Total Solar Eclipse Planning (Aug 21st, U.S. Only)

Isn’t the path of the eclipse right through Marion’s neck of the woods?

PARTY AT MARION’S!!!
RSVP not required!!!
:laughing:

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Especially like the solar glasses emoji.

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Great pictures, especially for “not very well thought out”. I’ve been planning for the coming eclipse for decades. Will still mess up the pictures.

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I’m not in totality but am planning on traveling to see it just a hundred miles to centerline. Missouri has some primo locations because of the height of the sun at the time of the eclipse will be pretty high.

I remember the partial eclipse in the Midwest in the 90s. Lots of little partial eclipse shadows through the leaves on the trees. And the nighthawks came out during what appeared as twilight.

In third grade we had a great young science teacher. She talked about eclipses and what they were. I knew there would be only one total eclipse for me in Missouri during my lifetime and that it would be when I was very old. Well at 56 this summer maybe not very old but old enough.

Up to now my single most cool celestial phenomen, more than some of the comets was the transit of Venus in 2004. I have some video I’ll dig out of it shot with a web cam and my Meade etx90. Talk about contrasts and history. So Cook’s voyage to Tahiti for the transit of Venus two passes ago and all the other expeditions to observe the transit was equivalent to the cost of a moonshot just to get accurate measurements from many different locations to determine celestial distances.

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I saw the partial a couple of years ago. I made a pinhole viewer and wandered around my complex projecting it on the wall for people and watching heads explode. I bought a welding mask insert for direct viewing, so maybe this one I can see in more detail.

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Thanks for the reminder, forgot to add this to my earlier post (I am getting old!)…

Obligatory Safety Notice!

Welders glass is a great way to directly observe the partial phases, but please be sure to get #14 (the darkest grade). Anything less isn’t safe. Also, no doubling – two #7s do not equal one #14! :sunglasses:

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This is where I was for the 2012 eclipse:


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Yeah, I had to shop around a bit to get it, #14 is a little hard to find.

It gets even harder to find the closer you get to an eclipse, in both distance and time. I’d recommend folks start looking now. :wink:

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We are very close to dead center of the path. When the state park service opened a special window of time for people to reserve campsites for the eclipse, I sat in front of my computer screen watching the time. At 12:01, I tried grabbing three campsites in Central Oregon. They became unavailable almost instantly. Tried other sites, as well. I’m supposing I wasn’t the only one glued to the clock and the reservation website. :relaxed: Disappointed, but I’m sure we’ll find a suitable spot…if nothing else, out in the middle of our daughter and son-in-law’s blueberry fields on the farm. I’ve heard people remark on the eerie silence that falls during the short time without the sun. The birds and other creatures think it’s nighttime. Wherever we land, we’ll make a party, though.

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How 'bout these?

http://a.co/8lZCsCG

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Salute that entrepreneur. :money_mouth:
(Candidate for laser cutting) Upcoming demand. On the ball.

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My sister lives in Union, MO; probably within 5 miles of the centerline. Looks like they will get 2 min 37 sec of totality, compared to my 1 min 28 sec. I might encourage her to have a party.

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Yes, highly recommended. :+1: :+1:

Rainbow Symphony is the go-to source for eclipse, 3D, and diffraction grating “glasses.” I probably gave out 10K sets of each to students and visitors while working at NCAR.

RS has been selling these for at least 30-40 years. You might be able to shop around for a cheaper deal (eBay?).

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Our original plan was to stay in Bend and drive NE to center line on der Tag, but I make a big :poop: by not making hotel/airbnb/whatever reservations soon enough. :confounded: Same for my other top picks for max duration and low probability of mid-day clouds.

On the plus side, making this a road trip lets me take my big binoculars (with high-quality solar filters) and a heavy tripod. I’m even thinking of taking my quadcopter to take video of the shadow bands racing toward us. :sunglasses:

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Like us…make a party where ever you may land. To me, the road trip is the best part. :relaxed:

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Thanks for that! With them being so inexpensive, I wasn’t sure.

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Hey! I was able to do this quite easily by making a copy of the Glowforger Map, adding a layer, and uploading the eclipse .kmz file from here. (I didn’t want to mess with the original map without permission.). Not sure if I should post the link here but you can easily do this yourself.

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Speaking of maps. This one is very useful for planning. Zoom and drag the map to your location. Then click on the exact location of interest. A popup box will appear showing a lot of information about the eclipse at that precise spot. For example I found out the exact second of totality at my reserved campground and that the eclipse will be total for 2min and 13 seconds. But if I traveled just another 30 miles north I would gain another 19 seconds of totality.

http://xjubier.free.fr/en/site_pages/solar_eclipses/TSE_2017_GoogleMapFull.html?Lat=39.5&Lng=-97.00008&Zoom=5&Map='ROADMAP'&OMap=0

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Great! Thanks rpegg :sunglasses:
Son lives in Nashville, prime time for a visit!