Anyone going to see the Eclipse?

[CaptainF]

Got to experience totality in Corvallis, at a friends house, where he threw a party. We all got on the roof before totality began, and the temperature had dropped maybe 5°F at that point, just about 10:00am local time.

The weather was beautiful, clear, warm, not a cloud in the sky, maybe about 77°F(25°C). Couldn't have asked for better conditions. As totality began around 10:15am, cheers erupted basically all over town, and it was amazing. The shimmering of the solar corona at the edge of the moon is truly unforgettable. I think we got about 1 minute 40 seconds of totality, which may be brief, but it was magical. The sky got dark, and you could see a "sunrise" of sorts on the horizon as streetlights came on all over town and birds started to sing a different song almost instantly. Then it was over!

I was lucky that I got to see my first ever total eclipse without having to invest any effort in traveling, since it was right in my backyard! If you can go see one yourself, don't miss out!

 

[Bootstoots]

Unfortunately I had just gotten back from a longish trip in the other direction and had no time. And there were cirrus clouds preventing a truly unobstructed view. But I still got to see 93.5% totality in Bloomington, IL, through a pair of welding lenses. The sky got noticeably darker, as though a storm were approaching, and birds were noticeably confused if nowhere near as confused as the ones in Carbondale. Human response to light is logarithmic, so a fall of ~1.2 log points might not impress people who were expecting something much larger. But still, I crudely calculated that we got to see something like the light level in the upper atmosphere of Jupiter, just below the thinnest clouds (cirrus clouds of ammonia ice in its case; water ice in our case).

BTW, the next total solar eclipse is in less than 7 years. It comes up from the SW and intersects this eclipse's path right in the same Carbondale/Cape Girardeau/Paducah/New Madrid area. This is the heart of the New Madrid fault zone, and the odds of getting two total eclipses in 7 years at one geographic location are absolutely miniscule. If I were an astrologer, or even just given to any kind of superstition, I'd interpret this as a really, really bad omen about literally the worst natural disaster we would ever realistically see in the USA in our lifetimes (i.e. throwing out large asteroids and supervolcanoes).

The only possibly worse thing than an 8.0 in the mid-Mississippi valley is a 9.0 in the Cascadia fault zone, which would devastate lots of the Pacific Northwest. But they actually take seismic codes semi-seriously, and their geology limits wave propagation outside the rupture area. Earthquakes in the Midwest/Upper South happen on a type of old (> 1 billion years) landform that propagates waves as well as anything on the planet. The biggest New Madrid quake in 1812 (mag ~8.1) changed the course of the Mississippi river making a bunch of oxbow lakes everywhere, caused severe structural damage not just in IL, MO, KY, AR, and TN but also in Cincinnati (380 mi away), minor damage in Philadelphia, and rang church bells in Boston. And we have no real seismic codes at all here, so much of our already questionable buildings and infrastructure would just collapse all over the region. Price tag easily hundreds of billions, death toll probably >100,000, and so on.

Good thing I'm not superstitious or into astrology. But I might be looking to move either north (WI, MN) or south (TX) anyway once I finish this degree.

 

[LucyDuke]

That moment when the sun came back though, that split second before you had to look away.... POW so cool.

That was the most amazing image that's going to be lodged in my brain.. and perhaps as damage on my retinas.. until I die. The corona was astonishing, the blackness of the moon in its middle was.. holy hell that's the thing that was biting into it. The moon is not supposed to look like that. It was a bit hazy where we were so there was not a lot of detail to the enormous corona, but the diamond ring at the end was more spectacular than I can express. The whole brightness of the sun, but only at one tiny point on the edge of a ring of what a moment ago was the brightest thing visible. The biggest thing in the sky, larger than the sun, and then a tiny point that could not possibly be, but was, the full glare of the photosphere.

Then looking around at the ground and the trees and the people as the full 'sunrise' from twilight on every horizon a moment ago to high noon took a minute or two. Five minutes ago it was high hot August in the south. Then it was chilly dark night. And then a couple minutes later it was noon again. Unbelievable and unforgettable. And the roosters and the other birds freaking out. It wasn't just us and the other humans experiencing this freak coincidence, earth knew too. Animals couldn't understand why the night changed its mind.


We drove over a thousand miles south(&west) then north(&east). The drive home was a straight shot from Monday afternoon until Tuesday night. On our way south the traffic was unremarkable, there were some crusts of rush hour but we stopped Saturday night for a hotel and were close and early enough Sunday morning to miss any real craziness. Driving home we pushed through snarls many miles long. Rest stops along the highway were overflowing, as many as thirty or forty vehicles parked before and after the ramps for the stop, as early as a few hours after sunset, hundreds of miles from the path of totality, as late as when I took a nap in the wee hours. Rush hour level traffic snarls at 1 and 2 and 3 and 4am. I'm glad we missed that on the way down.

I have family with perfectly-positioned land in Maine for the next run in 2024, but I've decided I'd rather travel to the desert. The week preceding the event was pointlessly agonizing obsessing over cloud forecasts, and we got truly lucky, but atmospheric moisture still dampened the full effect of the corona. A few thousand miles justifies flying, and if I can secure a nice elevated location I'm optimistic about watching the umbra approach on land instead of just watching the edges of the crescent sun shorten. We saw practically maximum totality, 2:39, but I want to stare at that corona through dry skies longer. I want to look around more. The preciousness of that image happening in real time... seeing MERCURY, mercury is always there, it's always there! and you can never see it!... human life is short. I'll spend more time clipping one toenail in my entire life than there even is available corona to stare at. I want to balance that as much as I can manage. Best diamond rings to measure a life by. Better to see those toenails of photosphere.


The driving was agonizing and the trip was expensive and the camping was rough and the heat was unbearable and I haven't slept a half-restful night in five days but I'd spend the rest of my life doing it again and again.

 

[Disgustipated]

I'm back from my Idaho vacation. I actually stayed in Northern Utah to avoid outrageous hotel fees.

It truly was amazing. Anything less than totality isn't all that great, because it's still pretty bright even with a sliver showing. Only bad thing was it was kind of short, and it wasn't completely dark. I was in Eastern Idaho at the edge of the National Forest just next to Victor, Idaho. Perfect place. Almost centerline (Victor was centerline), the difference probably was only a couple of seconds. This town is located very close to the Wyoming border. Not a cloud in the sky, perfect weather.

I saw it with not a single person within 100 yards. I avoided most traffic by leaving Layton Utah at 3:50AM MDT, and getting in position by around 8AM. Unfortunately I hit quite a bit of traffic on the way back. But I made the mistake of wanting to see Grand Teton National Park since it was so close. The traffic going into Jackson, Wymoning took an hour to get through heading back south from the NP. I also hit a bit of traffic on 89, I wanted to take 89 instead of I-15 because I never seen it, and it's a very scenic drive. I was hoping the traffic would die down in a couple of hours, but it didn't. But it was still worth it, and the scenic drive was awesome as well.

I was in the forest, so as for wildlife, the birds did get quiet. Especially the smaller birds, though I did hear one larger bird squak, but I think he eventually quieted down as well. Didn't see any other animals like deer. No mountain lions or bears thankfully.

Texas 2024 is 4+ minute totality!!

4 + minutes! Really? I wasn't planning on seeing it, but I think I will. I admit the time on this totality went too fast. I kind of wished I took less pictures and enjoyed it more. If I go next time, no pictures. I'm definitely recommend seeing one totality in our lifetimes. But I may check this one out as well. Plus I've never really explored Texas as far as touristy things.

I also saw some interesting "wavy" light effects on the ground when there was just a sliver of sun showing. I thought that was pretty neat. I tried to take video of it, I haven't watched it to see if it actually showed up on the camera.

I'm glad I picked a remote national forest rather than stay close to Idaho Falls which probably had a ton of people. It was an awesome spot away from the crowds.

 

[Disgustipated]

"The longest eclipse will occur on June 25, 2522, with a maximum duration of totality of 7 minutes, 12 seconds. [127] "

According to Wikipedia for this solar eclipse cycle. I wonder if I can stay along that long. I may just be a brain in a jar by then.

 

[Serutan]

This.

The sun's photosphere is so bright that even the faintest sliver outshines the Corona, But when it is completely obstructed it completely transforms and you see the whisps of superheated plasma.

Reminds you of the fact it's a giant dynamic roiling fusion reactor with insane electromagnetc crazy stuff not just a giant heat lamp.


Where were you?

Just south of Lone Pine, Idaho. "only" 2m 7s.

 

[Quintillus]

I saw it from a bit south of Knoxville, TN. Wasn't even aware it was happened until 2-3 weeks before, and didn't have plans until the Wednesday before, but it worked out. Traffic was not as bad as expected, either - apparently far more people went to Nashville. The worst part of the traffic was on the way back near Cincinnati close to midnight of all places, where Nashville and Knoxville traffic merged and the Interstate was down to one lane due to construction.

But the experience was really cool. One of my friend had brought a telescope and a cardboard box to project the sun onto; it worked pretty well despite having to adjust it every couple minutes to keep it focused on the sun. I also saw the "wavy" light effects that Disgustipated saw; my friend with the telescope earlier had pointed out how the edges of the sun as projected onto the box were blurry due to what's called atmospheric reaction, and the wavy lights across the ground right before totality were the same phenomenon, only visible without optics. It was probably only 5-10 seconds where we were, and as I didn't know it would be visible on the ground I didn't even think to try to take a video of it.

We got just enough cloud coverage during the partial eclipse for my friend's DSLR on a tripod to get some really cool pictures where the sun looked like a really bright moon on a partially cloudy night. Thankfully the clouds cleared up later and the sky was clear for the total eclipse.

Temperatures cooled off by what felt like 15 degrees. We were sweating pretty heavily while adjusting the telescope early on in the eclipse but by the last 10% it was pleasantly cool and no one was sweating. But by the time we left town about an hour and a half after totality, it was just as hot as it had been in the early afternoon. The really noticeable effects - light quality, crickets awakening, largest temperature drop - were really only noticeable in the last 5% though. My friends who stayed in Ohio and got 85-86% totality couldn't tell much of a difference.

And I agree with Hygro and Lucy and Perfection, it was really cool when the sun just started to come back from behind the moon. It quickly became overpoweringly bright and brilliant, and I had the sense to avoid burning it into my retinas forever, but it was really beautiful, even more so than the total eclipse itself, and far shorter. Like the sun coming out from behind the Earth in the Civ4 intro, far faster than any sunrise, only millions of times brighter, and brightening everything around you at the same time.

 

[Bootstoots]

You have to be knowing what you're looking for (and have fairly low expectations) for a partial eclipse to be very satisfying. From my position, I was able to see the crescent sun by naked eye for about half a second before my photoreceptors saturated. It was noticeably darker and cooler, and birds were singing differently, but it wouldn't impress anyone who thought human vision responded linearly rather than logarithmically to light levels. It's just that you have to know how human response to light works and have reasonable expectations. The light levels at just after sunset are about 99% totality; my 93.5% would be more like when the sun is low but about 20 minutes from setting.

I do wish I'd have gone down to see it, but it was the only day I had to get some critical work done, and it seemed it would be cloudy with traffic jams in southern IL, so I just settled for a partial. Hopefully I'll be able to make the 2024 one. There's also an annular eclipse in 2023 (link) visible from southern Oregon to south Texas, and then down over most of Central America, Colombia, and northern Brazil.

 

[Quintillus]

Indeed, I saw a partial one once before, and looking up historical ones, it was this one from 12/25/2000. It was only about 50% where I was, and while it was cool to see the sun as an crescent through eclipse glasses, that was the only noticeable difference. But I suppose that I could remember seeing an eclipse on Christmas day more than 16 years later, even if I couldn't remember which year it was, is still something.

I did hear it was cloudy in the Carbondale area.

Perhaps I'll check out the 2023 one, depending on where I am. Should be more feasible than the 2021 annular eclipse on the Hudson Bay. I definitely plan on seeing the 2024 total one - not only will it be a nice follow-up to this one, but it will be visible from my parents' backyard.

 

[Nexlev]

I was in Prineville, OR for the eclipse. Wasn't at the big party, I was in the sleepy town.

It was pretty friggin awesome.