Any plans for next April's total solar eclipse?

Apr 6, 2004
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To me, it's too local to be awed about while I'm totally flummoxed and mesmerized by the Universe itself. Imagine if you could live forever, and you began a journey across the universe from one side to the other at the speed of light (186,000 miles per second). Not only would it take over 13 billion years at that speed, but you would never make it across because it's still expanding. I can't wrap my mind around that.

Or consider the thought that there are more stars in the Universe than all the grains of sand on earth.

It was only in the past 50 years that scientists discovered there are voids (vast empty spaces) in the universe, and some can "stretch hundreds of millions of light years across" (Scientific American, Jan 2024). The bigger ones are expanding faster than the rest of the Universe. It's astounding.

Too local? Even the tiniest molecular machines in your body should fill you with awe.
 

Boyd

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Reminds me of that scene with Donald Sutherland in Animal House...

Pinto: OK, so that means that our whole solar system could be like one tiny atom in the fingernail of some other giant being... This is nuts! That means that one tiny atom in my fingernail could be...

Jennings: ...could be one tiny little universe!

Pinto: Can I buy some pot from you?
 

RednekF350

Piney
Feb 20, 2004
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I'm ready! (Icarus Brewing Thrash Bash in hand.)

Me, staring directly into the sun today with a free pair of Guvmnt cardboard glasses from The National Science Foundation and distributed by our local library. I had my doubts about quality but they are actually Shade 15 which exceeds the recommended minimum of 14. The sun appeared as a crisp orange ball at 1800 hours tonight.

I am going to be using a shade 13 welding shield tomorrow and my wife will be home with the cardboard Guvmnt glasses. I used Shade 13 during the 2017 eclipse. Not quite the recommended shade, but I don't need a white cane yet. Staring at a 6o watt light bulb in the house, I can see the bulb with the welding shield but I see nothing with the NSF glasses.

Have fun tomorrow! See you at the next one. Maybe. :D
 

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Boyd

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Just another day, will be out wandering around the woods as usual and see what the effect is here. Don't have any of them "eclipse glasses", but I might put on my Count Floyd 3d Glasses™ and watch Doctor Tongue's 3d House of Stewardesses! :dance:

 

enormiss

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Aug 18, 2015
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Too much cloud cover. Here’s the best pic I could get fumbling a welding helmet, the phone, and hitting the button. The cloud cover made it almost impossible for a pic but you could see it well by eye

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bobpbx

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Too much cloud cover. Here’s the best pic I could get fumbling a welding helmet, the phone, and hitting the button. The cloud cover made it almost impossible for a pic but you could see it well by eye

View attachment 22496
Where were you? I was in the woods again, and it only got a little cooler and like intensely overcast. I learned one thing for sure, we humans don't actually look at the sun directly (unless it's low in the sky), it's more that we feel it. I tried looking at it but I could not last even 1 second.
 
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Boyd

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Actually, I would say just the opposite - the cloud cover made it possible to get some interesting pix with my phone and I wouldn't have gotten anything on a clear day. These were shot on my iPhone 12 Pro Max with no filter, handheld, no editing. Not great art, but I like the clouds in the bottom one.

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Boyd

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Where were you? I was in the woods again, and it only got a little cooler and like intensely overcast

Yeah, it really didn't get very dark, no more than a cloudy day. I think the last eclipse was darker here. I was in my woods, out back. The dark clouds rolled in on cue, right at the peak of the eclipse. But before they did, I was really struck by how crisp all the shadows were, due to the smaller point source of light. It looked especially weird to see my own shadow so sharply outlined on the ground as I walked around.
 

Sue Gremlin

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Sep 13, 2005
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We went up to Syracuse to a rooftop bar to watch.
It was something I was unprepared for, the sheer awesomeness of the totality. There were so many things happening at once, I wanted a replay right away. We could see the darkness approaching us across the city from our perspective. It was cloudy and we only got glimpses of the partial eclipse as the sun and moon converged. We joked that we drove 3.5 hours to see totality when we could have seen near totality at home in NW CT, where it was sunny.
Then quite suddenly at totality, we could see everything clearly through the thin cloud cover. We all cheered and thought it was cool that it was so dark. The street lights came on. Birds went quiet. The light was very strange because of something called the Purkinje effect. Then we started to see the solar flares peeking out behind the moon as it started to cross to the other side. It was so brilliant and humbling, that was the moment. It made us all cry a little, it was so beautiful. It was worth it. It was a very different experience than partiality.
 

enormiss

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Where were you? I was in the woods again, and it only got a little cooler and like intensely overcast. I learned one thing for sure, we humans don't actually look at the sun directly (unless it's low in the sky), it's more that we feel it. I tried looking at it but I could not last even 1 second.

Backyard in Atco. Agree about looking at the sun, gave me eyeache and headache
 

enormiss

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Aug 18, 2015
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Atco NJ
Actually, I would say just the opposite - the cloud cover made it possible to get some interesting pix with my phone and I wouldn't have gotten anything on a clear day. These were shot on my iPhone 12 Pro Max with no filter, handheld, no editing. Not great art, but I like the clouds in the bottom one.

Was too bright for my phone, I could see the sun as a crescent shape by eye but the pics were just round fireballs. The eclipse glasses were too strong for the cell to get a pic with cloud cover. But my phone new is 1/4 price of a used ip12pm :)
 
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Teegate

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All,

I don't usually don't post online where I am going before I go and in this thread I pretty much said where I was going. And since July of last year the girls and myself had been planning to go. The place I have been going to for 57 years in northern Vermont is winterized but my relative told us we could go there and do whatever we needed to do to see the eclipse. They were staying an hour and a half away in their main home to watch it from the house.

During this time my 96 year old mom has been having health problems and in the past 2 weeks they were getting worse. My brother has been talking care of her but by the middle of last week he could not longer do that. A call to 911 and them leaving because there really was nothing they could do, and then a call out to have her evaluated and were again told to call 911. This time on Thursday they admitted her and we were making plans for her to go to hospice. On Friday evening just hours before heading to Vermont she passed away.

I had visited her on Thursday evening but she most likely never knew I was there. So on Saturday morning the girls and I headed off to Vermont. Because the cabin was winterized we stayed in a motel in New Hampshire less than an hours drive from the cabin. Northern Vermont was going to have some of the best weather on Monday and Mother Nature did not disappoint. Thousands of people from all over the world descended on our area but we ourselves were for the most part shielded from the pandamonium. A few hours before the eclipse was to start I received a text from my relatives son who told us high clouds in their part of Vermont were moving in and they asked how things were were we were at the cabin. They were perfect! They began their treck up and when they arrived we waited together for the event.

I set up my phone to record in 4K at 5 minutes before totality. Because of the possibility that the sun would damage the sensors I kept the sun out of view. I have not viewed it fully yet and will post it later tonight.

I have been researching the best settings to use on my camera, and did exactly what I felt was the best advice. Again, because of the possibility of sensor damage from the sun I just used my solar glasses as a filter. I held the glasses over the lens and Jessica pushed the shutter. Once totality arrived we stopped using the glasses and Jessica just pushed away as we took off our glasses and watched it.

I know some of you don't care about the eclipse but until you experience it you really have no idea. This was without a doubt the best event that I have ever viewed of any kind. The sun starts setting quickly and the temperature drops. The birds started acting weird and the area starts getting a reddish glow. Then in minutes everything goes dark and the stars came out. Just before totality the train went by and when reaching town the crowd became so large, there was no place to park. A few individuals rushing to see totality parked their vehicle too close to the track and the train that passed us minutes before crashed into them damaging 4 vehicles and sending one to the hospital. During totality there were so many people there we could hear them all yelling two miles away at the state beach built by the CCC.

This is before totality using the glasses as a filter but not fully zoomed in. All photos at 1/500 f.11 ISO 1250 set at infinity.



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Filtered just before totality.



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Totality. The bottom left shows a crater on the moon that the light is passing through. At least I think so :)



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Just emerging from totality.

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Filtered right after totality.

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Boyd

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I know I've been really cynical in this thread, but that's just my cranky nature. I think it's great that you found it to be such a moving experience and hope that the others who went on a trip to view the eclipse had clear skies and good times. I enjoyed your reports!
 
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