Solar Eclipse

Dr. Delight

URthekey said:

That ones a little blurry this one is sharper

I knew one day Pacman would come back for his revenge. 

hauntingfamiliar

^  lmaooo

As I was watching the sun slowly disappear, I kept thinking that same exact thing!!

mcgruff10

Even ed enjoyed the eclipse! Lol

markymark550

I really wasn't excited about it leading up to it, but I'll admit it, I thought it was cool as it was happening. We had totality for somewhere around two and a half minutes. My mom is keeping my twin nieces this week while they're out of school and decided to come down for this weekend. It was really fun seeing their reaction to the eclipse. One was really into it and asking questions about the science behind it. The other actually said "Meh. Whatever." when asked what she thought about it.

HesCalledDyer

Looks like 2024's path goes thru Cleveland.  Gonna start planning already!

HughFreakingDillon

mace1229 said:

HughFreakingDillon said:

mace1229 said:

I dont get the people who dont get excited about this. Everything that has to align just perfecly.
I suppose if it happened every month I wouldnt care. But its so rare and thats what makes it amazing. If the sun was 1% larger, or the moon smaller, or one close, this wouldn't even be possible. But for the moon and sun to be so far apart, but seemingly same size. If the moon was larger we may see more solar eclipses, but that halo affect wouldn't occur.
Even at about 90% where I was it was pretty awesome. temp dropped about 15 F within about 30-40 minutes and to only see a small sliver of the sun was pretty cool.
I guess if you were expecting darkness and armageddon you could be disappointed. But understanding how everything comes together to make this happens makes me not want to miss it and puts see a 100% eclipse on my bucket list.

I put the goggles on my 3-year old and he got excited. I asked him what shape the sun looked like and he said "moon!"

it's really not rare, though. it happens roughly every 2 and a half years somewhere on the planet. is it rare per geographical location? yes, but globally, it isn't. 

but I get what you are saying. it is pretty cool. I was wondering today.......of all the people historically that didn't understand what this was, did they all go blind from staring at it?

I consider that rare. Occurs every couple years, but it only visible to a very tiny sliver. Heard on the news somewhere on average its visible to less than 0.5% of the earth's surface. I was bummed I was only 3 hours away and couldn't go, there may never be one as close to me in my life time.
Rare in terms of viewable opportunities for the average person.

yes, absolutely. But the media was talking about it like it only happens once in every 99 years at ALL, which is patently false. 

mcgruff10

I forgot to add the photo to my post. Duh

JimmyV

HesCalledDyer said:

Looks like 2024's path goes thru Cleveland.  Gonna start planning already!

New England, too. Totality will make it much more exciting for sure.

The Juggler

This afternoon, right?

tweedyfanjen

markymark550 said:

I really wasn't excited about it leading up to it, but I'll admit it, I thought it was cool as it was happening. We had totality for somewhere around two and a half minutes. My mom is keeping my twin nieces this week while they're out of school and decided to come down for this weekend. It was really fun seeing their reaction to the eclipse. One was really into it and asking questions about the science behind it. The other actually said "Meh. Whatever." when asked what she thought about it.

Supposedly there were a ton of people here over the weekend but since I live in the burbs I didn't have to deal with it. And my commute into downtown yesterday was the best it's been in forever. Thank you people who stayed home! We got 100% totality and it was pretty cool. Watched from my office until around 2:25p then went outside. People cheered and clapped when it went dark. I have to say it was weird how it got so dark so fast. Even just sliver of the sun still made the sky bright. 

mace1229

HughFreakingDillon said:

mace1229 said:

HughFreakingDillon said:

mace1229 said:

I dont get the people who dont get excited about this. Everything that has to align just perfecly.
I suppose if it happened every month I wouldnt care. But its so rare and thats what makes it amazing. If the sun was 1% larger, or the moon smaller, or one close, this wouldn't even be possible. But for the moon and sun to be so far apart, but seemingly same size. If the moon was larger we may see more solar eclipses, but that halo affect wouldn't occur.
Even at about 90% where I was it was pretty awesome. temp dropped about 15 F within about 30-40 minutes and to only see a small sliver of the sun was pretty cool.
I guess if you were expecting darkness and armageddon you could be disappointed. But understanding how everything comes together to make this happens makes me not want to miss it and puts see a 100% eclipse on my bucket list.

I put the goggles on my 3-year old and he got excited. I asked him what shape the sun looked like and he said "moon!"

it's really not rare, though. it happens roughly every 2 and a half years somewhere on the planet. is it rare per geographical location? yes, but globally, it isn't. 

but I get what you are saying. it is pretty cool. I was wondering today.......of all the people historically that didn't understand what this was, did they all go blind from staring at it?

I consider that rare. Occurs every couple years, but it only visible to a very tiny sliver. Heard on the news somewhere on average its visible to less than 0.5% of the earth's surface. I was bummed I was only 3 hours away and couldn't go, there may never be one as close to me in my life time.
Rare in terms of viewable opportunities for the average person.

yes, absolutely. But the media was talking about it like it only happens once in every 99 years at ALL, which is patently false. 

Yeah, that bugged me too. I kept hearing them say its the first time in 99 years and I knew that was wrong. Then i learned they were referring to 99 years since an eclipse stretched from coast to coast like this one. It was misleading.
It has been nearly 40 years since the last one hit the States, but we will get at least 3 in less than 30 years this time. My guess is it will be less popular since people don't have to wait as long, and doesn't have the "Across America" tag.

Jason P

markymark550

tweedyfanjen said:

markymark550 said:

I really wasn't excited about it leading up to it, but I'll admit it, I thought it was cool as it was happening. We had totality for somewhere around two and a half minutes. My mom is keeping my twin nieces this week while they're out of school and decided to come down for this weekend. It was really fun seeing their reaction to the eclipse. One was really into it and asking questions about the science behind it. The other actually said "Meh. Whatever." when asked what she thought about it.

Supposedly there were a ton of people here over the weekend but since I live in the burbs I didn't have to deal with it. And my commute into downtown yesterday was the best it's been in forever. Thank you people who stayed home! We got 100% totality and it was pretty cool. Watched from my office until around 2:25p then went outside. People cheered and clapped when it went dark. I have to say it was weird how it got so dark so fast. Even just sliver of the sun still made the sky bright. 

I live in the burbs too, and when my mom told me she wanted to come down it gave me a great excuse to take the day off! I'm surprised traffic downtown was good. I figured with the eclipse and move-in week for USC that it would be a nightmare. It was pretty rough around lunchtime today.

rgambs

The Blue Ridge Parkway was pretty busy, but not as apocalyptic as expected.
The road to our trailhead was closed for the day, adding 2 miles to our hike, but we made it to our destination of Tennent Mtn in Pisgah NF by 9am.
We set up in blazing sun and were very happy for clouds which kept the temperature manageable.
Just when the eclipse began the clouds began shifting giving us views every ten minutes or so. The moment of totality was obscured, but the darkness was impressive and the sunrise effect on the horizon was awesome.  Cheers went up from the mountain and it was pretty cool. 
It would have been anticlimactic to see it from a parking lot, but from the edge of the Shining Rock Wilderness, it was awesome.

PJ_Soul

There was apparently a massive surge in google searches about eye problems/damage as soon as the eclipse was over yesterday, lol. And I happened to go to the optometrist to pick up my glasses yesterday, and they said they'd been overwhelmed by phone calls about it, starting around half an hour after the eclipse was over.

HughFreakingDillon

PJ_Soul said:

There was apparently a massive surge in google searches about eye problems/damage as soon as the eclipse was over yesterday, lol. And I happened to go to the optometrist to pick up my glasses yesterday, and they said they'd been overwhelmed by phone calls about it, starting around half an hour after the eclipse was over.

I wonder if the White House called. 

Horos

Well I encountered no traffic going to central Oregon. 100% was INCREDIBLE!!!! Even 99% is a weak substitute. My phone didn't catch any photos that had good detail with or without a filter. Had 102 seconds of totality. It's really so beautiful it's hard to describe. A few pics to come.

Horos

This is a professional shot taken near where I was.

Horos

My attempt with my phone.

Horos

This is how dark it got.