According to out local news, there are going to be LOTS of disappointed people. Apparently, about 2/3rds of the path is expected to have 100% cloud cover.

Last night's Portland TV news said it's 50-50 it'll be cloudy at the coast, but only 5% of clouds obscuring the view in the Willamette Valley or Eastern Oregon.

Evidently, traffic may be a problem. Rental cars out of airports and rooms along the path already all booked. Campgrounds all booked as well.

Hell, I was worried about a clogged I-5 when going to play pool yesterday, since Salem, where my favorite pool hall is located, is a central point along the path. A pleasant surprise...just the opposite. The run home was one of the most pleasant I-5 drives I've had lately...very light traffic, almost like driving the I-5 of 30 years ago.

Now staying home until all the hype is over.

There IS a total eclipse every month....humans have screwed the pooch with our perspective of days, months and years however, and our earth based calender is just a bit off :)

Might look cool from an airplane?

I saw on the news this morning that NASA has a couple of "birds" with all kinds of fancy high tech gear in their noses....that are gonna be tracking it at high altitude. That's gonna be some awesome stuff...I can't wait to see it!

It's my understanding that there are flights chartered for just this purpose, flights that I believe are flying across the country on a path to follow the eclipse.

Will the passengers be issued apricot scarves?

My home is ground zero...it's doubtful I'll bother to go outside. Hopefully the hubbub and hassles will end shortly after it happens. I have an MD appointment the day after.

Just a check up?

Going to Charlotte tomorrow from Akron. Dad is beating my ass about wanting to go to Greenville, SC for the total eclipse when 96% is available in Gastonia, NC.

Upside is I can hit Bojangles, regardless.

My sister lives in Bend and is using the eclipse opportunity to start doing AirBnB. In May of 2012 we caught the tail end of a total eclipse in Redding CA. This one will be rounder and slower - but best further north.

Well, that's because you're such a happy, go lucky kind of guy, all rainbows and unicorns and always inviting children to play on your lawn.

You know, I have heard that the full eclipse looks just like a really fancy pool cue.

Never bothered to buy the goofy glasses. So yeah, why bother to go outside?

Pool cues? I don't want a mugger bait cue. I prefer an old titlist style similar to the one used by Paul Newman in "The Hustler". Ornateness has little to do with how a cue feels..the hit and feedback it delivers is more important.

I overheard an interesting comment about the eclipse at the liquor store. Two people in line in front of me talking.

"Are you staying up to watch the eclipse?"

Because for the 2 mins that the moon completely obscures the sun, you don't need glasses or anything special. You can look at the sun with no protection when it's in "totality".

And if you mess up, you can burn a hole in your retina. Not going to take the risk.
After all, that might make it difficult to find the aim spot on an object ball. ;)

Have welding helmet?

Or a cell phone, reverse camera(selfie mode), turn away, and look at it via your phone, over your shoulder.

I set-up my spotting scope and used it as a projector projecting the image onto a piece of white paper and took a picture with my DSLR. It ain't perfect and needs some tweaking to get a more circular image. You can see some sun spots in the picture.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1503176916.JPG

<iframe width="853" height="480" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/vWMf5rYDgpc" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Nice, that's basically the view that I saw today with the solar binoculars that I ordered a little while ago (but the binoculars were a clearer view).

A bunch of friends and I met on the Big Island years ago for a total eclipse.
It was mostly clouded over, bummer for many who had traveled from all over to experence it. But with local knowledge and some luck we were in a good spot for it.

A pretty cosmic experence, I especially remember the sounds of the birds, dogs etc.
The critters were kind of freaked out by dark coming in the middle of the day.

Funny how differently folks think about this, some travel the lengths of the earth whenever one is going to happen. Others won't bother to step outside to check it out.
My brother said the same thing but he is well out the path of totality. Doesn't want to risk his eyes.

Good luck viewing for those in the path.

Cheers Richard

I'll be on a plane flying from Atlanta to So Cal. Hope it doesn't take out the computers like it did during Y2K. Oh, wait...never mind.

The 5-day eclipse festival in Madras could have a disappointing finale (but I may still drive the camper up to John Day myself).

Oregon wildfire spreads in prime eclipse-viewing area - CNN
Oregon wildfire causes evacuations in prime eclipse zone - ABC News

I can remember as a kid back in the '60's when there was an eclipse. We put a piece of aluminum foil over the end of a big long tube made out of heavy cardboard material. Stuck a pin hole in the aluminum foil and projected the image on the ground. Kind of a pinhole camera, without the film.
Worked pretty good and we didn't risk our eyesight.

just did an equipment check with the 90mm Mak Cass and this is exactly what I saw, a bit rounder tho ;) I'm glad you posted and verified the chain of sunspots. If anyone is interested the Mak Cass is f 13.8 and FL 1250. I'm using an Astrozap Baader aperture filter. The eyepiece is a 32mm Plossel and the suns' disk fits nicely inside the FoV. I'll be able to visualize the entire ring.

This is the view today.

We've got 2 new spots creeping around the limb on the left. With my binoculars, I'm able to see the left most of the central group as one large dark spot and I can also see the two very small faint spots just to the right of that and the rest of the stuff in that central group, just in case anyone was curious what you can see through 10x42 binoculars. (these are solar specific binoculars that have permanently built in solar filters, so they are safe for viewing the sun, but are only good for the sun. It wasn't a bad deal at $60.
https://sohowww.nascom.nasa.gov/data...024/latest.jpg

That is cool! What did you use to get the picture? adapter? camera?

It might be cloudy here tomorrow.

86.6% coverage here in Chicago. There was an annular eclipse here back in 1994 (hard to believe it was that long ago) that pretty much passed right over us. That one was closer to 90%. So I suppose tomorrow won't be much different than that.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_eclipse_of_May_10,_1994

I think watching it come in from an airplane should emphasize the difference between totality and non totality.

In the shadow vs not in the shadow.

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Yjibg3jWx_4" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Heres a nice 360 vid. Is that how it looked when you saw it sammy?

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/scL_bXF7k_Q" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Not sure what will fit over your binoculars but welding goggles are safe for looking at the eclipse. I just bought several pairs at Home Depot for my co-workers.

I can't take the credit for that pic, it's all NASA.

https://sohowww.nascom.nasa.gov/data/realtime/realtime-update-1280.html

They also have some other cool options including movies of the last 48 hours.

Only if the are #14 or higher

CNN - Clown News Network reports that your pets eyes TOO can be damaged while watching the eclipse spectacle.

Woof Blitzed

http://images.huffingtonpost.com/201...olfblitzer.jpg

I don't think that vid quite captured it. Neither one of those round things look like an eclipse to me.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1503312433.jpg

Translation: "Not available in my area."

Bwahahaha!

Man up and watch it on TV tonight, dude!

The Solar Eclipse Is Racist
 

The Atlantic Claims Monday's Solar Eclipse Is Racist | Daily Wire

Essayist professor says that the solar system has an "implicit bias" against African-Americans

https://i.imgur.com/dLktdsJ.gif