Dear Readers:
Happy Eclipse Day!
Did you see it? If so, from where and what was it like?
Thanks in advance for comments.
Philip
[Update: After about two weeks of planning and a week of watching cloud forecasts, we flew to KSRB, the Upper Cumberland Regional Airport, in Sparta, Tennessee. The sky was clear for totality and there were just a few clouds passing in front of the partial eclipse, which added interest. They never ran out of grass parking for light aircraft. The pattern was a little crazy for landing, with planes landing every minute or so up right up until the first moments of totality. Then there was a mad rush to take off, with some planes that must actually have started up before totality was over. We waited until the eclipse was completely over and departed behind about four other airplanes (no wake turbulence issues with little airplanes, so departures were every 15-30 seconds). Air Traffic Control was completely unprepared for the event, with single controllers working multiple frequencies per usually. Requests for VFR advisories were denied within about 200 miles of the eclipse path.]
Saw it in Seattle. It looks exactly like the pictures online. And sky was kind of like when all that smoke from the forest fire came down but without the smoke. It was cool I guess.
Saw it in Balto, about 75% or so at max effect. Thanks to my kids for acquiring the proper eye gear, it was cool. Sans glasses everything seemed a little less bright than normal, but not like dusk, which was also sort of cool.
saw it near to Wally in suburban Maryland, appearing about the promised 82%. Sky was sunnier than I expected during the leadup and the peak period, and now we’re having a thunderstorm toward the end of the partial eclipse period, which is darkening the sky quite a bit. As we happen to live down the street from former head of OSHA David Michaels (until Jan 19, 2017), observed that he, his wife and his two college-age children were doing as we were doing with the requisite glasses — gazing up into the sky from the open area near the street. In theory Dr. Michaels passed a lot of regulations about eyewear for workers in industry during his 8 years as an Obama appointee.
NYC. ~75% covered crescent Sun. Used cheapo eclipse glasses, stabilized binos with protective mylar in front and a canon 75-300mm IS lens with protector to snap some pictures. My 13 year old daughter saw it through the different equipment was impressed for 5 minutes and was done. I lasted 10 minutes and then went inside.
Forgot to mention, ironically I found the sunspots the most interesting aspect of my viewing so will have to observe them some other day.
It was spectacular! I’m blind now though, but it was worth it.
just spoke to Philip’s and my parents who live in a CCRC in Maryland. Apparently, management distributed glasses so anyone who was mobile enough to access the patio was able to view the eclipse safely. As I might have predicted, even though our father is quite mobile for 87 yo, he declined this fantastic opportunity whereas Mom participated along with her neighbors/friends, although she wasn’t on the patio for an extended period due to 90+ degrees and high humidity. (Dad also declined Philip’s generous offer of a luxury cruise summer 2016 and Sept 2017, as he prefers to spend his life in a recliner reading and listening to opera.
Dallas, 75% coverage. Unless you were looking through your special glasses or through a pin-hole projector it seemed like a normal day. Normal brightness. It was merely hot instead of the usual scorching, but this summer has been weird like that already.
I made pinhole boxes – one for the family and one for me to take to work – and left them both at home. Improvised with 2 sheets of paper and a push pin. It worked 100% as well and everyone with a pinhole box was jealous. Bonus fun with the paper was making multiple holes in different patterns and sizes and seeing the effects. Some coworkers had the glasses and those were definitely worth it if i you remember to get some genuine ones (don’t use Amazon!) months in advance.
We saw it at my sister’s house, in the totality path in Oregon. Perfectly clear weather, amazing.
Seattle, 93%, glasses from B&H.
Made some photos with Fujifilm XT2. Some good ones have eclipse boundary and dark spots on the Sun next to it. Looks pretty cool.
Saw at 79%. Unfortunately no telescope or binocs this time, but with 2 types of glasses, in short interruption of regular workday. #8 If you look at sun without filter it seems that brightness not changed due to incredible brightness of 25% sunlight, but overall sky dimmed considerably in approx. +- 20 minutes interval of maximum eclipse. Also moon shadow is clearly seen through fast moving light semi-transparent clouds, when they dim sunlight just enough to see partial sun.
St. Louis, totality. Very cool totality for about two minutes, and the 20 minutes on either side was neat, also. Very alien feel to everything.
Start planning for 18 April 2024. Texas might be better than the Midwest or the Northeast due to potential weather issues further north (and friend pointed out that more arid Texas climate is less unpredictable in the spring).
What TK said, exactly.
Casper, Wyoming. The viewing was excellent with only a few high cirrus and several jet contrails by the sun.
About 1 minute before totality, it felt like a big box store with bad fluorescent lighting. There were still shadows from the sun, but they were a dim pale white rather than the orange glow of late day sun.
I was surprised that it didn’t get pitch black; instead it was like a 360 degree sunset, with red sky on the horizon in every direction.
The transition from a daylight feel to twilight happened very fast.
Witnessed totality in Oregon and was greatly impressed. I can see why people outside of totality were underwhelmed. Up to the point of complete coverage, it was merely interesting. During totality, it was mesmerizing, fascinating, spectacular.
Saw totality in Hibo, Oregon. Used homemade cereal box pinhole projectors and ISO standard glasses provided by a kind stranger in the parking lot. Totally awesome!
My wife was jumping around like it was the end of time, and I glanced outside for thirty seconds then fell back asleep. (I’m recovering from back ills). We are in southern Virginia.
My six-year old came home from 1st grade with a pretty cool plate they’d designed out of paper, ink and hairspray that demonstrated what happened.
Separately,
I’d like to meet the people who paid $750 for a week long RV spot in one of the full coverage areas. What will they possibly do for a week?? How much conversation can an eclipse generate??
PT Barnum comes to mind…
Seattle, 90 something%. it was cool but not as cool as it was for my coworkers in St. Louis! Kinda wish i had braved traffic and gone to Oregon.
My family saw it with you Philip!
100% Totality. Awesome experience and excellent co-piloting
100% in independence OR. Saw it from the gound. Flew up and camped at the airport the night before. Wonderful. Not a cloud in the sky.
Drove with my fifteen-year-old daughter, an astronomy enthusiast, from Des Moines to Saint Joseph, Missouri. Left early in the morning, but there was no slowdown at all on the highway and I had no trouble finding the temporary parking in a meadow next to the riverfront casino. So we had three hours in which to relax before totality. We visited the excellent natural history museum nearby, then strolled along the riverfront promenade, enjoying the commanding view across the wide Missouri. We found a gazebo in which to take shelter from the rain that began to fall about half an hour before totality. I scanned the clouds for special effects, but couldn’t really discern any until about a minute before totality, when the sky definitely turned from cloudy to dark, with patches or orange light showing around the horizon. Then with about fifteen seconds to go, the eclipsed sun came out enough for us to see the corona.
The drive home took forever, but it was worth it.
It was beautiful, and like nothing else I have seen before. We saw totality just into TN from KY on I-65 in a church parking lot in Portland, TN. Like Dale said, it was a completely different experience at totality than before or after. The corona was like in photos, but I was surprised how far It extended from the Sun. We saw Venus and Jupiter very clearly, and the 360 degree sunset. There were just a few puffy white clouds and some contrails.
I went with my Dad, who saw a total eclipse in NC in 1970. My wife and teenage daughter went as well, and enjoyed the short time of the eclipse, but not so much that the drive was worth it.
It took 5.5 hours drive from OH to get there. Had time to eat lunch in the shade of a tree. It took 8 hours to drive home. Just off the interstate, there were large fields where people paid $10 per car to park with no shade. We were very grateful for a tree to shade us, because ontil about 75% coverage the Sun was still very hot in the 90 degree day.
There were at least two small airplanes overhead, and at least 5 departures by the time we left 30 minutes after totality.
WY area. Totality is “the main event” as anything short of totality doesn’t let you view the corona surrounding the sun. To see a black disk in the sky with the blazing coronasphere visible all around it, and the 360-degree sunset, is amazing indeed.
Madras was smoked out, despite all government weather forecasts & a brand new $1 billion weather satellite predicting clear. The smoke obscured all the stars & the shadow bands, but still allowed viewing the corona. This looked much bigger, clearer, & constrasty than any photo.
No-one could move by road for 6 hours afterward. After that, it took 16 hours to drive back to Calif*. A pilot’s license would have been nice.
Drove to Ashland MO where we’ve rented a building we are renovating for a new business. No traffic on the way there; arrived ten minutes after the start of the partial period. Shared our parking lot with a few other people. Totality is really remarkable. After totality I decided that the long partial period afterward would be much like the long one before, so I went back inside and did some carpentry. After another couple of hours I drove back home. Missouri State Highway Patrol were out in force, and their every action seemed calculated to make the 90 mile bumper-to-bumper traffic jam worse. On days like this one realizes just how many orders of magnitude more highway patrolmen we have than we need. If only they could have identified which stoplights on the 100 miles of normally-limited-access US Highway were causing the problem (hint: all three of them) and initiated a normal police procedure like waving the traffic on through…
Scotch-taped a pair of cardboard glasses to a 2012-vintage pocket superzoom (Sony DSC-HX50) and was amazed to find I could take pictures of sunspots. (Suburban MD, made me want to head to a totality area for the next one….)
http://i.imgur.com/7p9owLX.jpg
Saw it in Oregon just east of Prineville. Very nice, but some cirrus that decreased the contrast. With solar eclipses, it’s either totality or nothing. Really huge difference between 100% and 99%.
Saw it in Shoshoni, Wyoming. On the shore of Boysen Resevoir.
My experience was like the others in the path of totality.
Really quite amazing.
We’re renting a place in Cody, Wyoming for the week and have been enjoying time with family members we don’t see often.