Solar eclipse
 

When I was young, there was also an eclipse. We were told to never look directly at it even with special glasses on. We had a paper with a hole in it that showed the shadow onto another piece of paper. Is there something different today?

You can buy cheap solar vjew glasses for safe viewing. I bought 30 pair at my local Walmart for my little sister's middle school class.

Here is a link to an eclipse time lapse simulation for my town. You can change the location to your lo location. Pinch outnon the screen to enlarge and set to 60x.

https://eclipse2024.org/eclipse-simulator/2024/index.html?city_id=32858

My friend works in Emerg, there was an internal memo from the local ophthalmologist that basically said 'if people damage their eyes looking at the eclipse, do NOT send them to me, there is NOTHING we can do'.

Get some appropriate glasses if you want to watch.

It is theoretically perfectly safe to look with the naked eye during the full overlap. I won't be risking it.

When it's not yet complete, you need special glasses. BEWARE OF CHEAP INADEQUATE FAKES. When the eclipse is complete you can look.

Or that's how I understand it.

I have a filter for my camera, several pairs of glasses, and a pair of eclipse specific binoculars from the last partial that hit Texas a few years back.

"Theoretically" isn't a correct term here.

If you are in the actual path of totality, it is 100% safe to look straight up DURING TOTALITY. Not before, not after, not right as the Sun starts to reappear. When the Sun is totally blocked it is...total blocked. So, you can look up. You NEED to look up, because you can see the Sun's atmosphere then, as well as 3 or 4 planets and possible a comet.

How cool of you to buy glasses for the class.
Thank you for the link.

We in West Central Ohio are right smack in the middle of the totality.

That's assuming most of central Texas isn't overcast next Mon as is forecast, Dammit!

Late 70s we had an eclipse and we looked through welding helmets at work. Was not that exciting to me. Supposed to last around 4 minutes this time. Lots of people coming to southern Indiana for the event. I will sit on the porch and wait for the darkness.

A total eclipse is MUCH better than a partial. If you get a chance to see it, it's worthwhile. It's that eerie.

(possibly the worst dad and nerd/kid parent anywhere...)

Cloud-out for TX/OK? I'm cool with that. Mrs mjohnson is still hoping to do the 14h each-way-if-no-traffic from here in NM to see the totality. As awesome as an eclipse is, I'm not ready to deal with the mayhem.

I've seen two. One was from a ship in the gulf of CA in '91 and one was NW of Scotsbluff NE in '17. The one on the plains was a massive traffic "experience". I can't imagine something closer to larger populations...

The sad think is that it seems like this is the last in a little surge of them -- it may be some years/decades until we see more in the USA.

And yes, of course we'll be with the hordes, and likely out of gas somewhere on I40...

any rectangular box, pinhole 3/4 up towards the open top and a piece of white paper taped on the opposite end.
point the pinhole towards the sun.
cheap alternative to looking thru something.

Heck, half of a pencil point through a 1ft square of cardboard works. Woodlands, or even the shade of a tree, are really trippy with the little crescent-suns projected everywhere.

Our ship's room keys back in '91 for the big Hawaii-Brazil eclipse were the physical "punch-card" things. As in, holes in a pattern on a piece of plastic. Waiting for totality, we'd amuse ourselves by projecting little "suns" onto everything. (ok, we were 15-16yo)

Is it more damaging for the eyes to look at an eclipse than to look at the sun without eclipse?
If that is the case I’d like to understand why. I have looked at the sun before, and my eyes are just fine…

You may look at the sun at the point of totality without filter and be fine. Anytime other than totality you must use a filter.

Yep, but I get what he's saying. I've looked at the sun before, and I can still see.

I'm going to take a guess here.

I looked at the sun as a kid. I was squinting (it was bright) and I suspect kid eyes will stop down to allow very little light in through very small pupils. Also, if you look a the sun, it's normally only for a very short period quick glance.

I suspect as an adult our pupils won't contract as small as when we are young. Also, if you're watching an eclipse, you're likely to look at the sun for a (relatively) LONG time compared to a quick glance. Also, as an adult, our pain threshold is different than when younger. I'm sure plenty of us have been working on something, felt something (or maybe didn't even realize that we felt something) and then looked down to realize that we had blood running out of some cut or scratch or scrape, because as an adult you're thinking "yeah, I felt that, but this crap's got to get done."

I think the main problem is that folks watching an eclipse are likely to look at the sun for a much longer time than someone that looks up at the sun and think's "I glanced at the sun for 0.1 second and I'm not blind."

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20240328-nasa-jets-chase-solar-eclipse


The Shadow of the Eclipse moves at 1600 mph. wonder what the MPG is?

"The Shadow knows."

Uh, don't eat any food during the eclipse, the solar radiation is "different"...

I can't wait....I've got my eye protection all set.

https://images.unsplash.com/photo-15...B8fHx8fA%3D%3D

Our boomeresque house sitter, a full and proud ex(?) hippie, told us of a huge bluegrass meetup/rally/whatever in CO on the eighth. Can you imagine thousands of mellow folk just staring at the sun? As in, they remembered the pharms but forgot the funny glasses...

2017 in northwest Nebraska/SE Wyoming was an experience, as in >>6h to get from Cheyenne to Denver on I25. I can't even picture what this will turn into in the more populated places. To outsiders the various cities' emergency declarations may seem silly - but in reality I bet it's only slightly overboard. This thing is getting hyped as one might expect nowadays.

I suppose you can try to look at the sun at the point of totality, but all you’ll see is the moon.

At that time if you are drinking a Corona you will see the corona!

I have a question for which I may not get an answer or maybe there is no clear answer. What if the sky is cloudy or mostly cloudy at the time of totality? Would it still be worth seeing? I am considering driving 4400 miles (round trip) to see this eclipse in Texas, and the forecast is "mostly cloudy with 30% chance of rain."

I would not drive any distance to sit in four minutes of darkness on a cloudy day.

Yep, the forecast from Dallas to San Antonio is "mostly cloudy" and I'm seriously bummed about it. My plan had been to drive to wherever the weather was best, but the wife insisted upon getting a place to arrive Sun, stay Mon, and then leave Tue. So now we've spent money and are likely to have a cloudy/rainy mini-vacation.

Last Oct, we drove to San Antonio and the clouds cleared for the annular eclipse. I think we drove ~1.5-2 hours for that.

I'm hoping that we get something similar next Mon. Otherwise, I assume it'll just get dark as if it was night, and then brighten back up, but nothing interesting to see.

No way in hell I'd make a huge drive for it. If you're driving that far, maybe drive to another location that isn't forecast for clouds?

Thx, Steve. We have accommodations lined up for San Antonio, but we have cloudy darkness almost every day right here without six days of driving.

Shucks. I want to see totality. Wish I had known how special that is when it was nearby in 2017.

Next totality: August 2026 in Spain. Don't tell anybody.

I'm not going to drive 30 minutes to see totality, and I'm already in San Antonio (work).

That there is a hot take if I ever saw one! Yee Haw!

Never understood why people get so excited about it getting dark in the middle of the day. It happens fairly frequently in one place or another.
The only time I bothered was while the truck I had was waiting to be repaired. I did the old 'pencil hole in a sheet of cardboard to make a camera obscura '. Yep, the moon passed between us and the sun, again.:rolleyes:

Best
Les

:d

Look at Mr. Rich Guy over here, with his extra cardboard so worthless that he can poke holes in it...

You use the term "fairly frequently" quite liberally. Is once every 18 months "fairly frequently" to you?

The weather is starting to freak people out a bit. I chose Watertown NY because it's not a terribly long drive and the forecast looked good. Now they're saying "Meh". I may need to bugout to the East early Monday. Oh well.

I've only seen this once in my life, and it was awesome. A partial eclipse- no comparison. It's the most dramatic and eerie celestial event that can be seen with the naked eye, and it's everywhere around you. For me, the 2017 eclipse was a life event.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1712246035.jpg



An incredible companion is the shadows before/after totality.

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120th anniversary of Crowley founding Thelema, his own religion, falls on the day of the eclipse

The shadows are cool

Overnight accommodations for the 7,8,9th in Ohio are sold out. Some people booked rooms a year ago.
It really is something to experience, but I wouldn't big plans to travel far for it. The weather is too unreliable. Imagine flying in from PWN to Ohio, renting a room, etc only to sit under a roof watching a thunderstorm.

I love a good eclipse. But this one seems way over hyped to me. Some schools closing, some towns declaring an emergency, WTF? Used to be unless you were a science nerd no one really paid much attention. Now every news outlet is pumping out clickbait eclipse stories and folks are loosing their minds over it.

I'll be happy to trade the eclipse on Monday for a full sunny day. :)

I'll watch it on the news in the evening.

Unless you've seen one, you have no idea what you'd be missing. Geez- it goes right by your house...

https://www.bu.edu/files/2024/03/fea...city2_5400.jpg