Stereodude
Not really a
The eclipse will be over by then and normal celestial lighting will have returned.
Anybody planning a trip for this event?
- Thread starter snowhiker
- Start date
I wonder if the populace will be in shock, wandering like zombos from retinas scorched by wearing cheap, substandard solar glasses. :evil:
Stereodude
Not really a
I think that depends on the lizard people.
I've seen very few. Is there a prevalence in the Carolinas?
Stereodude
Not really a
That is really a thing?
sechs
Storage? I am Storage!
Weather is generally not looking good for the event.
I was just going to pop outside every once in a while (I'm in the 90% zone), but there's a 40% chance of rain all afternoon....
I was just going to pop outside every once in a while (I'm in the 90% zone), but there's a 40% chance of rain all afternoon....
ddrueding
Fixture
Hard overcast. Had to use the output from the solar panels to tell if anything was happening.
Howell
Storage? I am Storage!
Drove an hour north for clear skies and 1.5 hours of totality. Pictures are mostly crap.
jtr1962
Storage? I am Storage!
Caught a picture at 2:44 PM when the eclipse was at its maximum here:
That was with 4x zoom on my camera. Amazing how small the sun and moon are when you're trying to take a picture of them.
That was with 4x zoom on my camera. Amazing how small the sun and moon are when you're trying to take a picture of them.
CougTek
Hairy Aussie
Here's one genius who didn't miss it :
Apparently, he also thinks the blindness risk of looking directly at an eclipse is a chinese hoax.
Apparently, he also thinks the blindness risk of looking directly at an eclipse is a chinese hoax.
sechs
Storage? I am Storage!
He has alternate facts....
4x a wideangle is still only a short tele not counting that the focal length of such a camera is probably quite small.
The risk depends on the amount of the sun covered and exposure time, but permanent damage can occur in seconds.
It's just stupid to take such risks.
Stereodude
Not really a
I saw it. Totality was awesome!!! Had clear skies.
Pictures aren't very good I think. I wasn't trying very hard. I was trying to soak in the experience.
jtr1962
Storage? I am Storage!
Wish I had been able to travel for this. Next one is in 2024, so maybe then. Better off just soaking up the experience rather than taking pictures. There will be plenty of pictures we can see later, taken with far better equipment than we have.
CougTek
Hairy Aussie
You can only get so far on bike in a day...
jtr1962
Storage? I am Storage!
Has to do more with being stuck home taking care of my mother. She's no longer mentally competent, so I'm shopping, cooking, cleaning, taking care of the bills, doing home repairs, and also helping her shower and get dressed. I can't be out for more than an hour or two. My brother and sister aren't able to help on any kind of regular basis. I really haven't had a break from this for over 3 years. I'm too exhausted to travel at this point even if it were possible for someone to mind my mother.
If she's still alive in 2024 I might be in the same situation unless my brother or sister can help.
Howell
Storage? I am Storage!
1.5 hours? You must have been moving very fast.
Why are the photos poor?
I was completely unprepared to take pictures; and holding a piece of that solar film in front of my phone camera lense did not produce good results.
DrunkenBastard
Storage is cool
Was pretty crap viewing here basically overcast, we were at 70%.
In 2024 however should have 100% at the house.
In 2024 however should have 100% at the house.
Stereodude
Not really a
Since someone else already injected politics into the thread... https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2017/08/american-totality-eclipse-race/537318/
My friend from Cali and I saw the total solar eclipse. And it was amazing.
Ended up on a dirt road in the middle of nowhere Wyoming. The outskirts of Shoshoni, Wyoming to be exact. We went about 100 yards off the road and up a small hill. The weather looks a bit cloudy in the pics, but directly overhead was mostly clear and clouds did not effect eclipse viewing.
And for those wondering: The whole "eclipse experience" just starts to get interesting at 99%. 0-98% = meh, no big deal, quite honestly. In fact I missed the first 5 minutes of the eclipse, going back in forth looking at sun, taking a break, looking back, etc.
In summary: 99% eclipse <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<< TOTALITY. I probably wouldn't drive 10 miles for 99% now that I know it's not much different from 80, 70, 50%.
A tiny bit darker and if you look at sun thru solar glasses you can see the moon eclipsing the sun but, kinda meh, cool I guess but when does the show start? Took 40'ish minutes from start of eclipse to totality, then 2 minutes of ..."Holly friggen shit this is amazing, crazy, cool, WTF, it's as dark as half-an-hour-after-sunset, you can see Venus next to the sun at noon, solar corona"... TOTALITY, then 40 minutes or partial eclipse until things returned to normal. Heck, everybody was packing up and leaving 30 seconds after totality ended. Shows over folks. Let's beat the traffic out of here.
My pics of the eclipse weren't that great. But not bad considering: Totally frantic trying to take pics during totality. I had to align my 200-500mm lens, get focus, set exposure semi decent, etc. No solar filter, shitty tripod supporting 200-500mm lens+camera+grip, no idea on what exposure to use, forget to reset exposure compensation (meter 2/3 stop underexposed), ISO 100 too low for solar eclipse. Started at 1/4000 and then realized I wasn't seeing corona so dropped shutter speed way down. Had to frantically bump ISO up to 800. Meter was saying 1/3 of a sec. Way to slow for that lens on crap tripod, Venus was a blurry mess. AF worked with focus point on edge of sun but forgot to hold AF-ON button to engage VR. Shutter speeds were only 1/30 or 1/60 @ f/5.6 @ ISO 800 to get decent exposure. So Venus is blurry on most shots but sun looked decent. A few pics below. 532,332,776,155,246,183 better pics all over the internet but at least they are mine.
OOPS. Shutter TOO fast can't see the corona. But you can see a ring around moon. ISO 100, 1/4000, f/5.6, @ 500mm.
Decent corona shot. The tiny dot SW of the sun is the Planet Venus. ISO 800, 1/60, f/5.6, @ 500mm.
The "Diamond Ring" as the total eclipse ends. A bit washed out. Ignore the huge, blue, lens flare. ISO 800, 1/30, f/5.6, @ 500mm.
Totally unprepared for taking pics but c'est la vie. At least I got something.
PLUS I had to look around and "enjoy" the eclipse. WELL WORTH THE TRIP. Already seriously thinking about a trip to Texas in 2024. The totality will be approx 4 mins 18 seconds for that one. Can't wait.
Stereodude
Not really a
Someone hit the nail square on the head. Your thoughts exactly mirror mine. There was about 4 really interesting minutes. Totality + about 30-40 seconds on either side of it. The long lead in and lead out are neat, but totally paled in comparison compared to the center few minutes.
How many people were around you in your viewing area? The private island I was on in South Carolina was not too crowded. There were people around, but it wasn't packed or anything. I'm told there's more people there on a typical weekend in the summer.
Howell
Storage? I am Storage!
During the lead up we could tell it was getting cooler, similar to sunrise/sunset.
The odd part was that the shadows indicated mid-day while it was getting darker.
The odd part was that the shadows indicated mid-day while it was getting darker.
sechs
Storage? I am Storage!
People complained here because 10% of the sun is still really bright.
It was basically like a weird sunset with the sun setting in the middle of the sky.
It was basically like a weird sunset with the sun setting in the middle of the sky.
Yep. My friend and others we met at Grand Teton NP and Yellowstone NP after eclipse had the same experiences. About 3-4 amazing minutes the rest was ...... interesting by Meh in comparison.
There were about 30-40 cars spread out on that lonely dirt road but everybody was spread out in little groups or with family. Not really a "group experience" for us. Somebody yelled, "holy crap" in the distance which was amusing but we didn't have the "group experience" viewing the eclipse.
Now on state route 26 in/around Shoshoni, WY is was a zoo. All the turnouts along the highway were filled with cars. Campgrounds, parks, designated "eclipse viewing areas," etc were filled with people. NUTS. The population of Shoshoni, WY probably increased 10-15x from the sleepy 650 to 7,000-10,000 people on Aug 21. Hell the number of cars in WY doubled on Aug 21.
Driving south from Shoshoni was a joke. We got to Riverton, WY and decided to pay $250/night for a motel room, even though we already had a room booked and paid for in Evanston, WY. Worth the expense though as having to drive from Shoshoni back down to Evanston then back up to Togwotee Mountain Lodge the next day would have been 600+ miles.
I'm re-posting my three eclipse images at their full 24MP (6016x4016) resolution as the 1600x1068 crops cut out a lot of detail. Enjoy.
Ring:
Corona:
Diamond ring:
Edit: Postimage {dot} org is kinda sucky, as it resizes the images to fit the screen. Gallery link here. You can click on the "8mb" images and download them if you want to see them at full 24MP res.
Ring:
Corona:
Diamond ring:
Edit: Postimage {dot} org is kinda sucky, as it resizes the images to fit the screen. Gallery link here. You can click on the "8mb" images and download them if you want to see them at full 24MP res.
Stereodude
Not really a
It was a bit of a group experience for us. There were people clustered around in small groups that were a bit spread out, certainly nothing like people shoulder to shoulder or anything though like you see in photos on the internet. People were cheering when totality started and were cheering and clapping when it was over. I would definitely say it was worth the ~$400 for the airline ticket.
Here's a picture I took just after totality was over. It is darker than it might appears in the picture at first glance. Note the reflections from the sodium vapor lights on the water.
I'll definitely be driving to/around this small town in Texas for the eclipse on Mon, Apr 8, 2024 at 1:31 pm. Totality will be 4min18sec in 2024. Can't wait.
Late to the thread but:
I watched it, with a few other people, in the path of totality from the junction point of a dirt road and a tertiary highway in what can only be described as Itchycroth Idaho ... it was apparent that some of the locals were not taking to kindly to all us foreigner folk invading that little speck of the world. Shame about that. But whatever.
Quick thoughts:
- its surprising how much light there is even up to near totality! ... so, yeah, meh to less then 98/99% from now on
- I knew about the temp drop, but I did not expect it to drop so much! i.e. it went from being quite comfortable in tee and shorts to "I wish I had pants and a jacket on" in a very few minutes.
- the way the birds behaved -- getting ready for night was interesting to observe
- the crickets and otherwise near silence during the totality
- my photos were very underwhelming ... however, one of the persons I watched it with got some great shots -- absolute great diamond ring ... I would post, but its not mine to post ... besides, I'm sure you could probably find 63million other pictures of it out there on the internet it you really wanted to see such
- looking forward to seeing the one in 2024 ... which, as has been indicated, is almost twice as long .... and one which I should be able to observe in totality via a short hour or so drive this time.
(Fortunately we didn't get caught in any traffic snarl afterwards -- we went straight to Craters of the Moon NP for a couple of days before heading to Jellystone)
I watched it, with a few other people, in the path of totality from the junction point of a dirt road and a tertiary highway in what can only be described as Itchycroth Idaho ... it was apparent that some of the locals were not taking to kindly to all us foreigner folk invading that little speck of the world. Shame about that. But whatever.
Quick thoughts:
- its surprising how much light there is even up to near totality! ... so, yeah, meh to less then 98/99% from now on
- I knew about the temp drop, but I did not expect it to drop so much! i.e. it went from being quite comfortable in tee and shorts to "I wish I had pants and a jacket on" in a very few minutes.
- the way the birds behaved -- getting ready for night was interesting to observe
- the crickets and otherwise near silence during the totality
- my photos were very underwhelming ... however, one of the persons I watched it with got some great shots -- absolute great diamond ring ... I would post, but its not mine to post ... besides, I'm sure you could probably find 63million other pictures of it out there on the internet it you really wanted to see such
- looking forward to seeing the one in 2024 ... which, as has been indicated, is almost twice as long .... and one which I should be able to observe in totality via a short hour or so drive this time.
(Fortunately we didn't get caught in any traffic snarl afterwards -- we went straight to Craters of the Moon NP for a couple of days before heading to Jellystone)
Better late than never.
- Yep. It's funny that people who actually get to see totality are completely underwhelmed by 98-99% in comparison. Logically I would have thought 99% would be pretty cool, but Meh, not really, at least in comparison to totality.
- Yep, temp drop along with increase in breeze was noticeable. Definitely an eerie, "something's about to happen around here," feeling to the whole experience.
- I didn't see many birds but the cicadas or whatever the local critters were were really buzzing up a storm.
- Same here. Meh photos. And yeah, there are 63 quintillion better photos on the net. POST YOURS ANYWAYS if you can. jtr, SD and myself posted something, so just post what you have. Thanks. Very interested in what my fellow storageforum.net peeps caught vs random internet people.
- How was Jellystone NP? I realized a few important things while visiting Yellowstone: It's HUUUGE and crowded in the summer. Not sure if there was extra traffic do to "eclipse-spillover" but it was Disneyland'ish crowds. You need multiple days to visit everything and you probably need to stay at the lodge as the driving distances are crazy. Like an 80+ mile loop and 100+ mile loop in a rough figure-8 configuration inside the park. Plus driving to/from motel is a long way. On roads that are 30-50mph only. We only got to main visitor center area next to Old Faithful (which we missed). We hiked all the boardwalks around that area and that was all we had time for. 2+ hours driving in from where we stayed (outside Grant Teton NP) and 2+ hours driving back out. Crazy. Plus there was road closures due to re-surfacing being performed. Yeah, it was a lot of driving/waiting for traffic. And crowded. Did I forget to mention the crowds.
If you like a bit of walking/hiking along with sightseeing then Grand Teton NP and Yellowstone NP are awesome, with tons of picture taking opportunities. Be prepared to spend multiple days in each park. My possible annual trip next year will be 9-10 days dedicated to both parks.
- Definitely looking forward to 2024. Totality will last for 4 minutes+. I'll probably head somewhere toward Uvalde, Texas on April 8, 2024, or some other sleepy town. Don't want to be anywhere near the DFW area and that shit-show.
Countdown timer until Monday, April 8, 2024.
This looks like an epic way to view the eclipse. I was in the area too. Too bad I'm too old/out-of-shape to have done it.
jtr1962
Storage? I am Storage!
If I manage to get to this one I think I'll take Amtrak out west as close as it gets me to the centerline, then bike the rest and pitch a tent in the middle of nowhere. I'll probably want to go with a few people. Just don't know anyone that adventurous.
I'd join you, if we weren't on opposite sides of the country. And I was in waaaay better physical shape. Sounds like an epic trip. Only concern is that weather might be a problem and if you needed to travel a couple hundred miles the day before to avoid cloud cover that could be problematic without a car.
There is something to be said about having some people around. Not a Disneyland-like amount of people with 700 screaming kids, but several friends/adults. The "oos and ahs" and "shared amazement" from surrounding people does add a bit to the experience I think.
A total eclipse should be on everybody's "bucket list" of things to do before they die.
jtr1962
Storage? I am Storage!
The whole cloud cover thing could be an issue. Probably why I'd want to go west even though Buffalo will have a good view. Just my luck Buffalo will be overcast that day. Go out west, particularly in those small desert towns, and clear skies are way more likely.
Definitely want to do this with people. I'm going to start right now trying to talk my brother and sister into it. My brother might opt to just drive the whole way. Doesn't matter to me much so long as I'm there (although getting there by Amtrak/bike would definitely be more "epic"). One of his friends actually went to Wyoming (I think) for this year's eclipse.
Yellowstone was very enjoyable. Yes, very large park, so impossible to see everything ... you'd likely want to explore various sections over a number of trips (four or five?) and then choose which you'd like the best and then focus on those areas in future.
Yeah, very crowded in many areas. Arrived at the West Yellowstone gate around noon the first day (i.e. just about the worst time of day to be driving around as its about the same time that the typical tourist decides that they should go see things) ... So, needless to say, the plan to just go see old faithful first and get it over with was a bit unrealistic. Traffic was real bad ..we kept stopping along the way to see other things hoping that we might catch a break in the congestion sometime in the 90 min window between o'faithful eruptions... in the end, I think we got to about within 8miles and then turned around to go elsewhere ... it really wasn't worth wasting gas in a virtual crawl. Never did make it back that way. Camped outside the park first night and went back in early the next morning (same way -- west gate to Madison ... very light traffic and lots of wildlife) and then up to Indian Creek and secured a site. For the remaining time in the park, we explored attractions, vistas and hikes along that upper loop (Norris, Mammoth HS, Tower-Roosevelt, Canyon).
I liked the geysers at Norris better then all the stuff I saw heading down towards O'Faithful. I was there (Norris basin) later in the day too (from about 7-dusk) so there weren't that many people. I found all the hotspring stuff around Mammoth to be kinda boring after seeing the first couple of them. Nor did the namesake town really interest me. The drive along to Tower area is nice. And I really enjoyed the canyon area. Canyon Village spoke to me, and I thought that it would be a nice place to stay (though it looked like the lodges would be major $$$). I unknowingly ripped the park off and got a free shower at Canyon -- I was talking to a couple of the ladies who were working at the facility and then must have walked right in like I owned the place. I found out later that your supposed to pay ($4.20 IIRC) ... in honesty, I thought they were free any way -- I'd been talking to a real helpful attendant at the Madison campground* the first day and I could have sworn that she said that your park pass allowed you to get a shower at any of the spots that offered the facilities. ... * she did say to me that the park is nuts at most times, but was even nuttier because of the eclipse btw
Next time I go, Id like to check out around the Lake Village / Yellowstone Lake area ... The Northeast section might be interesting too, and suspect that its a lot less frequented by the hordes of tourists.
Thanks for the link.
Hiking up a mountain -- not a problem. Adding some scramble into the mix -- okay, can do, but don't really like doing. Looks like they may also had to do a bit of bona fide rock climbing too maybe ... that I'm not experienced in, so would rule it out ... nor would I want to do it in a rush to make a deadline ... plus others behind you attempting the same .... And while it looked beautiful from their vantage point, the eclipse itself looked the same as it did for me (standing on solid dirt road terra firma, at probably some 6-7000ft lower elevation) ... but I can appreciate what an amazing experience it must have been for them.
I'll brave the wilds of somewhere between Hamilton and Fort Erie Ontario and take my chances on the sky being clear ... I have friends in Hamilton (edge of totality), so could stay there the night before and avoid the traffic ... the QEW/403 route from Toronto to Hamilton is bad enough as is,so I can't imagine how terrible it will be the day of ...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_eclipse_of_April_8,_2024