This is a follow up to Anne Laurie’s post of earlier this morning. My family’s headed out for Oregon in a couple of weeks, basing ourselves with relatives in Portland before heading a little south and east in the very wee hours of the 21st.
We’re putting ourselves in the hands of the cloud-cover forecast as to how far east we go (or try to), and in those of our cousins for local knowledge of roads and routes. There Will Be Traffic, which is why my hunch is that we’ll be en route not much after midnight.
That’s my plan. What follows is for those of you in or near the path of the partial eclipse, and said below that you plan to stay there.
Reconsider.
A total eclipse is a completely different beast from a partial one. Partial eclipses are weird and cool.
Something comes along and takes a bite out of the soon, and the sheer wrongness of that is emotionally powerful, and produces its own truly odd visual effects:
BUT…
Totality is a completely different beast.
Here’s Annie Dillard, testifying:
I had seen a partial eclipse in 1970. A partial eclipse is very interesting. It bears almost no relation to a total eclipse. Seeing a partial eclipse bears the same relation to seeing a total eclipse as kissing a man does to marrying him, or as flying in an airplane does to falling out of an airplane. Although the one experience precedes the other, it in no way prepares you for it….
The sky’s blue was deepening, but there was no darkness. The sun was a wide crescent, like a segment of tangerine. The wind freshened and blew steadily over the hill. The eastern hill across the highway grew dusky and sharp. The towns and orchards in the valley to the south were dissolving into the blue light. Only the thin river held a trickle of sun.
Now the sky to the west deepened to indigo, a color never seen. A dark sky usually loses color. This was a saturated, deep indigo, up in the air. Stuck up into that unworldly sky was the cone of Mount Adams, and the alpenglow was upon it. The alpenglow is that red light of sunset which holds out on snowy mountain tops long after the valleys and tablelands are dimmed. “Look at Mount Adams,” I said, and that was the last sane moment I remember.
I turned back to the sun. It was going. The sun was going, and the world was wrong. The grasses were wrong; they were platinum. Their every detail of stem, head, and blade shone lightless and artificially distinct as an art photographer’s platinum print. This color has never been seen on earth. The hues were metallic; their finish was matte. The hillside was a nineteenth-century tinted photograph from which the tints had faded. All the people you see in the photograph, distinct and detailed as their faces look, are now dead. The sky was navy blue. My hands were silver. All the distant hills’ grasses were finespun metal which the wind laid down. I was watching a faded color print of a movie filmed in the Middle Ages; I was standing in it, by some mistake. I was standing in a movie of hillside grasses filmed in the Middle Ages. I missed my own century, the people I knew, and the real light of day…
From all the hills came screams. A piece of sky beside the crescent sun was detaching. It was a loosened circle of evening sky, suddenly lighted from the back. It was an abrupt black body out of nowhere; it was a flat disk; it was almost over the sun. That is when there were screams. At once this disk of sky slid over the sun like a lid. The sky snapped over the sun like a lens cover. The hatch in the brain slammed. Abruptly it was dark night, on the land and in the sky. In the night sky was a tiny ring of light. The hole where the sun belongs is very small. A thin ring of light marked its place. There was no sound. The eyes dried, the arteries drained, the lungs hushed. There was no world. We were the world’s dead people rotating and orbiting around and around, embedded in the planet’s crust, while the earth rolled down. Our minds were light-years distant, forgetful of almost everything. Only an extraordinary act of will could recall to us our former, living selves and our contexts in matter and time. We had, it seems, loved the planet and loved our lives, but could no longer remember the way of them. We got the light wrong. In the sky was something that should not be there. In the black sky was a ring of light. It was a thin ring, an old, thin silver wedding band, an old, worn ring. It was an old wedding band in the sky, or a morsel of bone. There were stars. It was all over.
— Annie Dillard, “Total Eclipse”, from Teaching a Stone to Talk
My own experience was similarly uncanny, impossible to anticipate. The first film that was really mine, the first on which I had sole producer and writer credit, was an episode of NOVA broadcast in 1992 called “Eclipse of the Century.” It documented the 1991 eclipse whose a path of totality tracked directly over the Big Island of Hawaii — and hence over the deep-space telescopes placed atop Mauna Kea.
It was a hell of a first film to attempt — we ended up with a crew of over 20, 12 cameras, insurance from Lloyds of London against the possibility that clouds would doom the film — something like $5,000 against $250,000 on four minutes or so of clear skies — and so on.
I had a ton of help, of course: a supervising producer, a proper director, a great assistant, and above all, wonderful camera people and their crews, in many ways a who’s-who of the top documentary shooters of the day. Without them the whole farrago would have collapsed in hideous ignominy.
As it turned out, nature gave us great drama — clouds rising, threatening to cover the sun minutes before totality and then…
Well, take a look at this clip.*
For myself — I was with the crew that was filming the adventures within the control room of the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope. That was headed by Jon Else, for those of you who follow documentary stuff, and though I was nominally his director, Jon needed no guidance from a rookie to do his usual brilliant work. About 90 seconds into totality he turned his head and told me to get onto the catwalk to see the matter for myself.
I did.
I’m not going to tell you what I felt. As the Dillard passage above suggest, it seems to me, words can carry something of the emotional intensity of the moment, but the experience itself is unsayable. Mimesis ain’t in it here; there’s no representation that captures the reality anyone other than the writer would perceive.
In purely descriptive terms, the shift in colors that Dillard describes is the overture, the phenomenon that alerts you to the strangeness under way. But when the moon’s disc fully covers the sun you get something else altogether, a darkness that isn’t quite the darkness of night (especially if you’re high up, with a truly distant horizon, because you can then detect a kind of lightening all around you at the edges of your viewable frame).
And most of all, you get the corona, the solar atmosphere. The human eye can see it out to a distance of at least 10 solar diameters, maybe more. But because the brightness falls off so sharply from near the limb of the sun to hte diffuse, outer corona, most most photographs, and certainly in the video linked above, don’t begin to do justice to what you’ll see for yourselves.
All of which is (a) to prove the point that words are poor guides to what happens during totality and (b) if you have a chance, check it out.
*I can’t find the whole film on the web anywhere. That’s no surprise — in 1992 we weren’t clearing rights for an internet that wouldn’t properly exist for years to come. One cool thing about that eclipse that you’ll see if you do look at the clip were those two giant solar prominences. Don’t see that every time.
Images: George Stubbs, Eclipse at Newmarket with Groom, before 1789.
Photos of a partial eclipse of the sun taken in Yunnan province, China, 1999
Luc Viatour, Total Solar Eclipse, 1999
germy
SiubhanDuinne
Sooner rather than later.
Baud
NASA eclipse info
https://eclipse2017.nasa.gov/eclipse-maps
oatler.
August in Oregon is always sunny except for wildfire smoke. Even when the fire isn’t near it’ll give you bloody-doom sunsets, depending on the wind.
?BillinGlendaleCA
Sigh, something I will never see.
Ohio Mom
My plan is the partial here at home, staying alive for seven more years, then seeing the total in Ohio in 2024. That one will be an easy drive.
SiubhanDuinne
That clip from your documentary is pretty amazing. What a shame the whole thing isn’t available to us (I hope and assume that it at least exists in some format in somebody’s custody).
BBA
I’ve seen one total eclipse – it was 2012 and I was on a cruise ship off the coast of Australia. It was cloudy when totality started and we only saw about half of it, but long enough to leave an impression. Still, from what you describe it’s probably a much better sight from land.
I also saw an annular eclipse from the school lawn when I was 9, but remember little of it.
This time I’ll be staying in Portland and hoping not to still be stuck on I-5 come eclipse time.
Baud
Not as many opportunities to see total eclipses as I would have guessed.
https://www.timeanddate.com/eclipse/list-total-solar.html
burnspbesq
Madras is a cool little town, emphasis on little. Sonic is the haute cuisine. The drive from Portland on US 26 is scenic as all get-out during the day; I imagine it’s a white-knuckle thrill ride at night.
Have fun.
Butthurt Jordan Trombone (fka XTPD)
@Ohio Mom: The eclipse happens the first day of senior year in FL, so I also plan to see the total in 2024.
germy
@Ohio Mom:
Shows how old I am. I was actually startled momentarily when I realized the year 2024 is only seven years away.
debbie
That clip is better than anything Hollywood could have delivered. “Then suddenly, the offending clouds fall away, revealing…”
HinTN
@Baud: Here’s the real deal:
http://xjubier.free.fr/en/site_pages/solar_eclipses/TSE_2017_GoogleMapFull.html
Had to edit because the link thingy left a blank…
Felanius Kootea
Great clip and Annie Dillard’s description of the experience gave me chills.
Roger Moore
Like you, I am planning on visiting relatives in Portland and then heading to an area where we can see the eclipse early early on the 21st.
Mart
I get a total in my backyard near St. Louis for over a minute. Talked my way into avoiding going to a meeting in Chicago, phone conference instead. Thinking of driving about 45 minutes south to get an extra minute or so of totality. Remember a pretty good partial in Pittsburgh in 1970, my dd the scientist was pumped up. A lot of folks think my excitement is not normal.
joel hanes
I know that Annie Dillard is well-regarded as a writer, and so the fault is in me,
but have always found her style over-written, over-wrought, and nigh unreadable.
If she actually experiences the world as intensely as she reports, she’s quite different than anyone I have ever met.
MazeDancer
Like many here, this excellent post makes me really, really, really want to experience it.
Alas, not this time.
grandpa john
Hey,all east coasters.come on down to SC and join us. I live in a little town ,Abbeville . we are in the zone, it will be total for us. Already have our special glasses.
, Around here ,and throughout the state , It’;s going to be party time.The zone of full eclipse comes in in the upper NW corner, passes through the entire state and goes out down around Charleston . Most towns College other groups are making it celebration with viewing areas, refreshments and other entertainment activities that will make it an all day event. So It’s going to be almost a state wide party
Major Major Major Major
2024 it is! I also can’t make it this year and will almost certainly be alive then.
Uncle Cosmo
@Baud: This page links to an interactive Google map which appears to be more useful for those intending to view the eclipse. Specifically, if you click on any spot on the (zoomable) map you get a popup that tells you, for that location, when the different phases of the eclipse start (in UTC*) & (in the upper right hand corner) the duration of totality.
It’s especially helpful for anyone who intends to drive into the path of totality & wants to know how much they’d gain (or lose) in the duration of totality depending on their choice of roads & stopping points.
* Universal Time Coordinates. For local time, subtract 4 hr from this value in the Eastern time zone; subtract 5 hr in the Central; 6 hr in the Mountain; or 7 hr in the Pacific time zone (all DST). For example, the start of totality (C2) in St. Joseph, MO is at 18:06.21.5 UTC, which is (18-5=13) 13:06:21.5 CDT, or 21.5 seconds after 1:06 PM local time.
zhena gogolia
Hi, Annie.
Ohio Mom
My sister and her husband’s plan is to find an isolated spot somewhere in the back roads of Kentucky. They are equipped with a brand new Kentucky atlas. They will have an intimate, private moment, without any distractions.
But I think there is also something to be said for being in a crowd for an event like this one, and experiencing your awe as part of a collective awe.
Something to think about.
Uncle Cosmo
@HinTN: FTR this is the same map that the page I posted links to.
Kelly
Our house is within a few hundred feet of the centerline. 2 minutes of totality. Due to the big hill covered with big Douglas firs to our southeast we’ll have to walk a little ways to get an open view. So far 3 dozen of our Portland friends are coming out for the show. Most of them are planning to camp in our yard for the weekend. Many forecasts of apocalyptic traffic. I5 south of Woodburn seems likely to stuff up. It can barely handle the load when Oregon and Oregon State have home football games at the same time. Fortunately there are hundreds of miles of 2 lane county roads surrounded by vast open farm fields where the eclipse path crosses the Willamette Valley.
Catherine D.
Given the path it’s taking, I hope the doomsday preppers don’t freak – science, how does it work?
grandpa john
In Checking the map it look like my grand daughter and family are going to a couple of miles from the center line . that means that my 22 month old great granddaughter will get to see it. We already have glasses for her also
Uncle Cosmo
@debbie: “Just in time, as the moon covered the sun, the temperature dropped a little, & the clouds sank.” Well, duh. Since sunlight is what heats up the earth, you’d kinda sorta expect things to cool down as the moon cut off more & more of the light, right?
I might worry a bit that the drop in temperature associated with the eclipse might retard the burning off of the morning mist near the Oregon coast. The moon starts covering the sun at ~9 AM there; maybe the mist will already have dissipated by then.
RedDirtGirl
I remember experiencing a partial years ago in NYC. The bizarre shadows were just like that first video.
BC in Illinois
@Mart:
Me, too. St Louis County. One minute, 27 seconds.
I could go back to Illinois, but I would only pick up a few seconds more.
On the other hand, the Weather Channel’s “10 day forecast” (which goes until Aug 19–go figure) has:
Tues Aug 15 – – Scattered Thundershowers
Wed Aug 16 – – Scattered Thundershowers
Thu Aug 17 – – Scattered Thundershowers
Fri Aug 18 – – Scattered Thundershowers
Sat Aug 19 – – Scattered Thundershowers
In a few days, we will see long-term forecasts for Aug 21.
In two weeks, we will see reasonably reliable forecasts.
James Emerson
I was in Maupin, OR (near Madras) on the last total eclipse back in February, 1979. I have to describe it as a religious experience (this from a guy who abhors religion). But the true beauty of the event was complemented by the fact that it was me and two college friends standing enraptured along a lonely road with no one else in sight. This time around there will be an estimated half million people swarming into the viewing area near Madras. The state is on high alert with warnings being issued about the lack of services (gasoline, food, water, law enforcement) and the extreme fire conditions made worst by heavy spring rains and abundant and now extremely flammable vegetation. I drove through Madras yesterday helping move household items for a friend in Portland. There was a small roadside fire in the Warm Springs Indian Reservation which was put out almost immediately by the reservation’s rapid response fire department. Traffic was light. If you got to be there for the event, take extra food and plenty of water. Also make sure your gas tank is full before setting out, and PLEASE DON”T SMOKE. The air quality around Madras, within the Portland metro region, and pretty much statewide has been reported on par with Beijing, China for all the forest fire smoke drifting down from Canada and from the many local wildfires. If you’re going to go be prepared to stay overnight, roadside fires will undoubtedly close major roads, and a half million cars trying to leave at the same time won’t happen even under the best of conditions. Even though I live only a short distance from the path of totality, I will be staying home…
Major Major Major Major
That excerpt Tom posted is downright Lovecraftian, by the way.
J R in WV
Tom, thanks for encouraging folks to make an effort to see this. I’ve never seen totality, just 2 partial eclipses… I’m a little pumped about it, hoping the weather doesn’t mess with us too badly.
We’re hoping to have success on back roads in KY also. I’ll be using my tablet and Google maps AND a KY road atlas. It’s older, but they don’t move those country roads much ;-) if at all.
We’re driving over to the general area early either the 19th or the 20th… I reserved a room in Owensboro for the nights of the 20th and 21st. May stay in Lexington the 19th, there’s a nice hotel & restaurant we have visited often, it’s a good place to give up on a long drive home, spend a night in comfort before the last push after 3 or 4 days on the road. That would let us cruise around a little the afternoon of the 20th to search out a roadside wide spot with a view of the sky.
This part of KY is immortalized in a John Prine song:
It’s a lot flatter topography than it used to be. I was amazed to see the sign entering the county, an hour or so from our destination, back in the day. There was also fluorospar mining near here a hundred years ago, used as flux in blast furnaces making high-grade steel. Fluorite, technically, but called spar by the miners at the time.
I see that the 2024 eclipse will enter the USA by crossing the Rio Grand river into Texas in April, then heading NE through Arkansas, southern Illinois, etc to Lake Erie where it enters Canada. Spring showers everywhere in April, but a 4+ minute totality is pretty amazing to consider, twice as long as this month’s eclipse. It ought to be easy to find a sunny spot in the Hill Country of TX, if you can find one anywhere in the mid-west.
Mart
@BC in Illinois: Yea, figures we will get rain on the big day after a summer of intolerable heat and drought!
raven
What filter should I get for my Canon T3i?
Tom Levenson
@raven: Not an eclipse photographer, but I am on B & H Photo’s email list, and I’ve noticed they’ve been publishing a lot of how-to stuff like this at their “explora” page.
HeleninEire
I know I am super late but I just read the dick pic thread and wanted to respond to the people who asked “why did he think women would like that?”
Because men are different than women and they are so self-involved that it doesn’t occur to them that a woman would not react to a picture they same way he would. Men are more stimulated visually than women.
Here’s a what if. Let’s say I’m a girl who wants to get the attention of a boy who is just not responding. If I send him pics of my boobs (BTW, “they are real and they are FABULOUS” h/t Seinfeld). Does anyone think that maybe that PIC may change his mind? I do.
CaseyL
If I’d been able to, I’d’ve taken vacation time to be down in Portland at least a day beforehand, and not leave until at least a day afterward. Since I wasn’t able to, I’ll wait for the 2024 event, by which point I may hopefully be retired, and be able to go where I want when I want.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@raven: I have a sheet of this solar filter sheet and cut it out and mounted it between two step-up rings. I’ve captured some pretty good pictures of the sun(with sunspots) with my 50-200mm lens.
BC in Illinois
@Mart:
Yeah, it could happen that those of us supposedly in the center of totality, might have to drive 100-150 miles northwest or southeast to find an uncloudy day.
Ohio Mom
@J R in WV: Hmmm…hadn’t factored in April showers in my plan to stay-alive-for-seven-more-years-and-do-a-day-trip-to-see-a-full-eclipse.
You may have harshed my mellow here. Not really interested in going to Texas.
Phylllis
@grandpa john: Yes, come on down. There are no hotel rooms in the greater Columbia area, but per The State newspaper today, still a good selection of Airbnb homes.
Lahke
Hi, I’ll be in Oregon also. Didn’t get a hotel room in Madras, but hopefully only a 90 minute drive. At least we did get a parking space at the Madras airport, which is where NASA will be setting up.
Assuming that all goes well, this will be my ninth totality; the one in 1991 was my first also, but I saw it in Mazatlan, so over 6 minutes of totality there. With that duration, there were weather effects at the edge of the shadow due to the abrupt temp differential–thunder and lightning.
Furthest I’ve gone in miles to see one was Cairns, Australia; furthest I’ve gone culturally was to Western Mongolia. I agree that it’s the eeriest sensation ever, which is why I keep going.
Of course, I talked to one woman in Madras last year when I went to scout locations who swore she was going to hide in her house on the day, she was already so sick of all the hype. Hope that she changes her mind, and hope that you all can get to see one soon.
bago
Seeing a total solar eclipse saved my life once.
SiubhanDuinne
@bago:
And may we know the rest of the story?
Major Major Major Major
@SiubhanDuinne: well, they were about to be sacrificed by cultists who worship the dead but dreaming god under alien skies, and…
Jim, Foolish Literalist
One of his best! Though my neighbors might say my enthusiastic sing-along/cover of Saddle In The Rain is better.
Greg
@Mart: We’re driving down to Onondaga Cave. The daughter loves it. We’ll do the first tour and then stare at the sky for the rest of the afternoon.
Another Scott
@SiubhanDuinne: The episode was put out on VHS (Amazon has used copies).
WGBH has it in the archive and apparently there are ways for researchers to get digital copies.
HTH.
Cheers,
Scott.
chris
Does anyone know what happens if there’s cloud cover? Is there anything to see if one is in the path?
bago
@SiubhanDuinne:
I left this house:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capitol_Hill_massacre
To see this eclipse:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_eclipse_of_March_29,_2006
Got the news half way there.
TriassicSands
Oregon is the worst possible place to go to see the eclipse. Everyone should stay away — there are currently outbreaks of Ebola, Marburg, malaria, smallpox, and cholera. None of these epidemics will be controlled before August 22, 2017. Staying away is the only defense. The chances of surviving a trip to Oregon in the first three weeks of August are zero.
Note: the fact that I live in Washington and plan to visit Oregon later this month — I forget the date — does in no way serve to diminish the risk that everyone else faces. Through a medical fluke, I’m immune to all those diseases, so I am not at risk.
People who say total eclipses are special are lying and are just trying to lure other people to states like Oregon in order to reduce our population. Don’t be fooled — STAY AWAY!!!
Keith P.
@SiubhanDuinne: “So there I was, on an altar to Kukulkan, about to have my heart carved out and my decapitated head thrown down some temple steps. But then a total eclipse happened!”
Lahke
Noticed that a commenter on Betty’s thread mentioned going to an island for seeing the eclipse–don’t do it unless you have flexible transportation options! The guy who organized that trip to Mazatlan in 1991 had arranged to get himself dropped off on an island in the bay there and got clouded out. Those of us in the rental van headed down the cost to the gap in the clouds and saw the whole 6+ minutes.
TriassicSands
@chris:
It should get dark(er) and cool(er). If the cloud cover is thin — thin enough that you can see the sun’s disk through it — then you should still see the eclipse.
bago
@TriassicSands: Totality is night time at a thousand miles an hour. Darkness falls from one horizon to another in a vanishingly small amount of time.
raven
@Tom Levenson: Thanks!
TriassicSands
@joel hanes:
I read Annie Dillard’s novel, “The Living,” and it is easily one of the worst novels I’ve ever read. There was nothing about it, and certainly not the writing, that made it worth reading. I finished out of a morbid curiosity — I wanted to see if something would happen to make it all worthwhile. It didn’t.
A terrible book.
Other than the rare piece of utter trash I’ve read — like being stuck in an alpine hut and the only thing to read is what is lying around — “The Living” may well be the worst novel I’ve ever read.
Another Scott
@bago: Zooks!! :-(
Cheers,
Scott.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@TriassicSands: Thank you for your sage advice.
chris
@TriassicSands: Thank you. The April 2024 event passes over New Brunswick so I’m debating whether the 5-6 hour drive would be worthwhile. Given the way global weirding has treated us the last few years it’s anyone’s guess. April weather in NB could be anything from a gorgeous spring day to a full on blizzard. It may be a little early to plan this one…
Lizzy L
I saw a partial solar eclipse from the top of Twin Peaks in San Francisco about 35 or 40 years ago (I don’t recall the year.) I’m going to be in Grand Rapids MI on August 21. The eclipse will be visible there at 85% of totality; not the full monty, but not chopped liver, either. For part of it I will be on an airplane, flying west. I wonder what that will be like!
? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?
Please tell me there’s going to be another solar eclipse near Ohio soon. Because I missed it at 2:30
Keith P.
“Another Ones Bites the Dust” is being queued up over at the Fox News intercom system, as Eric Bolling is being investigated for…sending dick picks to co-workers. The women are going to have the ultimate revenge when they’re the only ones left over there.
BC in Illinois
@chris:
I am — seriously!! — going to check the weather report on Sunday the 20th, see what they say about St Louis for Monday the 21st, and be prepared to drive up to 200 miles to the west or northwest (Kansas City / Independence) or the southeast (Clarksville / Nashville). Anywhere where there is sun.
I am not going to look at a forecast of “cloudy–chance of afternoon thundershowers” and just say “Oh, well – – another day to look at blogs all afternoon.”
Somewhere in the 600-mile path of the sun through the “heartland” {Yeah, that’s what they call it here) . . . somewhere there will be an uncloudy day.
We will find it.
The grandkids will see this eclipse, somewhere between Nebraska, Kansas, Missouri, Illinois, or Tennessee.
Yarrow
@Lahke: My parents saw the 1991 eclipse on the top of Monte Alban in Oaxaca, Mexico. Monte Alban is a UNESCO world heritage site with great historical and cultural significance. The local people were there in their traditional (tribal?) dress and performed rituals ahead of the eclipse.
My parents said it was amazing. Very busy and loud with dancing and singing and other activities prior to the eclipse. Then quiet during the eclipse and then as the sun reappeared the activity resumed. I think they got the full six minutes total eclipse there as well. The eclipse itself was fantastic as the weather was clear for it, but being immersed in the culture and being able experience it surrounded by local people at such an important ancient site added a whole other element to the experience.
JPL
@Keith P.: He’ll be the new communications director for the white house.
chris
@BC in Illinois: Good luck to you!
The Lodger
@TriassicSands: You may not be a native, but you’ve clearly studied the things Oregonians tell Californians.
JPL
@BC in Illinois: Traffic is suppose to be heavy so be aware.
cope
Thanks for the greatly informative and inspirational post. I’ll be in central Wyoming and having seen multiple partial eclipses, hope to experience my first total eclipse ever.
I was working on a drilling rig in Wyoming during the 1979 eclipse and had plans to drive up into Montana for totality. I even promised a winsome lass from California I would fly her to SLC from California and we would drive up to see it. Alas, it was not to be. We drilled into potential gas and oil zones a few days before the eclipse date and, as well site geologist, I could not shirk my weighty duties for the extraction industries.
Cannot wait for this opportunity.
Keith P.
@JPL: I figured it’d be the case until around Wednesday. Before that, I assumed Kellyanne would be, but I suspect it’s too much involvement for her tastes. I’ve actually heard Stephen Miller pushed as a candidate. That’s like John Bolton as UN Ambassador. Will be an interesting ride, at least, masked behind abnormally-sleepy eyes.
Maeve
You can view a partial eclipse by projecting its image through a pinhole “camera”. You know how standing under a deciduous tree which is next to a sidewalk the sidewalk has circles of light scattered across it? Turns out the little gaps between the leaves form pinhole cameras and those are images of the sun. During a partial eclipse they turn into crescents! Saw it for myself in Oklahoma during a partial eclipse. The dept of physics and astronomy at the Univ. of Oklahoma in Norman had also set up telescopes w sun filters so we could look at the sun but this was even cooler when someone pointed it out to me. This was in late 80s or early 90s.
Going to be in Anchorage AK for this one but already making plans to be in Austin TX in 2024 for the next one
eclare
@JPL: Yes, I am about 150 miles away from the totality zone, but I have family issues and can’t make it. For 2024 I will also be about 150 miles away, and this will be a good test to see how bad the traffic will be for my trip then.
TriassicSands
@chris:
There should be sites that can give you cloud cover predictions as the event approaches. I’m not going to hyperbolize about the eclipse — there’s plenty of that already — but for me this is the only reliable eclipse. Given where I live, my age, and health if I don’t see this one, I won’t see any. If I can’t drive to Oregon from Washington, I’m surely not going to Ohio.
If I were you, and the forecast is at all favorable, I’d go. Nothing says conditions for the 2024 eclipse will be any good. Some people aren’t interested. Others are fanatical. However, I’ve always enjoyed astronomical events (except lunar eclipses — they’re so common and I’ve seen so many that they kinda bore me now). The annular eclipse of 1994 was beautiful. I have an excellent small telescope with a filter for looking at the sun and it made the annular eclipse much better than with the protected eye.
If you drive for this one and you see it, then 2024 will be optional. If this experience moves you, you might spend the next seven years waiting eagerly. If not, then 2024 won’t matter.
I’m going to have to drive 5+ hours and what concerns me most is traffic. I’ll be able to see the eclipse anywhere as long as I can see the sun, but sitting in a traffic jam outside the zone of totality sounds very disappointing.
West of the Cascades
I just got back to Portland from a vacation that included scouting a campsite in the path of totality in one of Oregon’s national forests – heading out on Friday the 17th to miss the traffic, fingers crossed that no one else finds that campsite first (fortunately, there are another couple of dozen places to pitch a tent within a mile or two — love the public lands in this country!). Good bare hilltop to watch the shadow sweep across the hills to the west as it comes through.
Lots of smoke from wildfires, making for some interesting colors — it wouldn’t surprise me if there’s considerable smoke on Eclipse Day, given that the entire province of British Columbia seems to be on fire, and about a dozen wildfires burning in Oregon and Washington, too.
bago
@West of the Cascades: They got Goa Gil to do the Eclipse Psytrance party in Bend, Oregon. So 97 might be a bit crowded.
TriassicSands
@The Lodger:
Before Washington, I lived in Colorado and we faced a huge influx of Californians after an economic downturn. Don’t “Californicate Colorado bumper stickers were fairly common. It isn’t that Californians are bad people, but there are so many of them. What made things worse was that housing prices in California were such that a bunch of Californians showing up and building gigantic new houses was going to raise housing prices in Colorado. And it did.
I’ve seen the same basic attitude in Washington State.
grandpa john
@BC in Illinois: I just checked and long range forecast here in SC is that it will be mostly SUNNY
TriassicSands
.@chris:
Chris, I reread your comment and now I think I misunderstood it the first time.
You weren’t talking about driving to see this eclipse, but the one in 2024, right?
If that’s your only possibility, then I would say take the chance, unless you have a reliable forecast (is there such a thing?) that there will be total cloud cover.
trollhattan
@Tom Levenson:
Have in my possession a “Mr. Star Guy” filter safe for direct solar viewing to fit my spotting scope, and a “Formatt” solar filter for my longest photographic tele lens rated only for that and not for direct viewing. Both from B&H, and they tossed in a handful of cardboard viewing glasses. The scope filter is basically a frame holding a circle of solar film not too badly priced while the photo filter is optical glass and ghastly expensive.
Getting my butt several hundred miles north to central Oregon/northern Nevada is a whole other challenge. The PNW and southern B.C. are pretty smoked in at this time, to add to the challenge.
Plopped myself dead center in the path of the 2012 annular eclipse, in Lassen Park. That was eerie, odd, fascinating, etc. but I’m sure a fraction of totality’s impact.
raven
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Whew, $60!!!
Lahke
If you have to miss this one and don’t want to wait (and you have the scratch), there’s one in Chile next year. Haven’t you always wanted to go to Chile?
trollhattan
@TriassicSands:
It’s funny because during the first “oil shale boom” the Rockies were referred to as the Texas Alps and the entire state was busy hatin’ on anything Texas, while Texas plates got you plenty of chats with the cops. Super Bowl XII didn’t help.
raven
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Will this work on my 55-200 lens?
DayStar Filters 50mm White-Light Universal Lens Solar Filter (2-Pack, 50-69mm OD)
lamh36
chris
@TriassicSands: I hope all of you get through the traffic and get to see the event. I won’t see this one because I live in Nova Scotia but I’m planning for the next one. I live about 12 miles from the island that James Taylor owned in 1970 when he came up to see the total eclipse of the sun. I wasn’t here then but the people who were talk about it as if it were yesterday. My 70ish neighbour says he’d like to go and see another one, “If we’re both still alive.” I’ll be 70 in 2024 but 70 is the new 50 right?
chris
@TriassicSands: Guess I replied while you were replying.
Tom Levenson
@trollhattan: But you got to go to Lassen! My folks put up a place that borders on the southern edge of the park in the early 60s. Will be going there this August directly from viewing the eclipse. It wouldn’t be everyone’s, but that’s my personal Eden.
Tom Levenson
@Lahke: Been once. Would gleefully go again.
SiubhanDuinne
@bago:
Holy… Wow. I don’t even know what to say to something like that.
Bill Arnold
@joel hanes:
Some of us aspire to live at least a little bit of every day at at least that level of intensity, else what is the point?
(Writing about it competently is another story, and sustaining it (without, say, chems) for more than seconds or minutes can be difficult.)
Biology is a good inspirer of awe, for example, unleashed by close observation (and maybe the google scholar and wikipedia as required).
Anyway, have to start getting ready for a total solar eclipse road trip. Last one, early 1970s, I missed because father didn’t want to take time off. Have no excuse. Might need a tent though.
Mj_Oregon
I live in a very small Willamette Valley town that will have about 1 min 45 seconds of totality. I’m also an elected official of said town and I can say if you aren’t in place by mid-night on 8/20, don’t even think about driving down from Portland or up from the Eugene/Roseburg vicinity at any time after that. Our county sheriff and the state patrol are anticipating enormous problems on most of I-5 and all the “back roads” that morning.
Madras is having an eclipse festival that is overbooked already and the roads into that area are guaranteed to be clogged with people trying to get there from Portland AND Seattle AND Vancouver, BC. It is a guaranteed nightmare for anyone trying to travel those roads.
We are expecting at the very least cell phone disruption and shortages of fuel in the path-of-totality towns. Weather conditions have turned very hot and dry upping the fire danger to extreme. Those conditions are expected to last beyond Eclipse Day. Businesses have been asked to close for the day to reduce commuter traffic. In short, the state is treating this as an extreme emergency situation so if you plan on driving in on that Monday morning – don’t.
rikyrah
uh huh
uh huh
KSK(africa) @lawalazu
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Take a Minute. Read Ths
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trollhattan
@trollhattan: Oops not Nevada, Idaho.
? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?
@? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?:
Wow this comment was stupid. It’s going to on the 21st. 80% blocked out sounds pretty good!
Tom Levenson
@Mj_Oregon:
Good advice.
Dmbeaster
I have experienced one (1979 in Horse Heaven Hills, WA), and agree with the post about the feeling of the experience. Going to see this one in Idaho where my sister’s cabin near Yellowstone is in the path of totality. It was three years ago that I realized this when perusing the google map based utility for the path of the eclipse. Wrote everyone three years ago excitedly to tell them to mark the date. They thought I was nuts, but they are converts now to eclipse fever. At least twelve of us are descending on the cabin for a few days of fun. My sister bought 16 pairs of viewing glasses.
The 2024 eclipse will go right over my brother’s house outside Dallas, so of course, I had to write everyone last week to get them to mark their calendars for that date!
If you can get to the path of totality, do it.
Bago
@SiubhanDuinne: Neither do I.
sheila in nc
I’ve just been checking out the maps. Hubby and I have tickets for the Winston-Salem Open tennis tournament Sunday night and Monday afternoon. I’ve just realized that we could drive 3 hours from W-S to Greenville, SC and be in the path of totality. Do you think that will be feasible on Monday morning? Or too much of a madhouse/parking lot?
Inventor
I was looking at the maps and apparently I’ve booked a Lear jet to Nova Scotia for nothing. Thanks a lot, Carly!
BC in Illinois
@Inventor:
I thought that song was about you!
HinTN
@Mj_Oregon: So, I probably shouldn’t count on getting from the hotel in Riverton, WY,to the coffee shop therein on the morning of 21 August. Locals there last October said the police were going to close the roads but I didn’t think thorough all the ramifications thereof. More planning is required!
HinTN
@sheila in nc: Beginning at 0001 on 21 August, maybe.
Highway Rob
I’m late to this party because Saturday. Just last week I booked a trip to St. Louis, with plans to head to parts southwest to get into the direct path. Anyone out there got recommendations for what to do with my Sunday afternoon, and where might be best to take the family on the day of the eclipse proper?
joel hanes
Biology is a good inspirer of awe, for example, unleashed by close observation (and maybe the google scholar and wikipedia as required).
I love nature writing, re-read A Sand County Almanac and Errington’s thoughtful and too-little-known Of Men And Marshes every fall, have Barry Lopez and John Muir and John McPhee and Sigurd Olsen and Stephen J. Gould always at hand. I keep recommending Mowatt’s Never Cry Wolf to those who have never read it. Delight and wonder and awe I recognize, and have experienced in the canoe country and in the Rockies and the Sierra and in at sunrise on an undistiguished marsh temporarily hosting literally three hundred million redwing blackbirds during the migration. Flying ducks make me happy. The songs of the white-crowned sparrow and hermit thrush bring me joy.
But I also own Dillard’s A Tinker At Pilgrim Creek, and tried to read all of it, and I just can’t relate to the intensity of Dillard’s self-reported emotions. “The arteries drained”. No. Just no.
Uncle Cosmo
@chris: It gradually gets darker & darker for about an hour, & then for a couple of minutes it gets really, really dark, then the procedure reverses. Trust me on this – I was in Stuttgart for the 1999 eclipse & it rained through the whole process.
chris
@Uncle Cosmo: Thanks, even that would be fun to see.
Mart
@Highway Rob: Imagine Interstates 44 and 55, that will take you to directly to totality, will be shit shows. I used to work at a plant right smack dab in the middle of it, just off I-55. The Ozarks make most back-roads zig and zag. Hard to imagine they would be plugged, but who knows. I was thinking of going south, but I will stay put in my backyard as only gain a couple minutes. Traffic stresses me.
The Arch museum is under renovation, but if you want to ride the tram to the top buy tickets ahead of visit on-line. The Zoo is famous. Free (charge for parking.) Six Flags amusement park is on the path of totality, but gotta be a mess. Another touristy place, Meramec Caverns, is just about on the totality line. The Cardinals are out of town, but if ever back worth observing the cultists who go to their games. A good Greek Italian neighborhood joint in STL’s Italian neighborhood (The Hill) Anthonino’s Taverna, 2225 Macklind Ave, STL. Hole in the wall Vietnamese in not so great neighborhood, Banh Mi So 1, 4071 S Grand Blvd, STL.
Highway Rob
@Mart: Thanks, very helpful. I had the zoo on my radar, I also saw a childrens’ museum but those are hit and miss. I am kind of glad the Cardinals are not an option, as an Astros fan I still have bad flashbacks to the Pujols homer in the NLCS way back when.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@raven: It was $23 last year, maybe the price increase is some sort of invisible hand at work.
Bill Arnold
@joel hanes:
OK, challenge on (kindle edition). :-)
Anyway, was just reminding myself and others that Tom’s piece was about awe (in large part).
Ohio Mom
@Highway Rob: The City Museum is the best thing in St. Louis. Nothing else in the world like it.
Google some images of it, you’ll see what I mean.
Lymie
Love the horse joke!
joel hanes
@Bill Arnold:
My rotomontade against Dillard’s style loses credibility points because I got the title wrong;
of course it’s A Pilgrim At Tinker Creek, not “A Tinker At Pilgrim Creek”.
I am a doofus, but a pompous one.
Hortense
Hey Thomas L. – Longtime lurker here. I have a place in the zone – it is west of Madras, in a tiny community, if you and your family want to come out on Saturday or Sunday right before the Heart of Darkness event (or what I am calling THE ELECTION REDUX: the skies darken over America only this time it’s COSMIC!) you would be welcome. If you are interested email me at hortense dot powdermaker at outlook dot com. (the usual caveats: if there’s a forest fire all dark bets are off)
JustRuss
@Mj_Oregon: +1. I live in the Willamette Valley too, and the idea that you can cruise out of Portland at midnite and head down to Eclipse Central…has occurred to everyone that lives in Portland. And they all know how to use the map app on their phones to find those two-lane back roads. Which will all be parking lots on the 21st.
Any travel south of Portland is going to get dicey after the 17th or 18th. I’m going to stock up on beer and essentials (but I repeat myself) tomorrow, and hunker down for the eclipse weekend. Any place I can’t get to on a bicycle I ain’t going to.