Are you on the totality path TJ?Originally Posted by Traffic Jam
“For of all sad words of tongue or pen,
the saddest are these, 'It might have been.”
John Greenleaf Whittier
Yes.
I hope the weather cooperates...haven't had good luck this year with sky-watching events.
Good for you! Instead of the chaise lounge maybe you should break out the hammockYes.
I hope the weather cooperates...haven't had good luck this year with sky-watching events.I won't be so lucky, it looks like my eclipse plans are going up in flames
“For of all sad words of tongue or pen,
the saddest are these, 'It might have been.”
John Greenleaf Whittier
A total solar eclipse is one of nature's greatest spectacles even if it only lasts 2.5 minutes. If you see a total eclipse you will never forget it. My wife and I went to Cabo in 1991 to see a total eclipse. As the eclipse progresses toward totality you notice that the sun's brightness and heat are diminishing in intensity. In the shadows cast by trees the tips of leaves act as a pinhole camera and project an image of the eclipse on the ground. You can cause the same effect in the shadow of your hand with your fingers spread. When the eclipse is almost at totality you can see a darkening on the horizon as the moon's shadow races across the earth toward you. During totality the sun's atmosphere, the corona, becomes visible. It is a undulating pearlescent orb surrounding the sun that no photograph or movie can capture in its detail, variation in brightness and movement. Ruby red prominences appear on the edge on the sun's blacked out disk. The air cools, the wind begins to blow and shadow bands move across the ground like waves. Then the moon begins to uncover the sun, totality ends and the eclipse begins to unwind. Is it worth seeing for only 2.5 minutes? I can recall every detail 26 years later like it was yesterday.
If you don't stand for something, you will fall for anything.
I've experienced one total solar eclipse - I happened to be working in the woods that day as an intern for a timber company. It was neat. But it wasn't something I'd drive to see. I definitely wouldn't drive hours and then deal with crowds and hassles for two minutes of "neat."
Far more meaningful are the hours we spend trudging under heavy packs to reach a Hump Mountain, where we might lay in the grass for 30 minutes, totally relaxed, feeling a cool breeze on our faces.
The serendipitous is usually the most fun, especially when toil is required to "earn it." Those moments just happen and usually can't be pre-arranged. The more we try to orchestrate it the more likely we're in for a let down. Trying to get 2.5 minutes "just right" at great effort (driving for hours) and sometimes at great expense when so much can go wrong is sorta like trying to pull an inside straight.
I live in northwest Georgia, where the eclipse will be near total (briefly). I won't travel to get closer to the swath of totality. There's a good chance I'll be outside because I often am. I won't be driving hours to find an amusement park environment that lasts two minutes (or gets rained out).
Avoiding traffic, at home.
I'll have just arrived in London
igne et ferrum est potentas
"In the beginning, all America was Virginia." -William Byrd
Going to be a lot of sad people if it's a rainy cloudy day.
Where will you be for the Total Eclipse on August 21, 2017?
I'll see you there, if you find my spot that is.
going that Friday to get my spot.
WBIR TV has a link on their web site to a very good interactive map. I'm surprised that TnHiker hasn't mentioned it.
According to the map my house is in 99.45% of totality for 2 1\2 minutes. I am scheduled to work but my job involves onsite travel to businesses and I have some flexibility. Our parts drop is in west Knoxville within the 100% corridor. May have to play it by ear according to cloud cover.
Already there are traffic warnings about stopping on the interstate.
Solar Eclipse connoisseurs actually argue about wether it is better to be in the center of the path of totality or at the edge. Just inside the edge the totality may not last long, but I understand the 'edge effects' actually last longer. Best advice I have heard is to be near the center at least once so you can experience that, then you might want to try one eclipse nearer the edge.
All agree that if you are outside of totality, you really have not experienced what an eclipse has to offer.
“For of all sad words of tongue or pen,
the saddest are these, 'It might have been.”
John Greenleaf Whittier
The eclipse is cool and I'm looking forward to it but what fascinates me is the number of people who will be outside at the same time, all focused on the same thing.
I keep imagining people pouring out of businesses and homes...and think about those who won't be able to get outside...sort of like that story of the sun shining for the first time in eons and the kid who was punished and locked away so they couldn't see it (was that an episode on the Twilight Zone?)
No place to hang in my yard.Good for you! Instead of the chaise lounge maybe you should break out the hammock
What have you decided to do?
I had built my eclipse watching plans around an Oregon PCT section hike. Now, the PCT in Oregon has so many fire closures that I am reluctantly ready to give up on the eclipse and just do a section hike in California. Decision time is Wednesday because I had better mail my resupplies out by then.
“For of all sad words of tongue or pen,
the saddest are these, 'It might have been.”
John Greenleaf Whittier
Invariably someone will post somewhere on social media that they waited all night for the eclipse to happen, but they never saw a bloody thing, and there wasn't one cloud in the star lit sky.
It'll be a new moon, so that'll be particularly funny if it happens.
Socks, hope you don't mind if I steal this idea for my FB page.
“For of all sad words of tongue or pen,
the saddest are these, 'It might have been.”
John Greenleaf Whittier
all yours brother! Have fun with it.
good point!
"I mean I think I saw peeking out at one point" he he
It's worth mentioning that if you thought you'd just go out in the back yard like I did to view the eclipse, you may have to get up on your roof to see it...it will coincide with the setting sun. Now that's not to say it will set while being eclipsed, just that in may be below the tree line on the horizon depending how your property is situated. So be ready to find some open ground or gain some elevation if need be. That is all.
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