How far would you travel to see The Eclipse?

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jimmyq
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Re: How far would you travel to see The Eclipse?

Post by jimmyq »

I drove 301.5 miles to be in the path to view the total eclipse (in far western NC), so that's exactly how far I'm willing to travel to see the eclipse. But I also get to do some hiking in the mountains of NC, so it's not a wasted trip even if it clouds up tomorrow.
island
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Re: How far would you travel to see The Eclipse?

Post by island »

OP like you we live in S CA and my spouse decided last week he was going to go to Idaho to see it. I thought he was nuts when he mentioned it and for once I was glad I had a job that requires planning for time off months in advance.
His sister and some others had planned for this well in advance and were road tripping from the Midwest and N CA to a campground at a lake close to the path of totality. She's been asking to come and swept up in they hype, finally decided why not.

For tomorrow, they have reserved parking spots in a small town within the path of totality and will head there tomorrow AM. I'm picturing Woodstock like traffic jam, but we'll see.

He initially thought he'd drive the full distance there on Sat which would have been crazy. Convinced him to leave Fri instead. Stayed at a B&B somewhere in the middle of nowhere about half way. Will start home Mon after the eclipse...with a zillion others I assume, and stay overnight again somewhere.
Long drive, but so far worth it. Nice scenery and nice campground at a lake with lots of hiking.
Of course easy to throw together last minute when most of the arrangements were already made by someone else. Just had to rent a car (cheap thru Costco), get the one nite hotels, pack a tent, sleeping bag and a few things.

For all of you that are viewing the eclipse, please post back about your experience! 8-)
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Re: How far would you travel to see The Eclipse?

Post by Nicolas »

I just arrived at St. Louis from the north, six hour trip, as expected. Traffic south was pretty heavy but no significant delays. The rest stops along the freeway were jammed. Traffic in the other direction noticeably lighter. The DOT electronic signs warn of heavy traffic due to the eclipse on 8/21 which may extend through 8/22.

Tomorrow morning we'll drive the last 45 minutes to near the center of totality. Weather forecast says "scattered thunderstorms" :annoyed but right now the skies are mostly clear, hope they're wrong.
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Re: How far would you travel to see The Eclipse?

Post by c078342 »

On one hand, I'm encouraged that ordinary Americans are interested enough in a celestial event like a total eclipse to travel to witness it in some manner. On the other hand, I am disappointed that these same people are not clamoring for the US to finally expand it's space exploration program to return to the moon and then Mars. I grew up with the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo programs. Tremendous benefits accrued to society from then. [OT comment removed by moderator prudent]
rvs323
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Re: How far would you travel to see The Eclipse?

Post by rvs323 »

Apparently approximately 278 miles/4.5 hours... to Eddyville KY...hoping its all been worth it.
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Re: How far would you travel to see The Eclipse?

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House Blend
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Re: How far would you travel to see The Eclipse?

Post by House Blend »

I perused Google Maps looking for signs of the traffic apoceclipse.

Not much currently--mostly green in the totality path, with a few ~10 mile stretches of red on interstates here and there. Maybe I would have seen more backroads in red at higher resolution.

I will miss out on totality, but have a plan to walk ~200 yards over to where our Astronomy Dept. has set up some solar telescopes and related tech outdoors.
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Re: How far would you travel to see The Eclipse?

Post by Lindrobe »

runner3081 wrote: Fri Aug 11, 2017 4:54 pm Honestly, zero miles. Doesn't really interest me.
I am glad that I am not the only one :shock:
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Re: How far would you travel to see The Eclipse?

Post by PFInterest »

I traveled to work. That's it.
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Re: How far would you travel to see The Eclipse?

Post by bmelissa545 »

We are driving about 5 hours! We live in Chicago and have to drive all the way to the most Southern tip of Illinois.
What is ridiculous is the cost of these solar glasses... They are going for upwards of $50 right now.
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Re: How far would you travel to see The Eclipse?

Post by stoptothink »

My next-door neighbor was reselling eclipse glasses for $10-15. Last night I had people knocking at my door past 11pm. This morning there was a line of cars down the block starting in his driveway. Very annoying for the rest of the neighborhood (my wife was not pleased last night, as today was the 1st day of school for my 5yr old who could not get to sleep), but I bet he made a pretty penny.
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Re: How far would you travel to see The Eclipse?

Post by prudent »

If people can get $50 at the last minute, long-term investors might consider buying up eclipse glasses starting tomorrow for next to nothing and holding until 2024 when another total eclipse runs from Texas to Maine. :)
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Re: How far would you travel to see The Eclipse?

Post by itstoomuch »

It is worth it.
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Re: How far would you travel to see The Eclipse?

Post by catdude »

itstoomuch wrote: Mon Aug 21, 2017 1:02 pm It is worth it.
Salem OR.
+100

Just got back from a quick trip up to Redmond. Totality is pretty dang cool and awesome -- even 45 seconds of it, which is what I got. Redmond was on the very edge of totality. Many thanks to BH Nearing Destination for mentioning the ODOT TripCheck website -- I took a look at it this morning and saw that traffic up Rt 97 was pretty normal. Thanks also to BH TravelGeek for suggesting that I just try to get to Redmond -- that strategy worked very well...
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Re: How far would you travel to see The Eclipse?

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nedsaid
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Re: How far would you travel to see The Eclipse?

Post by nedsaid »

Didn't have totality where I lived but maybe 98% or so. It looked like twilight but it did not get dark. Pretty much, I stepped out of my front door and also had the TV going. The TV gave you better views. A neighbor let me use his pinhole viewer to watch the eclipse. I saw the carport lights go on.

I did see what looked like shadows of heat waves on the ground. Not sure what that was. I wondered if I was seeing shadows of the smoke (our geographic area has experienced forest fires) or from the jet stream itself.
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sambb
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Re: How far would you travel to see The Eclipse?

Post by sambb »

so worth it, so worth it. I know some will say it was just 2 minutes of fun, but the same could be said for a thrill ride, a baseball game in which the winning homerun occurred at a certain point, etc. Lots of things can be done for the 2 minutes, but overall it was a cool experience.
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Re: How far would you travel to see The Eclipse?

Post by lazydavid »

Zero inches. Put the NASA feed up on one of the 70" monitors which normally displays a performance graph. Aside from the cloudcover frequently blacking out the entire picture, it was pretty cool.
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Re: How far would you travel to see The Eclipse?

Post by ResearchMed »

nedsaid wrote: Mon Aug 21, 2017 1:13 pm Didn't have totality where I lived but maybe 98% or so. It looked like twilight but it did not get dark. Pretty much, I stepped out of my front door and also had the TV going. The TV gave you better views. A neighbor let me use his pinhole viewer to watch the eclipse. I saw the carport lights go on.

I did see what looked like shadows of heat waves on the ground. Not sure what that was. I wondered if I was seeing shadows of the smoke (our geographic area has experienced forest fires) or from the jet stream itself.
They are called "eclipse snakes".
I don't think they are fully understood (and definitely not by me!).

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Re: How far would you travel to see The Eclipse?

Post by Nestegg_User »

You're welcome catdude

It was nice in totality-- definitely felt the chill of the temperature drop, lots of "fureners " (cali, Washington, and a few others) The waystop at the county line was packed, as seen on tripcheck, now they are heading back your way :shock:
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topper1296
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Re: How far would you travel to see The Eclipse?

Post by topper1296 »

I work on music row in Nashville TN and we had an eclipse viewing party at work. Pretty funny seeing street lights turn on during the day and hearing crickets chirp. It was a bit warm out, but perfect weather otherwise since the clouds stayed away. :sharebeer
crg11
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Re: How far would you travel to see The Eclipse?

Post by crg11 »

Excited, in 2024 we'll have a full eclipse here in the northern New England.
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ResearchMed
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Re: How far would you travel to see The Eclipse?

Post by ResearchMed »

topper1296 wrote: Mon Aug 21, 2017 2:32 pm I work on music row in Nashville TN and we had an eclipse viewing party at work. Pretty funny seeing street lights turn on during the day and hearing crickets chirp. It was a bit warm out, but perfect weather otherwise since the clouds stayed away. :sharebeer
Where were you? (Not sure where "music row" is, as we are from out of town)

We were at Legislative Plaza, and... there was this huge cloud... at the wrong time.
We were able to get some great glimpses of the decreasing crescent, etc., but at totality, no actual view. :annoyed

But the darkness was very, very odd, and almost a bit dizzying.
(It's a bit sobering to think about how ancients must have felt when this happened, before it was understood and predicted - with no comprehension that it would be "over" soon. Yes, one could imagine that "dragons got the sun god" or something like that.)
Some nearby streetlights did come on.

We'll try again in 2024 if we are able...

We had a great time in Nashville, and we are happy we made the trek.

RM
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tennisplyr
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Re: How far would you travel to see The Eclipse?

Post by tennisplyr »

Saw a crescent at peak with glasses, pretty cool. Also temp seemed to drop a bit here in FL.
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nedsaid
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Re: How far would you travel to see The Eclipse?

Post by nedsaid »

ResearchMed wrote: Mon Aug 21, 2017 1:59 pm
nedsaid wrote: Mon Aug 21, 2017 1:13 pm Didn't have totality where I lived but maybe 98% or so. It looked like twilight but it did not get dark. Pretty much, I stepped out of my front door and also had the TV going. The TV gave you better views. A neighbor let me use his pinhole viewer to watch the eclipse. I saw the carport lights go on.

I did see what looked like shadows of heat waves on the ground. Not sure what that was. I wondered if I was seeing shadows of the smoke (our geographic area has experienced forest fires) or from the jet stream itself.
They are called "eclipse snakes".
I don't think they are fully understood (and definitely not by me!).

RM
The best explaniation is from an article in the Columbia Daily Tribune:

http://www.columbiatribune.com/news/201 ... ay-slither
Shadow bands don’t appear with every eclipse and the phenomenon, when it does occur, is variable.

“Instead, the intensity, motion and direction of these bands seems to be related to the same phenomenon that makes stars twinkle,” the article states.

Turbulent air in the upper atmosphere refracts the beams of light, the article states, which causes the light to be focused and unfocused in a random, rapidly changing pattern.
Another explanation is that since the edge of the moon is not perfectly smooth, there are variations in light because the moon is a bit jagged. I personally think the atmospheric effect makes more sense. The experts don't know for sure what causes this.

The newspaper appears to be located in Missouri, which was also in the path of totality.
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Good Listener
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Re: How far would you travel to see The Eclipse?

Post by Good Listener »

Having seen it on tv today, I wouldn't travel for it. On TV, I saw multiple locations undergoing the eclipse and saw it better than looking through the glasses I suspect. At the real sites you are dealing with less than 2 hours of the whole thing and 2 minutes of totality. But some people love the event and I am glad they got to enjoy it. It's like when I paid a bundle to go to a world series game, which is just as easily seen on tv. But the travel was a lot less..
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Re: How far would you travel to see The Eclipse?

Post by catdude »

BTW, one of the things that struck me about the experience was the feeling I got in the 10 - 15 minute period before totality. It was like dusk, only it felt weird. It was quite eerie. Did anyone else get that feeling? I don't know if there was the same feeling post-totality -- by that time, I was on the road, trying to beat the traffic back to Bend.
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Re: How far would you travel to see The Eclipse?

Post by snoopdoug1 »

I got the same eerie feeling. Total eclipse was about 50 seconds for us, and pretty freaking cool. The only light was light from the top of clouds in the distance. Porch lights came on. A really neat experience.
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Re: How far would you travel to see The Eclipse?

Post by utvolfan »

Almost two minutes of totality from my back deck! What an amazing experience! Agree that it was rather eerie as totality approached...complete stillness. Thank you Mother Nature for cooperating!
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Re: How far would you travel to see The Eclipse?

Post by SimpleGift »

We only got a 98% eclipse at our place, about 20 miles south of Bend, Oregon. But it was still a remarkable event. The skies gradually darkened, the temperature dropped a few degrees, and the light was quite eerie and unusual.
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Re: How far would you travel to see The Eclipse?

Post by LadyGeek »

I was in the 79% partial eclipse area. My employer gave out "ISO approved" viewing glasses, so I was good to go.

It's a good thing I started watching early, as the clouds were rolling in. Awesome. 8-)

Viewing got more difficult due to cloud cover. As soon as the maximum coverage hit (75%), the sky went solid overcast. The clouds disappeared 5 minutes after the eclipse was over.
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Re: How far would you travel to see The Eclipse?

Post by ChefIlliniwek »

Drove about 5hours and would do 10 next time easy. Truly the difference between 99% and totality was everything. It was probably the most amazing site of my life.
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Re: How far would you travel to see The Eclipse?

Post by TravelforFun »

Flew from Fort Worth, TX to Nashville, TN, then drove to Lebanon, TN. Totally worth it!
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Re: How far would you travel to see The Eclipse?

Post by Nicolas »

We drove six hours to Missouri and experienced 2:26 of totality from the Washington Park and Fairgrounds, Washington, MO. I chose this site over St. Clair, MO as they were supposed to be mobbed by 50,000 people. They had ten seconds more of totality than we had, but I didn't want the mob. The locals ran an "eclipse event" here very competently!

Traffic driving in was fairly busy but not overwhelming as some had warned. We arrived about 10 AM. First Contact was at 11:49 AM with totality at 1:17 PM. Free parking on the grass just like at the county fair. We left an hour and a quarter after totality (most of the crowd had already departed) and had some delay on the back roads we were on, at one intersection police were directing traffic. But nothing too severe.

The weather forecasts last night of first "mostly cloudy", and then "scattered thunderstorms" were wrong! We had some high thin cirrus clouds at first while waiting for "first contact" and then before that they disappeared and we had an unobstructed view.

The 15 minutes or so before totality were very weird, we went from twilight to darkness very fast, temperature and winds dropped, but the sky never went pitch black during totality as I had expected. It turned a dark indigo blue and the cicadas all started raising a racket! We saw one planet, not sure which, and no stars. The "diamond ring" was really stunning, it sparkled brightly! Photos don't do justice. Totality seemed longer to me than the 2:26 it was supposed to be, but that was just my impression as I'm sure the astronomers were right. I didn't time it. As the moon exited totality I saw a red edge to the corona.

The moon started its bite at the 1 o'clock position on the sun, but when it left the sun it did so at the 9 o'clock position. You would think it would've exited at 7 o'clock but it did not. Probably because the earth moved in its rotation during occlusion (?)

I'm ready for 2024!
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Re: How far would you travel to see The Eclipse?

Post by Nate79 »

Walked to the front yard. Pretty underwhelming and was expecting it to be more. From what I see there is definitely two camps of people. Those that think it was awesome and those that yawn and go back to real life.
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Re: How far would you travel to see The Eclipse?

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Re: How far would you travel to see The Eclipse?

Post by Nate79 »

letsgobobby wrote: Mon Aug 21, 2017 6:22 pm
Nate79 wrote: Mon Aug 21, 2017 6:18 pm Walked to the front yard. Pretty underwhelming and was expecting it to be more. From what I see there is definitely two camps of people. Those that think it was awesome and those that yawn and go back to real life.
In Portland you only got 99%. The difference is everything.
I guess so. I almost fell asleep watching it.
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Re: How far would you travel to see The Eclipse?

Post by itstoomuch »

^even that last 0.01%, you still have to wear the googles. Then when at full occultation (?), you cant see a thing with the googles, so you take them off. and WoW.
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Re: How far would you travel to see The Eclipse?

Post by reriodan »

Anything less than totality vs totality is literally a night and day difference. Totality is EVERYTHING, and it was amazing to witness. Can't wait for the next one :D. If you are anywhere close to totality you really have to get there, because it is so different. Painful to think people were in the high 90%s and didn't get in the totality line.
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Re: How far would you travel to see The Eclipse?

Post by Helo80 »

I was in a very "meh" area.... I looked outside during the peak for my area and it was still bright out.

If I were in a good viewing area, I suppose I might have gotten excited.
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Re: How far would you travel to see The Eclipse?

Post by LadyGeek »

Nicolas wrote: Mon Aug 21, 2017 5:08 pm...
The moon started its bite at the 1 o'clock position on the sun, but when it left the sun it did so at the 9 o'clock position. You would think it would've exited at 7 o'clock but it did not. Probably because the earth moved in its rotation during occlusion (?)

I'm ready for 2024!
Nothing changed due to occlusion. The moon moves as it always does. It's all in the geometry.

First, your perception of how you see the moon and the sun standing on the surface of the earth: Coincidence that sun and moon seem same size? | Space | EarthSky

Next, the moon's orbital plane is not aligned with the earth. From Wikipedia: Orbit of the Moon
There's an offset, so it doesn't cut through the sun in a straight line. Additionally, everything is moving in circles. It's not a line, but an arc.

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Re: How far would you travel to see The Eclipse?

Post by catdude »

letsgobobby wrote: Mon Aug 21, 2017 6:22 pm
Nate79 wrote: Mon Aug 21, 2017 6:18 pm Walked to the front yard. Pretty underwhelming and was expecting it to be more. From what I see there is definitely two camps of people. Those that think it was awesome and those that yawn and go back to real life.
In Portland you only got 99%. The difference is everything.
Put it this way... a partial eclipse is neat, but after seeing the beauty of a total eclipse, I had no interest in sticking around to see the post-totality partial eclipse. I got back in my car and drove home.
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Re: How far would you travel to see The Eclipse?

Post by jadedfalcons »

I live right smack dab in one of the best places to see it. Supposedly, John Travolta was here as well to see it.

The eclipse started on time, and after a few minutes...the rain moved in.

Didn't get to see the sun one iota during totality, just a bit over 2½ minutes of darkness, then lightening up. The rain & sun moved on a bit over an hour after totality was done with. Pretty big disappointment to the town.

Oh well, hopefully we won't have a bunch of people trying to return their glasses tomorrow.
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Re: How far would you travel to see The Eclipse?

Post by One Ping »

catdude wrote: Mon Aug 21, 2017 6:52 pm
letsgobobby wrote: Mon Aug 21, 2017 6:22 pm
Nate79 wrote: Mon Aug 21, 2017 6:18 pm Walked to the front yard. Pretty underwhelming and was expecting it to be more. From what I see there is definitely two camps of people. Those that think it was awesome and those that yawn and go back to real life.
In Portland you only got 99%. The difference is everything.
Put it this way... a partial eclipse is neat, but after seeing the beauty of a total eclipse, I had no interest in sticking around to see the post-totality partial eclipse. I got back in my car and drove home.
^^^ This! Like some other things, the difference between being close (99% or even 99.9%) and going all the way (100%) cannot be truly described to, or appreciated by, those who have not experienced it.
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Re: How far would you travel to see The Eclipse?

Post by vectorizer »

It was hot and hazy in Santee SC, and some clouds were rolling about, but we were lucky to see the entire eclipse ex. the last half hour of partial. It's about 10 hours drive here from home in Philly area.

To reiterate what others wrote, there is no comparison to the thrilling magic of seeing totality. You take the filter glasses off and see something astonishing. This was my first one. It's back again in the US in 2024, and I will be compelled to see it again ... if I'm still around.
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Re: How far would you travel to see The Eclipse?

Post by GerryL »

99% totality here in PDX. I stood at the chimp exhibit for an hour recording activity at 5 minute intervals. Chimps were not impressed. Well, our male was impressed by the fact that several female keepers were out watching and recording him and ... something in the sky, apparently. From what I heard, none of the other animal observers at the zoo saw any significant behavior changes. What was remarkable was the lack of traffic coming into the zoo and at the zoo. Going home reminded me of traffic here 25 years ago. Nostalgic.
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Re: How far would you travel to see The Eclipse?

Post by Church Lady »

I watched it on TV, only today (of all days!) the signal is flaky. I did get to see the corona on the TV. It was neat to see the sun spitting stuff out. I doubt I would have seen that had I showed up in person. I also had NASA TV going on the computer.

About 15 minutes before the maximum in my area, I noticed the house was somewhat darker than usual. I went outside which seemed as an overcast day. I used my pinhole paper and finger mesh to view the crescents. It was surprisingly easy to do, but the image is too small to get excited about. Other than that, I would have had no idea an eclipse was in progress. After a few minutes, I went back into the house and caught the last few minutes of Charleston, SC's eclipse.
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Re: How far would you travel to see The Eclipse?

Post by EddyB »

Nate79 wrote: Mon Aug 21, 2017 6:18 pm Walked to the front yard. Pretty underwhelming and was expecting it to be more. From what I see there is definitely two camps of people. Those that think it was awesome and those that yawn and go back to real life.
What could be more "real"?
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Re: How far would you travel to see The Eclipse?

Post by neilpilot »

With my airplane down for inspection I decided to drive the 180 miles to the airport I would have otherwise flown to, KY Dam Park Airport. We left really early, 5am, fearing heavy traffic for the normally 3.5 hour drive. No traffic, and we arrived at 8:30.

Sky remained cloudless until after the eclipse, and it was totally worth the drive. I live in an area with 94% totality, but at M34 we had 2:28 minutes with our glasses off. Drove a 7.5 hour round trip today, something I almost never do; that's why I have the plane.
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Re: How far would you travel to see The Eclipse?

Post by barnaclebob »

I was lucky enough to view it from 8500ft in my friends bottom wing airplane. 2.5 hours round trip from just south of Seattle along with another 45 minutes of driving to his hanger on each end of that. Burned less gas than our backup driving plan.

It was really cool seeing it start to look like dusk for about 15 minutes and playing with the shadows trying to make pinholes with our hands. Then the feeling of acceleration as the shadow came into view, barreling down on us, and then passed over us was incredible. We could see the glow all around us on the horizon, the corona, diamond flash etc. The volcanoes went dark and then the light hit them again. You really got the sense that we are part of a bunch of rocks flying around in space.

My dad was at 99.98% totality and he said there was a brief period where he could look at the sun without glasses and he may have gotten the flash but no view of the corona or anything. The sky still got eerie feeling.

Not a life changing or religious experience by any means but really cool. But I didn't have much time invested and we went to bed not knowing if a marine layer was going to form and didn't want to have our hopes too high.
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