Countdown to Solar Eclipse in US

Datsyukian Deke

The Captain is Home!!
Apr 5, 2012
2,467
425
Middle Tennessee
Local Wal Marts have them for a dollar. The local library is giving them away for free. 18 days

my towns chamber of commerce is giving them away
With shipping, it was only $4 per glasses, so it wasn't too terrible. Plus I was wanting to make certain to get one of the four pairs listed as certified safe. Looking forward to it, indeed.
 

sobrien

RAFFLCOPTER
Jul 19, 2009
8,948
127
South Jersey
With shipping, it was only $4 per glasses, so it wasn't too terrible. Plus I was wanting to make certain to get one of the four pairs listed as certified safe. Looking forward to it, indeed.

Yeah the ones I ordered off Amazon were about the same, if not less, and I was able to make sure they were the recommended brand and type from NASA
 

LadyStanley

Registered User
Sep 22, 2004
105,729
18,857
Sin City
Publicly distributed email from Andrew Fraknoi, the emeritus chair of the Astronomy Dept. at Foothill College (Santa Clara county, California).

Dear Astronomy Enthusiast:

It’s hard to believe, but the “Great American Eclipse” is now only a week away. I thought you might like to know about the following eclipse-related resources:
1. I helped to write an 8-page booklet about eclipses and the 2017 eclipse, in everyday language, free to download or distribute to friends, relatives, colleagues etc. It has charts of when and how the eclipse is visible in major cities. You can access the booklet from the page: http://www.nsta.org/solarscience
2. The American Astronomical Society has an excellent page of sources (such as chain stores) where eclipse glasses are still available at: https://eclipse.aas.org/resources/solar-filters (Amazon scared a lot of their customers who bought eclipse glasses on line by hinting that any glasses bought through them may be suspect; this website has better information.)
3. I’m part of a project where 2.1 million safe eclipse-viewing glasses are being made available free of charge through public libraries nationwide, thanks to the support of the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation and Google. A map of the 7,000 libraries that have glasses available is at: http://spacescience.org/software/libraries/map.php So you might suggest that people who need glasses first call their local public library.
4. An evaluation and listing of the phone and tablet apps about the eclipse, by astronomer Rick Fienberg, is available at: http://www.skyandtelescope.com/2017-total-solar-eclipse/solar-eclipse-apps/ Any of these can tell you just what the eclipse will look like in your location. Many are free.
5. The children’s book I am co-author on, When the Sun Goes Dark, published by the nonprofit NSTA Press, is hard to get in print format (they are rushing out a fourth printing). But it can be downloaded in e-book format to any device and you can share the story of all kinds of eclipses, how to understand them, and how to view them safely, with your kids or grandkids instantly. Go to: http://www.nsta.org/eclipse (Please excuse this shameless plug for something that costs a bit of money. Did I mention it was a non-profit publisher?)
6. The U.S. Weather Service has a special eclipse section now for weather in the path of totality: https://www.weather.gov/source/crh/eclipse.html
7. A podcast of a discussion I had about the upcoming eclipse with veteran newscaster Gil Gross is available free at: http://fraknoisuniverse.libsyn.com/website/the-all-american-solar-eclipse We hope this will be the first of a series of astronomy podcasts. Feel free to share the link.
Remember that on August 21, you need clear skies to see the eclipse, so make plans to go where there is no fog. In the Bay Area the eclipse is partial, starting at 9:01 am, becoming maximum (with 76% of the Sun’s area covered) at 10:15 am, and finished at 11:37 am.
Wishing you clear skies and good companions,
Andrew Fraknoi
P.S. For those near Foothill College, the bookstore has both eclipse glasses and copies of my children’s book.
 

Gnashville

HFBoards Hall of Famer
Jan 7, 2003
13,683
3,510
Crossville
So an extra 20,000 people expected in my town this weekend all the hotels, motels, and campgrounds are booked and signs on Interstate 40 warning drivers not to stop for the eclipse.
 

PredsV82

Rest easy, 303, and thank you.
Sponsor
Aug 13, 2007
35,238
15,225
Schroedingers box
So an extra 20,000 people expected in my town this weekend all the hotels, motels, and campgrounds are booked and signs on Interstate 40 warning drivers not to stop for the eclipse.

Hopkinsville, KY which is the town closest to the maximum duration of the Eclipse looks like Woodstock already. Hotel rooms approaching 1000 a night.
 
Sep 19, 2008
372,042
23,918
Nashville knows how to throw a party news showed people with preds flags partying on a rooftop. Eclipse to pass through

Party's already begun!!
 

Preds Partisan

Gunga galunga
Aug 17, 2009
3,318
899
The tiny eclipses showing through the leaves onto the ground are very cool looking. Everybody is looking up, I'm looking down.
 

Kestrel

Registered User
Jan 30, 2005
5,814
129
We hit 80% totality here... a little work to make sure my cell phone stayed between my eyes and the eclipse got some half decent pics and video. I wish I had taken the initiative to get the glasses to look at it directly, and perhaps some filters for my real camera... 200x zoom with a real lens would have handily beaten 8x zoom with a cell phone.
 

WeWantTacos

they said aw-reety an' they was aw-righty
Apr 6, 2012
2,118
1,679
Brett Hallway
I was in the path of totality. Pretty ****ing incredible, I didn't expect it to be that overwhelming when taking the glasses off. It got cooler when it went dark, crickets started chirping and birds went silent.

The 2024 total eclipse will roll through here again and I'm already looking forward to it.
 

PredsV82

Rest easy, 303, and thank you.
Sponsor
Aug 13, 2007
35,238
15,225
Schroedingers box
I was in the path of totality. Pretty ****ing incredible, I didn't expect it to be that overwhelming when taking the glasses off. It got cooler when it went dark, crickets started chirping and birds went silent.

The 2024 total eclipse will roll through here again and I'm already looking forward to it.

You must be in southern Illinois if you were in totality today and will get it again in 2024. I'm in western KY... it was amazing... I'll have to travel just a little west to see totality with that one
 

PredsV82

Rest easy, 303, and thank you.
Sponsor
Aug 13, 2007
35,238
15,225
Schroedingers box
And everyone should hang onto their solar glasses. Even before the next eclipse you can put them to use for the transit of Mercury in 2019. It won't be quite as impressive as the transit of Venus was in 2012 but it still should be pretty cool.
 

njdevsfn95

Help JJJ, Sprite.
Jul 30, 2006
31,348
55
I bought a solar filter but had to fashion my own holder for my telescope. Made it work and sure am glad I did. Used my phone to take some good and some not-so-good pictures.

IMG_0084.jpg


you can see sunspots here

IMG_0102.jpg


and now the ones in the middle of the sun have been blocked and the ones on the bottom right are a bit clearer

2e58b3o.jpg


Roughly 75% and as it got closer to maximum the green of the trees looked so odd for "mid afternoon" that made it more spectacular for me. The temperature dropped quite a bit and I slowly realized (as I typically do not sit in my driveway on a chair for 90 minutes in the summer) that it was getting cooler and the sunlight less harsh. Cannot imagine the experience of being in the path totality but I sure would like to experience it now.
 

Kestrel

Registered User
Jan 30, 2005
5,814
129
Here's a question for those who know more about the eclipse than I do.

When I took my photos and video, there was a very large glare in the sky, and below it, much more subdued, appeared the eclipse. Obviously, the large glare was from the sun, but they appeared to be two separate and unique bodies in the sky. My parents tried the "cell phone in selfie mode over the shoulder" approach to see the eclipse, but only saw the huge glare and not the eclipse. My sister tried some photos, but was convinced she missed the eclipse due to that glare too, but looking at the photos later, she actually got really great shots of the eclipse - sitting below the glare.

The only thing I can think of is that due to forest fires in BC, we have smoke in the air, and perhaps this really messed with the passage of the sunlight? Would diffraction be the right word?
 

Datsyukian Deke

The Captain is Home!!
Apr 5, 2012
2,467
425
Middle Tennessee
Managed to get a decent picture.

Definitely was neat to experience the totality and the whole event as a whole. Can't wait till 2024 to hopefully be able to see it again!

solar-jpg.154616
 

Leafsdude7

Stand-Up Philosopher
Mar 26, 2011
23,135
1,213
Ontario
Are the slightly pink spots solar flares or prominences (sp)?

Those are actually Baily's Beads:

Although Baily is often said to have discovered the cause of the feature which bears his name, Sir Edmond Halley made the first recorded observations of Baily's beads during the Solar eclipse of 3 May 1715. Halley described and correctly ascertained the cause of the effect in his "Observations of the late Total Eclipse of the Sun[...]" in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society:

About two Minutes before the Total Immersion, the remaining part of the Sun was reduced to a very fine Horn, whose Extremeties seemed to lose their Acuteness, and to become round like Stars ... which Appearance could proceed from no other Cause but the Inequalities of the Moon's Surface, there being some elevated parts thereof near the Moon's Southern Pole, by whose Interposition part of that exceedingly fine Filament of Light was intercepted.​
 

njdevsfn95

Help JJJ, Sprite.
Jul 30, 2006
31,348
55
Reminds me of when NASA showed a video when the moon went between the earth and some satellite. Neat stuff.
 

Leafsdude7

Stand-Up Philosopher
Mar 26, 2011
23,135
1,213
Ontario
That's even cooler than what I expected. Thank you

No problem. Read about them about 10 years ago for some reason and recognized it almost immediately. Had to look around for a bit to find the exact name of them again, though.

Definitely a cool effect.
 

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