerie.

 

[really]

I'm in a 35% area, and the sun has set just now. Unfortunately it is overcast so I couldn't see anything.

 

[Lexicus]

From DC at peak (87%). Cloud cover came at just the right time to snap these photos!

 

[lymond]

Nice shots. I did not realize we were at 87% here. I tried recording it but it did not come out well.

 

[lymond]

ABC (via hulu) just showed the view of the NE from the International Space Station, as it happened to be in a good spot. Google it. Very cool, like outta Independence Day.

 

[Lexicus]

ABC (via hulu) just showed the view of the NE from the International Space Station, as it happened to be in a good spot. Google it. Very cool, like outta Independence Day.

Link? Can't find it, google is utter trash apparently

 

[EgonSpengler]

Nothing much to report from here. The light did get noticeably dimmer, and the quality of the light was a little different from typical dusk, more grey. I was on one of those big, inter-city buses a few weeks ago, with the comfy seats and the individual overhead lights, and that had tinted windows. You almost didn't notice, until you got off the bus and everything was suddenly brighter. This reminded me of that.

 

[Lexicus]

Obligatory

 

[Valka D'Ur]

Link? Can't find it, google is utter trash apparently

Google search has become infested with AI bots.


To answer the question, I didn't see it. I would have had a great view, since it happened in late morning here, on the side of the building where I get sunlight. I wouldn't have even had to move from my chair.

But I'm well outside the path of totality, and had already been up all night. There will be no shortage of video to watch from regions where there was totality.

I know it's not the same, but

I try to catch the lunar eclipses whenever possible, and you don't need any special glasses or pinhole cameras for those. They're perfectly safe to look at with the naked eye.


I just had an email exchange with the local wildlife sanctuary's interpretive centre where I worked back in the '80s. I saw an online news report yesterday that said they have an "astrology expert" who was talking about the eclipse. I'm relieved to hear that they actually have an astrophysicist and for some reason a veteran news reporter interpreted that as "astrology".

 

[Darsnan]

Some pics from the fairly cloudy solar eclipse here in Syracuse:

Getting close:

About the best photo I took:

Don't look directly at the eclipse!