Solar eclipses: No longer scary, still astonishingly cool https://t.co/zY167SALOJ
— Defector (@DefectorMedia) April 8, 2024
This would be the perfect day for the mother of all ‘Friday doc dumps’, so we’ll see who’s got stuff they want to get generally ignored.
Huge crowds await a total solar eclipse in North America. Clouds may spoil the view https://t.co/14Hm5P2Fxe
— The Associated Press (@AP) April 8, 2024
… It promised to be North America’s biggest eclipse crowd ever, thanks to the densely populated path and the lure of more than four minutes of midday darkness in Texas and other choice spots. Almost everyone in North America was guaranteed at least a partial eclipse, weather permitting.
“Cloud cover is one of the trickier things to forecast,” National Weather Service meteorologist Alexa Maines explained at Cleveland’s Great Lakes Science Center on Sunday. “At the very least, it won’t snow.”…
The path of totality — approximately 115 miles (185 kilometers) wide — encompasses several major cities this time, including Dallas, Indianapolis, Cleveland, Buffalo, New York and Montreal. An estimated 44 million people live within the track, with a couple hundred million more within 200 miles (320 kilometers). Add in all the eclipse chasers, amateur astronomers, scientists and just plain curious, and it’s no wonder the hotels and flights are sold out and the roads jammed.
Experts from NASA and scores of universities are posted along the route, poised to launch research rockets and weather balloons, and conduct experiments. The International Space Station’s seven astronauts also will be on the lookout, 270 miles (435 kilometers) up.
Small town businesses embrace total solar eclipse crowd, come rain or shine on Monday https://t.co/cd81QbNpAz
— The Associated Press (@AP) April 7, 2024
Stay hopeful:
… In Waxahachie, there’s a sense of deja vu around the town of 45,000 residents.
A banner in the museum’s front window, displaying newspaper headlines from the July 29, 1878, eclipse, detailed the cloudy skies all morning. But just before the moon lined up between the sun and Earth that afternoon, the sky cleared..
While eclipse watchers look to the skies, people who are blind or visually impaired will be able to hear and feel the celestial event using new technology developed by astronomers. pic.twitter.com/ujdrNcCyGV
— The Associated Press (@AP) April 7, 2024
None so blind…
not as important as sitting in front of the TV retweeting trump memes that's for sure https://t.co/WtBYVOA337
— flglmn (@flglmn) April 8, 2024
Pence: God Made The Moon The Perfect Eclipse Size https://t.co/DPiJmMEqyK pic.twitter.com/CmrCyyjg5C
— JoeMyGod (@JoeMyGod) April 8, 2024
So sad to be losing so many of you to the Rapture today. Have a good one. pic.twitter.com/mvg2IVVUdP
— John Graham-Hart (@JohnGHart) April 8, 2024
Baud
Eh, he’s right to call out how fortunate we are that the sizes line up so well. It’s a matter of personal religious preference whether one attributes that to God. Better than what MTG has been spouting.
SFAW
Not sure if “sad” is the word I’d use, were it actually to happen.
R-Jud
My friends are currently in a hospital waiting for a total eclipse of the son (their baby boy is coming three weeks early; they are already tired of the jokes).
Spanky
Still cloudy here in Cleveland-adjacent Ohio, but the forecast looks like it’ll break up noonish. Might still have cirrus at eclipse time, though.
SFAW
@Baud:
Your anti-religious screed is troubling. MTG is right, of course — there have been absolutely ZERO solar eclipses in all of recorded history, except by the FAKE NEWS media. So believing that g-d has sent this as a warning …
No, sorry, I can’t keep it up …
Baud
@SFAW:
MTG is a sign from God to shun Republicans.
rikyrah
Good Morning Everyone 😊 😊 😊
Baud
@rikyrah:
Good morning.
Jeffro
woot! have at it, wingnuts!!
Indycat32
A beautiful day here in Indy. Sunny with high in the 70s. Maybe a few high thin clouds.
Eyeroller
@Baud: The Moon is slowly moving away from the Earth, however, so eventually the angular dimensions would no longer match as seen from the surface of the Earth. But that probably won’t happen before life is extinguished and perhaps not before the Sun goes red giant and destroys both the Earth and the Moon.
Baud
@Eyeroller:
Seems like a problem for Gen Z, not us olds.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
Chosen spot: Montreal. The Science Center is hosting a viewing so we’re going to go down there, see the museum, then find a spot to wait.
How do you know you’re in Canada? At breakfast yesterday we had women’s hockey on one TV and curling on the other.
JMG
It will be clear on Cape Cod today, rare for April, but of course less than totality, 90 percent or so. Just put my eclipse glasses in my golf bag, as I will be on the course at eclipse time.
Jeffro
They’re just a tad bit late here: We Need a ‘Free Republican Party’ (In Exile)
Well my friend: if you aren’t prepared to join the Democrats…at least in your votes and your public statements…then you aren’t going to defeat MAGA. But do go on…
Choose wisely, never-trumpers!
TBone
Enter your zip code to see how much eclipse you’ll get. I’m at 94.9% in my backyard. Lots of other information at the link as well.
https://www.univision.com/especiales/noticias/infografias/2024/eclipse-solar-2024-en/
Barney
I’d guess everyone here knows this by now, but maybe not everyone reading the AP story:
“The path of totality — approximately 115 miles (185 kilometers) wide — encompasses several major cities this time, including Dallas, Indianapolis, Cleveland, Buffalo, New York and Montreal” means “BuffaloNewYork”, ie Buffalo, New York State (but they don’t specify the state of any other city), not New York City, which is well outside totality (and only about half of the city of Montreal gets totality, presumably for just a few seconds).
eclare
@TBone:
Thanks! I’m at 97.9 here in Memphis. I thought about driving over to Arkansas to get totality, but the predictions of massive traffic scared me off. There are only two bridges to Arkansas, and the thought of being stuck in traffic on one of them scares me.
My backyard will have to do, picked up some glasses yesterday.
dmsilev
As Betty notes in the next thread down, Trump chose today to release his ostensible position on abortion. Surprisingly precisely nobody, it’s mealy-mouthed and full of lies. From FTNYT (gift link):
S Cerevisiae
I’m at my sisters place on the line of totality in TX but it’s solid clouds right now. If we get clouded out it’s ok because we got some good family time. I went with the best odds but April weather is still a roll of the dice.
schrodingers_cat
@Baud: Varahamihir explained how eclipses happen using a geometric proof about 1500 years ago and made fun of the Brahmins who were fleecing the rubes with stories of Rahu and Ketu (mythical heavenly bodies that swallow sun/moon).
TBone
@eclare: 97.9% is gonna be a pretty good show, I’d not subject myself to the traffic vagaries either!
Marigold
@Spanky: I’m about halfway between Cleveland and Toledo, and the cloud cover really broke up in the last hour or so. Hope it heads your way soon.
TBone
@dmsilev: I can’t wait till he meets with the will of 12 jurors.
Geminid
@Jeffro: According to this morning’s Politico Playbook, Liz Cheney came to Charlottesville this weekend and spoke at a shindig celebrating the 25th year of U.Va.’s Center for Politics. Larry Sabato was the guest of honor.
Former Governor Doug Wilder also spoke, and I bet he was worth hearing.
JCJ
@Baud: Well, Purdue is playing in the national championship game tonight. That coupled with the eclipse is surely a sign that the apocalypse is imminent.
Boiler Up! Hammer Down!
Baud
@TBone:
👍
satby
@TBone: Thanks for that, 96.9% totality here. Which is fine for me. At my age I’ve seen a lot of eclipses including at least one total one, and I wouldn’t travel for one personally. I told a friend I hoped I would remember to go outside and notice it and she said she’d text me to remind me, which was sweet.
Baud
@dmsilev:
We were talking about this downstairs, but even if you took him at his word (haha), he still hasn’t explained whether he would ban the abortion pill or enforce the Comstock Act. Those are federal questions.
SiubhanDuinne
That device that converts the eclipse into sound is very cool.
(And it’s an accommodation/modification for the benefit of the visually disabled that doesn’t disrupt anyone else’s comfort in the slightest, so you can just bet that Gosar or MTG or someone will be loudly bitching about it before the day is done.)
KrackenJack
Sitting in a coffee shop in Llano, Tx. at the moment. My best friend from college and I were already planning to spend a week in NM this week, so we made shift to meet up in Austin early this morning. If we see something, I’ll say something.
TBone
@satby: I remember one from when I was a kid (it was pretty cool) and I had a hard time working up any excitement about today – my sense of childlike wonder has taken a beating in recent years so…your friend is a good ‘un, hang on with both hands!
ETA I have a very religious, conservative friend (it’s been a long journey since we were 13) and she sent me some very funny eclipse Armageddon jokes poking fun at herself. The first time in my memory she’s actually laughed about her fundie-ness.
Brachiator
@R-Jud:
What jokes? “Solar” will be a great name for a little boy.
satby
@TBone: Same, one in late childhood so the memory is clear, and one as a late teen/young adult (?), at which point I was already approaching meh about them. Not including all the partial eclipses that must have occurred over the decades. But for the people who are excited, I hope they really enjoy the experience. I’ll have a glass of wine on the porch and toast the moment 😂
edit to your edit: baby steps are still steps 😉
Spanky
@Brachiator: I was thinking “Corona”.
TBone
@satby: 💙
Kirk
Since both home and work are in the total zone I figure I should take time to look. Even if I have seen one before.
TBone
Even more important than the eclipse in my neck of the woods, the hatch is on! The trout will rise!
Behold the fisherman.
He riseth up early in the morning
and disturbeth the whole household.
Mighty are his preparations.
He goeth forth full of hope,
returning when the day is far spent;
smelling of strong drink
and the truth is not in him.
Soprano2
@eclare: That’s about what we’ll get here. I still wish I could drive over to Poplar Bluff or West Plains to see the totality. Oh well….maybe someday I can travel to see one.
Jackie
@eclare: But but gov Huckabee-Sanders has declared Arkansas a state of emergency for travelers on the bridges! You’ll be fine!🙄
artem1s
@Spanky:
sun broke out here in the 216 (CLE) about 20 minutes ago. Currently 52 degrees. I’m about 1.5 miles from the lake/downtown. Clear skies to west and south. High of 67 predicted. Gonna be a glorious day – also the home opener for the Guardians. Which really unusual. We typically get rained or snowed out at least one day of the opening week.
I guess the baseball gods decided Bieber having to go on IR for the rest of year (elbow surgery) was punishment enough. :P
sdhays
@dmsilev: The takeaway is that they are terrified of the abortion issue. He’s not willing to run on any kind of national ban, no matter how “compromised”. Abortion groups may be disappointed, but they’re not going to feel betrayed and stay home over this.
So Democrats just need to continue to lean in and talk about all of the MAGA abortion bans and how Trump wants to ban abortion nationwide. Make him “explain” how that’s not the case.
Hungry Joe
In SW Ohio now; we timed our visit to family to coincide with the eclipse. We’re at the very edge of the path of totality, so we’ll venture no farther than the front yard. Currently hazy, with slightly better than 50 percent chance of cloud cover by 3:09 (the beginning of totality). If I miss this, Someone is going to have A LOT of explaining to do.
Steeplejack
Heard a long-lost deep cut on SiriusXM today as the channels play up the eclipse: the Sunrays, “I Live for the Sun”. Couldn’t resist this “live” version with monumentally bad lip-sync’ing. But, hey, go-go dancers.
More sinister: U2, “Staring at the Sun.”
narya
I’m at 93.4%, and, actually, I’m looking forward to seeing less-than-totality. I saw totality in 2017, and it was extremely cool, but travel + costs + uncertain weather made me bail on trying to get closer this year. My friend the astronomer really wanted to get to a totality zone, but also has too much to do to make it realistic. Our original plan included both Sunday and Monday stays in a hotel, because I couldn’t face the possibility of a zillion hours of traffic; I suspect it will be worse than last time, and last time was very bad. One of the things that has made my enjoyment of the Indy 500 much better is having a room for the night of the race–much more comfortable to wash off the sunscreen and grit and sweat rather than slog through hours of traffic.
prostratedragon
For later: “Moonshadow,” Cat Stevens [Yusuf Islam]; LaBelle
Steeplejack
I briefly thought about doing an eclipse road trip, but it would be long—over 300 miles to someplace like Meadville or Albion, PA (between Cleveland and Erie). Steep do like a road trip, but the iffy weather and potential traffic problems talked me out of it. (Small towns selected to hopefully avoid “eclipse destination” congestion.)
Will step outside this afternoon to irradiate my balls Tucker Carlson-style in the NoVA partial eclipse. That’s just science.
lashonharangue
@R-Jud: Better call (him) Sol.
artem1s
@TBone: great zip lookup site. all the rapture talk got me curious.The Serpent Mound in Peebles, Oh is almost in the totality 97.8%. Gonna be an interesting day down there today. Hope the local Indigenous People don’t get run over by the WooWoo crowd.Personally I’d be far more leery about offending the Serpent Gods birthing the universe represented at the mound than that johnny-come-lately Yeshua son of Yahweh guy.
Spanky
@Steeplejack: Buddy of mine is in Edinboro, sweating the clouds atm.
Spanky
@Steeplejack:
Also a misdemeanor.
UncleEbeneezer
@narya: There’s a tennis tournament in Indian Wells that we love to go to for a chance to see the pros practice and play matches. But it’s 2.5 hours away with no traffic. During the tournament there is a ton of traffic and hotel rooms are all expensive as hell. Anyways, this year we went and had a decent time but realized that 2-3 hours of driving each way is just too damn much for us. Especially since we are usually sitting in the sun all day. I’d rather do 5 hours of driving in one stretch then 2-3 hours in morning and then again in evening. That drive home is just the worst, especially if you hit traffic.
PaulWartenberg
We’ve had 60 phone calls this morning at my library for the Solar Eclipse glasses, and we ran out twenty minutes ago. DAMMIT JUST GOT ANOTHER CALL AS I TYPED THIS. Damn, you people are all so LAST-MINUTE. The people who called for the glasses on Friday were the smart ones.
R-Jud
@lashonharangue:
Ha!
Spanky
OK, no more dicking around on Balloon Juice. I gotta hit the road to our final destination for totality. Aka my cousin’s house.
Will check in when I can!
TBone
@artem1s: just daub mud all over your body and chant and dance so that the sun will not forsake us for eternity. Don’t forget your chinstrap.
Tom Levenson
Sitting in the Miss Lyndonville Diner in Lyndonville VT, having the archetypal diner breakfast before heading a smidge further north for the event itself.
this will be my 3rd eclipse. They are truly magical.
frosty
I can’t believe it! It’s sunny and clear SW of Cleveland. Fingers crossed that it stays that way.
Steeplejack
@Spanky:
Hope it clears up for them, but it makes me feel better about not going.
Steeplejack
@Spanky:
Counting on the neighbors’ “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy.
RevRick
@SFAW: Just a theological FYI: Rapture theology is complete garbage, based on a total misunderstanding of the Greek word parousia. The Left Behind series epitomizes this nonsense. It begins with this passage in Paul’s First Letter to the Church in Thessalonia: “For the Lord himself, with a cry of command, with the archangel’s call and with the sound of God’s trumpet, will descend from heaven, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we, who are alive, will be caught up in the clouds together with them to meet (parousia) the Lord in the air….” (4:16-17)
Leaving aside the somewhat mystical, strange aspects of this passage, how would the people who read this letter then understood it? Well, a parousia was a technical term relating to a delegation going out to welcome a dignitary visiting their city. Think Caesar come to visit. The local officials would have gone out to greet him; trumpets would sound to herald his arrival; they’d pass the graves of the cities honored dead along the way; all in preparation of grand festivities in the city. In other words, they would have understood it as “welcome back, Jesus,” not “we get to escape from here, Jesus.”
There is no rapture out. Rather, it’s about the transformation of our world into the place where all are fully human and fully alive.
:
narya
@RevRick:
Sounds like a bodhisattva/enlightenment kinda thing.
Fair Economist
On the plane to Cleveland for my chance. Looks like about a 50% chance of seeing totality. Rolling the dice and hoping. I saw thr 2017 eclipse in Salem OR so I am sanguine abput the possibility of missing it.
Brachiator
@RevRick:
I don’t know. I don’t quite see this coming from all the mysticism in the writings.
Then again, it’s all Greek to me.
Brachiator
@PaulWartenberg:
My brother in law in Texas had not indicated any interest in the eclipse, but quietly ordered a 5 pack of Solar Eclipse glasses from Amazon last week. If it’s not cloudy it should be a pretty good show.
I’m not anywhere near a totality zone, but decided to order some glasses and a couple of things from Amazon on Saturday. Got delivery on Sunday. Too cool.
Jeffro
@Geminid:
Liz actually sat at our table for Saturday’s dinner honoring Larry! Me and Mrs. Fro got our picture taken with her. It might be on the Fro family Christmas card this year. =)
(She didn’t stay the whole time)
Doug Wilder was actually..not great.
tam1MI
I will get 95 percent totality where I live in Michigan. I am just going to go outside at the appropriate time, slap me n the eclipse glasses, and look up. 🙂🙂🙂
CaseyL
I’m very glad I don’t live anywhere near the totality area: the West Coast seems to be in 15%-or-less territory. This being Seattle, it’s also overcast. So I made no preparations at all, though I may watch whatever live videos are available.
It’s heretical to say, but I thought the annular eclipse we had last year (?) was just as interesting. Seeing a big ol’ bite taken out of the sun was fascinating as hell, especially the way I saw it: in my complex’s parking lot, the reflection from the sky somehow got refracted into dozens of individual images, all of the moon advancing to create a crescent-shaped sun.
Jinchi
That was Republican dogma for 40 years until Dobbs.
Geminid
@Jeffro: Sorry to hear Doug Wilder was not so good. I heard him on the radio last year and he sounded pretty sharp.
Brachiator
@CaseyL:
I say Solar,
You say Annular.
I say Hybrid,
You say Lunar.
Potato! Potahto!
Hybrid! Partial!
Let’s call it all Eclipse!
Jeffro
@Geminid: Oh, he still has all his faculties. It’s more that his remarks were quite self-congratulatory and full of both-sides BS to boot.
Plus, everyone younger than me in that room (which is to say, half or better) was like, “Doug who?”
Steve Stuart stonestacker
@Indycat32:
@Indycat32: i had it all planned to be in indy today but my train from Denver to Chicago got nixed by 90 mph winds so I’ll be enjoying the partial eclipse today
lashonharangue
High thin clouds in Mazatlán. The eclipse has started here.
Baud
@lashonharangue:
👍
Trivia Man
Set Your Controls For the Heart Of the Son
-pink floyd ftw
grandmaBear
Within the totality here in my village near Dayton. There are lots of viewing parties, etc, but I think I’ll stick to my yard.
Mayim
As usual, late to the party. But I’m safely in a parking spot [that’s not mud!] in Rangely ME, where we’ll supposedly get 3 minutesof totality. Traffic was a bit more than usual getting here. On a “normal” day, it takes me just under about an hour and a half ~ today it took an hour and 40 minutes. For rural Maine, that a memorable traffic jam ;-)
Driving into Rangely from the east, there were several miles of cars along the road and every parking lot was full. I planned to find a spot on the far/western side of town, which worked well. It’s easy from here to pick up the non-scenic way home, which I’m guessing [hoping] will be less crowded than the other direction.
lashonharangue
Totality just ended. You could see a solar prominence during the totality. Way cool!
BarcaChicago
I drove 5 hours from Chicago to Southern Illinois, Mount Carmel, to get right in the center of the totality. Very excited!
Princess
Seeing a bite out of the sun!
Kelly
@BarcaChicago: Center of totality is the place to be. The difference between 98% and 100% is non-linear. The difference between lightning and a lightning bug.
lowtechcyclist
On the Defiance College campus with my wife and son and the couple we’re staying with. Lots of high, thin citrus clouds here in NW Ohio, shouldn’t be a problem.
ETA: Moon’s almost halfway covered the sun here.
Nix Besser (fmr Steppy)
Sitting by the shore of Lake Champlain in Plattsburgh NY. We had worries about cloud cover but we have no more than high wispy clouds. We should get about 4 minutes of totality. This is definitely a bucket list item.
CaseyL
I just visited UW’s Physics and Astronomy Building, where they planned to hand out eclipse glasses and offer telescopic looks at the 20% or so we’d be getting here in Seattle. There was a decent turnout, and a very nice volunteer running an information table.
Alas, Seattle’s always reliable cloud cover mooted any viewing of the eclipse, partial or otherwise.’
It was actually quite fun and humorous, a bunch of people wearing eclipse glasses and staring hopefully at the sector of the sky where the sun supposedly is. I did think I saw a crescent through all the clouds, and excitedly said so, but it turned out to be a fortuitously-shaped cloud.
Manyakitty
Late to the thread, but it was glorious on our front lawn just outside of Akron. Totality blew my mind.