Eclipse

[Coffee Warlord]

Admit it.

You looked.

[Thomkal]

My facebook thread is now flooded with eclipse pictures

[molson]

President Trump stares right into solar eclipse without glasses - NY Daily News

[Grammaticus]

We got the 100% effect here. Cool for about 2 minutes.

[Peregrine]

I think my favorite stat I heard on the NASA live stream was how it had so many viewers it was driving like 90% of all federal goverment web traffic during the eclipse time.

[QuikSand]

Was very cool here in Nashville. We lucked out... as the totality approached, a cloud was moving in to cover the sun, but we got to watch the full totality and then another minute or so before it got pretty obscured.

We wanted to take a fairly low-impact family vaca anyhow, so I'm not perturbed about the investment of time or money to do this. Kids were all won over by it being cooler than they thought, and hopefully they will remember it for a long time.

Fun trip. Fun experience.

[Castlerock]

That was one of the most amazing things I have ever seen. I have seen photos of totality and sort of knew what to expect but I think it's like the Grand Canyon - unless you see it yourself, you don't really get it.

We were in place in South Carolina stupid-early as I feared traffic but we had zero issues. If we were forced to move because of clouds, I didn't want to be stuck in a huge parking lot in a crowded metro area so we were in as remote a spot as I could find. A thunderstorm popped up near us and was headed our way. About 30 mins before totality, we decided we had to move. Drove 10 mins towards clear sky and stopped but quickly realized that we didn't move far enough. Moved another 10 minutes and had a perfect view.

I'm going to 2024... NO DOUBT.

[MizzouRah]

I'll admit I really didn't care at first but I'm really glad my daughter and I went to my mom's house to see the full effect. It only lasted 59 seconds or whatever but it was one of the coolest things I've ever seen!

[PilotMan]

Had no problems getting into Hopkinsville. The town was prepared and traffic really didn't materialize going in. In fact, I'd say that where we were, it wasn't nearly as busy as I think they had expected. Supposedly they had sold 3000 parking spots (where we were at the fairgrounds, but lots of sites were selling space), but I'd be surprised if even 800 showed up there. So there was plenty of room.

Everyone was excited from the moment the first shadow crept across the sun. Feeling the breeze kick up as the temp cooled off as the shadow moved across. Then the oddly weird twilight as we got within 5 minutes. We had completely clear skies.

It was incredible, amazing, awesome. I kind of lost my mind. Just staring as this moment in space/time. I was so happy that we had made the trip with everyone. Our family is nearing the end of our time as a "together family" and this was an experience we won't ever forget.

We got out of town kind of quick. Long story short, it took 8h45 min of driving to get home, on what would normally be a 4hr drive. Traffic was bonkers. The Western Kentucky Parkway ended up being an 80-mile traffic jam all the way to Elizabethtown. Then from Louisville to Cincy it was more of the same.

Waze was both helpful and completely useless. When the network jams up from so many people being on it, then Waze doesn't get realtime updates and can't understand why it shouldn't keep suggesting that route, and obviously, if it can't communicate, then it has no idea what to do. A couple times though, it moved us somewhere else and did keep us out of traffic. Other times it sent us on back country roads to bypass interstate jams only to realize too late, that it had jammed those roads up too. KY doesn't have wide, straight, well lit, side roads. It was not so much fun. I should have broken out my old GPS. It has a different traffic signal and might have worked better. Lesson learned.

We started the day at 4a with a hour and a half drive to Eclipseville, and ended it at 1215a, after having left at 300p. It was a long, tiring day, but I'd do it again for that experience. WOW is all I can say about it.

[CrimsonFox]

PUT ON THE GLASSES!!!!!!

[Racer]

Originally Posted by PilotMan

Had no problems getting into Hopkinsville. The town was prepared and traffic really didn't materialize going in. In fact, I'd say that where we were, it wasn't nearly as busy as I think they had expected. Supposedly they had sold 3000 parking spots (where we were at the fairgrounds, but lots of sites were selling space), but I'd be surprised if even 800 showed up there. So there was plenty of room.

Everyone was excited from the moment the first shadow crept across the sun. Feeling the breeze kick up as the temp cooled off as the shadow moved across. Then the oddly weird twilight as we got within 5 minutes. We had completely clear skies.

It was incredible, amazing, awesome. I kind of lost my mind. Just staring as this moment in space/time. I was so happy that we had made the trip with everyone. Our family is nearing the end of our time as a "together family" and this was an experience we won't ever forget.

We got out of town kind of quick. Long story short, it took 8h45 min of driving to get home, on what would normally be a 4hr drive. Traffic was bonkers. The Western Kentucky Parkway ended up being an 80-mile traffic jam all the way to Elizabethtown. Then from Louisville to Cincy it was more of the same.

Waze was both helpful and completely useless. When the network jams up from so many people being on it, then Waze doesn't get realtime updates and can't understand why it shouldn't keep suggesting that route, and obviously, if it can't communicate, then it has no idea what to do. A couple times though, it moved us somewhere else and did keep us out of traffic. Other times it sent us on back country roads to bypass interstate jams only to realize too late, that it had jammed those roads up too. KY doesn't have wide, straight, well lit, side roads. It was not so much fun. I should have broken out my old GPS. It has a different traffic signal and might have worked better. Lesson learned.

We started the day at 4a with a hour and a half drive to Eclipseville, and ended it at 1215a, after having left at 300p. It was a long, tiring day, but I'd do it again for that experience. WOW is all I can say about it.

We had more of luck driving home from Crofton, KY. It took us just over 3 1/2 hours on what is normally a 2 1/2 hour drive. The one major problem area we had was the 2.3 mile stretch just before the exit to get from the Western Kentucky Parkway to I-65 which took us about an hour to get through. We didn't have any luck with traffic apps. I'm guessing we probably could have avoided that traffic backup at where we were at had we exited early and taken side roads instead of taking the I-65 exit.

Definitely glad I went. I doubt I'd fly to another country to see one unless it's a country I really wanted to visit but I definitely plan on trying to see the one in 2024 and maybe the one in 2045.

[DanGarion]

Live in totality and seeing an actual total eclipse is one of the most amazing things I've ever seen.

Anyone that is in anything other than the total eclipse really doesn't know what they missed out on... Pictures cannot adequately convey what it really looks like when it hits.

[BishopMVP]

Originally Posted by QuikSand

We wanted to take a fairly low-impact family vaca anyhow, so I'm not perturbed about the investment of time or money to do this. Kids were all won over by it being cooler than they thought, and hopefully they will remember it for a long time.

Fun trip. Fun experience.

My parents are both astronomers so they've had this circled for years (decades?), with a spot in the Wyoming badlands picked out. It took effort to get out there, but I used it to visit Yellowstone & the Tetons too, and it was definitely worth it (though I enjoyed the parks as much as the eclipse!) I'll echo the snobs and say the difference between even 99% & a total eclipse is everything, and worth going out of your way for. The Corona, the 360 degree sunset, some of the other effects. It was a little too smoky near ground level to see the defined edge of shadow racing across the plains, but we could see the Tetons ~70 miles West completely disappear first, then the closer mountains go dark, then the Tetons re-appear just before totality, almost as if floating in space since everything closer was dark.

The next eclipse is going through a lot more populated areas, but I think I'll try to do something similar where I use a couple days around it to explore a fun spot too instead of dealing with traffic & travel for something that lasts a couple minutes. Upstate VT/Montreal, Austin/central TX, or even going down to Mazatlan where it's supposed to be best and longest seem like decent options looking at the map.

Originally Posted by Logan

I just turned on the NASA live feed site thing, heard "I think I can see Jupiter!" and could not have smashed the X button on the tab any quicker.

Why? Jupiter was faintly visible about 50 degrees off from the Sun. I didn't see that (or the shadow bands), but it was one of the things the real astronomers were trying to see & really looking for.

[CrimsonFox]

Warning: Looking up at the eclipse for a prolonged period of time will sunburn your face.