Has there been an eclipse thread yet?

[vash]

Gonna be a good one. Thinking of getting up to a friend's ranch to check this one out. I imagine being near the path of total eclipse will be a zoo? I'm good with 80-90%

You all have plans? We all meet at Motions place?

[motion]

I'll be on my scooter in Alaska

[MMiller]

There was a thread a couple weeks ago.. I'm going to try and get in the zoo zone in Nebraska.

[tdw28210]

I'll be in beautiful downtown Greenville, SC. Smack dab in the middle of the darkest part.

[Pazuzu]

Originally Posted by vash

Gonna be a good one. Thinking of getting up to a friend's ranch to check this one out. I imagine being near the path of total eclipse will be a zoo? I'm good with 80-90%

If you're good with 80%, then you're good with 10%, why bother going anywhere?

Either you're IN the path of totality, or you're wasting your time. Period. Outside that path, it's just a cloudy day, you can see eclipses like that every few years.
IN the path is the otherworldly, once in a lifetime, absolutely incredible experience.

Imaging sitting there, knowing that that dude, sitting just, what, 5 miles away? He's experiencing something spiritual compared to your boring, everyday afternoon sitting in the sun. That dude? yeah...being crude...he's having...you know...THAT happen, while you sit and have an ice cream cone.

If you're OK with ice cream while that dude...well, you know what's happening to him...if you're OK with that, then stay home and watch the 30% or 50% or 99% eclipse, and wave to the dude who's eyes are rolled back in his head because...well, you know...


Or suck it up and get in the path of totality.

[vash]

^You going? Where?

[strupgolf]

I'll be in Kentucky.

[Pazuzu]

Originally Posted by vash

^You going? Where?

Casper, Wyoming. Or somewhere within 20 or 30 miles East/West of there.

Edit: I went to the 1998 total Eclipse on Aruba, I do kinda know what it's like, I'm not making stuff up

[Tishabet]

Camping in Silver fall state park in Oregon for me, path of totality all the way!

[IROC]

I'll be in my front yard - in the path of totality!

[ckelly78z]

We will be smack dab in the center of the 2024 Eclipse in NW Ohio, only about 80% for this one in 2017.

[Laneco]

The kids have tickets to the "big show" in Madras. Might be 30,000 people out there and that's just way too many people for me.

As for me, dry camping a little further east in Mitchell, Oregon on a ranch. In the path of totality baby! Plus...I have an escape route home that does not involve going west through Madras/Bend/Redmond.

Absolutely NOT going to miss this!

angela

[Rickysa]

I'll be in beautiful downtown Greenville, SC.

I thought about that also, then figured I'd just find some crossroads with no crowds along the totality line, down east in SC. Trying to get my t-scope and camera all ready.

[MBAtarga]

We are headed up to SC to get closer to the totality range.

[MBAtarga]

Those with telescopes and cameras - use caution. Do your research in terms of what is safe to look at - filtering, etc. This is not like looking at the moon.

[masraum]

The American Astronomical Society has put out a warning to be careful about what you buy because there are some unscrupulous folks selling stuff that they put the ISO certification on and even have bogus test results on their website when their stuff isn't actually safe or at least, is not actually certified.

AAS's Advice for Safe Solar-Eclipse Viewing - Sky & Telescope

I just bought some

I sprung for these because I've always wanted to view the sun sunspots and that sort of thing. I guess I wish we had tried to schedule a trip to someplace that will have totality, but it's not really in the cards for this year. Besides, how much more fun would it be to do a farther trip to someplace more interesting in some future eclipse.

It's interesting, I remember hearing when I was younger "don't look at a solar eclipse because it's more dangerous than looking at the sun and the corona is brighter" or something like that. I remember when I was told that thinking, "WTH are they talking about. When you look at the sun, you see the sun AND the corona so how could the corona minus the sun actually be worse?" I see now that has changed and it's now perfectly safe to look at the fully eclipsed sun as long as you don't do it until it is completely eclipsed. I'm sure the warning before was probably more about keeping folks from looking at it just before and just after when it is still dangerous.

[nota]

it is fairly eazy to project the sun on a piece of paper
a small scope [ I used a survey transit under 3''lenz ] will project a clear sharp 8'' image
several people can view that at the same time
and you can see sun spots if there are any
with out any filters or eye risk

a camera tripod and a simple binocular should work if it has a mount
or any cheap kids t-scope
practice a few days before to get the knack

[Pazuzu]

Originally Posted by masraum

It's interesting, I remember hearing when I was younger "don't look at a solar eclipse because it's more dangerous than looking at the sun and the corona is brighter" or something like that. I remember when I was told that thinking, "WTH are they talking about. When you look at the sun, you see the sun AND the corona so how could the corona minus the sun actually be worse?" I see now that has changed and it's now perfectly safe to look at the fully eclipsed sun as long as you don't do it until it is completely eclipsed. I'm sure the warning before was probably more about keeping folks from looking at it just before and just after when it is still dangerous.

Yes and no.
What is dangerous about an eclipse is that the *intensity* of the sunlight does not drop off, but the *accumulated* light does. What that means is, the total light from the Sun drops off (everything gets darker) but the intensity of energy per square millimeter entering your eye does not change. Our eyes have very weak pain sensors that are calibrated to make you turn away when the *accumulated* light is too high, but they don't feel the *intensity* of the light, which is what actually burns the surface of your retina. So, during an eclipse, there is some point when you could stare right at the partially covered Sun and your flinch reflex will not make you turn away, so you can get severe retinal burns.

It's VERY important to make sure that younger kids DO NOT LOOK UP. They will want to, and the body's natural protection instincts might not protect them.

[rick-l]

Is it safe to use my Miller Digital Elite to look at the sun?

[vash]

what about old school plain-jane dark welding hood? historically, in my past eclipse events, i was pretty satisfied walking outside and seeing that it was dark never needed to look up.