2024 Total Eclipse

[Ivan_B]

11 minutes ago, cheesy said:

I plan on getting a better reflector over the summer.

You, sir, definitely know your astronomy stuff

[cheesy]

3 hours ago, Ivan_B said:

You, sir, definitely know your astronomy stuff

Enough to be dangerous.

[Eneto-55]

Go some place far from any cities, then look up at the sky on a moonless cloudless night.  The stars are so bright, and the whole sky is full of them.  Too much light pollution around here.

[Plymouthy Adams]

I always liked this picture of earth at night from NASA....one small decorative globe hanging on the Christmas tree that is the universe

 

 

[Sniper]

On 3/20/2024 at 6:16 PM, Eneto-55 said:

Go some place far from any cities, then look up at the sky on a moonless cloudless night.  The stars are so bright, and the whole sky is full of them.  Too much light pollution around here.

 

Go hundreds of miles out to sea.  You realize why they call it the Milky Way.

[Eneto-55]

6 hours ago, Sniper said:

 

Go hundreds of miles out to sea.  You realize why they call it the Milky Way.

The Indian village was around 500 miles from Manaus, the capitol of Amazonas state.  On a clear night we could see the light pollution on the horizon. Porto Velho (Rondonia state capitol, to the south) was much closer (to the village), about a third of that, but I do not recall ever seeing the light from PVH in the night sky.  Much smaller city.

[Sniper]

Not too many places in the states that remote. 

[RobertKB]

7 hours ago, Sniper said:

 

Go hundreds of miles out to sea.  You realize why they call it the Milky Way.

I’ve never had and will likely never have that opportunity………..but I sure would like to. I’ll bet it’s a truly magical sight! It’s so hard to find anywhere, even on the prairies, without light pollution. 

[Eneto-55]

5 hours ago, Sniper said:

Not too many places in the states that remote. 

Closest I've seen was in the Rockies, in the Westcliffe - Silvercliffe area.  But it was back in 75, too, so who knows now.  (Not that it was really all that remote, but the altitude must have helped.)

[Sniper]

I imagine Alaska might have some places like that.  But closest I ever got to that was cruising along the Aleutians and down the Alaska coast to Seattle.

 

There are some fairly remote spots in west Texas, but even then you can't really see the full glory of the night sky like you can when you are so remote that there is no other civilization with in hundreds of miles.

[Kilgore47]

On 3/22/2024 at 6:34 AM, Sniper said:

Go hundreds of miles out to sea.  You realize why they call it the Milky Way.

When I was younger I did a lot of sailing around and across the gulf of Mexico.   On a clear night before the moon came up the stars were spectacular.   Also saw a few fiery trails from objects entering the atmosphere.  It always amazed me how often we could see the running lights of other vessels out in the middle of nowhere.  And the glow of the towns along the coast when we got closer to port.  Those glowing towns were a great navigation aid when running a dead reckoning course.  

[Sniper]

Yep, you don't realize the amount of light pollution there is until you get somewhere there is none. 

[cheesy]

Alaska has great night skies away from Anchorage. We stayed at a B&B outside of Denali and it was wonderful. I can say that the night sky in rural Iceland is pretty dang nice, too.

[Dan Hiebert]

I think this year's eclipse is being touted so much because the moon is closer the Earth than other recent ones, so there will be more of the sun blocked out / bigger shadow on the planet.  I'd say it's not something I'd go out of my way for, but I don't have to.  It's coming to me this time.  Weather permitting, I'll hang-out on the deck with a six-pack and "experience" it (not even gonna try to look directly at it, even with a welding helmet, I'll watch the shadows, if there are any).  I'm just amazed at how many people are predicted to be here, and how there is no way this area can be expected to handle it.  We can only hope/assume everyone coming here knows there's already not much here.  The locals speak in hushed tones about a Phish concert here in the County several years ago that completely shut the County down for two days, and there were only "thousands" of extra people.  No gas, no groceries, no parking, no movement, nothing, just people everywhere.  I-95 was a parking lot for 25 miles from the border (yeah, yeah, that's normal in some places, but sometimes up here you can drive on it for 60 miles and not see another car, if there's three cars between you and the horizon, traffic is heavy). 

[ggdad1951]

UP of MI can get pretty dark out by the lake.  Summer trips up there are magical on the beach with friends, beers and a campfire.

[JerseyHarold]

Back in the 1960's it was recommended to use a 'pinhole camera' to view the eclipse.  You needed 2 pieces of corrugated cardboard (about 9" x 9", or thereabouts).  You'd stand with your back to the sun and hold the cardboard that had the hole above the one that didn't.  Vary the distance between the two pieces of cardboard to adjust the focus.   You'd see an image of the sun being eclipsed by the moon projected onto the lower piece of cardboard.  I tried this as a kid during an eclipse and it worked well.

[Sniper]

11 minutes ago, JerseyHarold said:

Back in the 1960's it was recommended to use a 'pinhole camera' to view the eclipse.  You needed 2 pieces of corrugated cardboard (about 9" x 9", or thereabouts).  You'd stand with your back to the sun and hold the cardboard that had the hole above the one that didn't.  Vary the distance between the two pieces of cardboard to adjust the focus.   You'd see an image of the sun being eclipsed by the moon projected onto the lower piece of cardboard.  I tried this as a kid during an eclipse and it worked well.

 

Last eclipse we had, couple of months ago, I showed a friend (23) that trick, she had no idea. 

[Dan Hiebert]

The Maine State Police put an advisory out yesterday about navigating the State's roadways during the eclipse.  They had the foresight to make one of the announcements - "Don't drive while wearing your eclipse glasses."

[Ivan_B]

17 hours ago, JerseyHarold said:

Back in the 1960's it was recommended to use a 'pinhole camera' to view the eclipse. 

A good old camera obscura trick... Isn't that a part of the school physics program, anymore? 🤨

 

57 minutes ago, Dan Hiebert said:

The Maine State Police put an advisory out yesterday about navigating the State's roadways during the eclipse. 

Good for them. It is amazing what crazy things crowds of people can do... I've seen people spontaneously stop in the middle of a highway bridge to see fireworks... A couple of bad examples and there we go - the roadway is blocked for no good reason.

Edited March 27 by Ivan_B

[Dan Hiebert]

It's just moderately sad that they even had to have that foresight.  I've been in planning sessions like that for big events - Moderator: "What are the stupidest things you can think of that people might do for this event?"  *Agency reps spitball dumber-than-a-hammer stuff* Moderator: "Ok, that's farfetched, but someone thought of it, so we'll have to plan for it." 

[Ivan_B]

Well, let's rephrase it this way: due to many factors, people have widely different experience interacting with the surrounding environment. So many things that appear to be obvious to some individuals might very well be not so much familiar to others. Therefore, you have to aim to accommodate everyone's best interests when dealing with the general public

[JBNeal]

We had a partial eclipse on Saturday October 14th that I did not pay much attention to beforehand cuz I had chores to do...I wheeled into town on the back roads to run some errands and for a tasty chicken fried steak, crossed I-35 on the return and noticed traffic crawling in both directions as the skies were darkening 🤔 the traffic billboard in sight had the flashing lights with the message DO NOT STOP TO LOOK AT ECLIPSE...kinda glad I steered clear of that mess, ain't nobody got time for that.

 

The local weather forecast for the upcoming eclipse is still holding thunderstorm chances, so I reckon the skies are gonna get dark that day one way or the other⚡️

[Dan Hiebert]

I had to drive to Buffalo when we had that partial eclipse in is region in 2017, I was on the NY Throughway / I-90 when it "hit".  It was mid-dayish, and there didn't appear to be even the slightest amount of interest from the motorists on the road with me.  The service plazas were packed, but they always are that time of day.

 

Clear skies are now forecast for Monday, but we might have a bit of a reprieve in the lead up, because we're having a "winter storm" today through Saturday which may tamp things down a bit.  Tuesday, when everyone leaves at once, has the potential to be chaotic. 

 

I'm bemused that so many people are expected in the area this weekend, I'm half tempted to wander about town with no destination in mind just to witness and have fodder for storytelling in my declining years. 

[Ivan_B]

28 minutes ago, Dan Hiebert said:

I'm half tempted to wander about town with no destination in mind

This reminds me of a buddy who went to town to see the anticipated riots (due to a political event) for amusement. He was bragging about running from the cops with the crowds for a week afterwards... Sort of like the bull runs, I suppose 🤣

[DonaldSmith]

This adventurousness, driving about to see the eclipse-distracted, or wandering through a riot, seems like when I find myself driving through a snowstorm. 

 

I tell my wife that I was going out to see what sort of an idiot would drive around in conditions like this.