totm may 2024 "Great American Eclipse" II: April 8 2024

[StrandedonEarth]

7 minutes ago, Minmus Taster said:

 Maybe I'll catch the next one, when was it supposed to happen again?

Well, I won't be catching this one. I'll have to head for Alberta in 2044. Alaska in 2033 is a possibility. I don't think I have until 2099...

[Minmus Taster]

5 minutes ago, cubinator said:

Keep in mind that the projected paths are leaning toward overestimating the width of the path, as a consequence of uncertainty in the exact size of the Sun: https://earthsky.org/astronomy-essentials/april-8-solar-eclipse-maps-are-wrong-along-the-edges/ 

99% is COMPLETELY different from 100%. Make your family aware of this!

 

But if you do stay on the edge of the path, please share your experience! It will be unique from most.

The problem lies in location and practicality. We live in Toronto (the traffic equivalent of the ninth circle) and given that I'm still in high school it's my family that calls the shots when it comes to the logistical side of things.  The concern is that given how many people are flocking to Niagara that the crowds are going to be truly nightmarish. That and the fact that no one wants to drive which any resident understands after a few nasty road closures here. Oh well, were a team, and I have quite a few years ahead to plan for the next one!

[PakledHostage]

32 minutes ago, Minmus Taster said:

The problem lies in location and practicality. We live in Toronto (the traffic equivalent of the ninth circle) 

Yeah. Shame. But you've got time. If you miss this one, you can try for another in some years time.

Edited April 3 by PakledHostage

[JoeSchmuckatelli]

49 minutes ago, Minmus Taster said:

quite a few years

So - you're right. 

I got to see a remarkable partial eclipse while in school from Los Angeles years and years ago.  It stuck with me as a really cool experience.  So cool, in fact, that I took my kids out of school for the last totality. 

And 

Was

Blown 

Away. 

 

I'm taking them out again - because it is that cool. 

 

Don't go to Niagara.  Pick a small town and go to the ballpark there.  That is all you need! 

 

(and yeah, if you can't - do go outside, and remember to look at the shadows!) 

Edited April 3 by JoeSchmuckatelli

[PakledHostage]

3 minutes ago, JoeSchmuckatelli said:

Don't go to Niagara.  Pick a small town and go to the ballpark there.  That is all you need! 

Trouble is, the path of totality runs down the middle of Lake Ontario.  To get to a small town's ballpark from Toronto requires traveling east or west along the lake to its ends, along with 1 million other people.  Maybe if one had a boat, but I'd be careful about that because you don't want to get into a potentially overloaded vessel,  a dozen kilometers from shore.

[cubinator]

2 minutes ago, PakledHostage said:

Trouble is, the path of totality runs down the middle of Lake Ontario.  To get to a small town's ballpark from Toronto requires traveling east or west along the lake to its ends, along with 1 million other people.  Maybe if one had a boat, but I'd be careful about that because you don't want to get into a potentially overloaded vessel,  a dozen kilometers from shore.

In the other direction, Port Hope gets about a minute along the coast, and Brighton gets about 2 minutes. Current models suggest potential better chances weather-wise in that direction too. 

[StrandedonEarth]

Obligatory Tintin tax...

Spoiler

 

[kspbutitscursed]

as an aussie this hurts

Next Total Solar Eclipse

Not visible before the year 2200

Im gonna be dead by then

[Gargamel]

 

Looks like a road trip.  

[Gargamel]

https://xkcd.com/2915/
 

[tater]

7 hours ago, Gargamel said:

Looks like a road trip.  

Link to this page?

[Nuke]

if i could afford to go to the path of totality, i wouldn't.

Edited April 4 by Nuke

[tater]

26 minutes ago, Nuke said:

if i could afford to go to the path of totality, i wouldn't.

My drive to SW TX is now looking more and more like a drive to N of Dallas, maybe SE OK. Son works afternoons Saturdays, so we have to leave Sunday... it'll be a fun road trip.

[Nuke]

fun and trip do not belong in the same sentence.

[PakledHostage]

On 4/2/2024 at 6:13 PM, JoeSchmuckatelli said:

I'm taking them out again - because it is that cool. 

I am taking my two out of school and flying them across the continent for it. Friends and acquaintances think I am nuts, but they obviously haven't experienced totality. 

[tater]

49 minutes ago, PakledHostage said:

I am taking my two out of school and flying them across the continent for it. Friends and acquaintances think I am nuts, but they obviously haven't experienced totality. 

The trick is where the clouds won't be. I have half a mind to blow a few grand and fly someplace clear

[Gargamel]

6 hours ago, tater said:

Link to this page?

My girlfriend is to weather as I am to Spaceflight, so she sent me the pic.  I couldn't find it on NWS/NOAA website either, she said it's on their FB page, which I refuse to use.  But they post updates daily around mid day.  We won't know for a usable level of certainty until Saturday at the earliest.  Sunday evening is my  no go/which direction go point. 

2 hours ago, tater said:

The trick is where the clouds won't be. I have half a mind to blow a few grand and fly someplace clear

Yeah..... I just eyeballed some flights into Maine earlier..... deal breaking is one way to put it.    And I looked at hotels in the Adirondacks, the cheapest available I could find was an AirBnB shared bedroom for $500 a night. 

[tater]

5 hours ago, Gargamel said:

Yeah..... I just eyeballed some flights into Maine earlier..... deal breaking is one way to put it.    And I looked at hotels in the Adirondacks, the cheapest available I could find was an AirBnB shared bedroom for $500 a night. 

Figured I'd rent a car and sack out in it, then fly home.

https://graphical.weather.gov/sectors/conusLoop.php#tabs

Select cloud cover can loop, or you can set day

[cubinator]

Daily updates here: https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2024/03/29/cloud-cover-eclipse-forecast-maps-cities/

This site is quite useful for chasing clear skies: https://www.cleardarksky.com/csk/prov/all_charts_map.html

And, of course, realtime photos from space: https://www.star.nesdis.noaa.gov/goes/conus_band.php?sat=G16&band=GEOCOLOR&length=12

[PakledHostage]

6 hours ago, Gargamel said:

Yeah..... I just eyeballed some flights into Maine earlier..... deal breaking is one way to put it.    And I looked at hotels in the Adirondacks, the cheapest available I could find was an AirBnB shared bedroom for $500 a night. 

I had originally looked at flying to San Antonio and driving to the Kerrville area,  but now we're headed to the north-east instead. Hotel is $500 for 4 nights. I expect it would be 4 times that if I booked it now. 

[tater]

2 minutes ago, PakledHostage said:

I had originally looked at flying to San Antonio and driving to the Kerrville area,  but now we're headed to the north-east instead. Hotel is $500 for 4 nights. I expect it would be 4 times that if I booked it now. 

If I got tickets to Syracuse for $2200 I could do that. then a couple hundred for a hotel. Son has school, so I want him back Monday night for school Tuesday. Wife has cases Monday, so she can't go anyway. Think I just drive towards SE OK and cross fingers.

[PakledHostage]

I got flights for $2200, hotel for $500 and a rental car for $400. It's a lot of money to spend for what some would argue isn't worth it, but my wife and I decided on a whim to just do it so here we are. We're not "sit on the beach in Hawaii" people anyway,  so we'll  do a cheap vacation this summer (like a multi-day canoe trip that won't even have camping fees) and blow our vacation budget on this.

[PakledHostage]

I should add, to take us back to the topic of how amazing totality is for people,  that my wife was actually the main motivator for our decision to go. She was so blown away by the last one in 2017 ("it is the most amazing thing I've ever seen in my life", she says, and she's more of a biological sciences type so that's saying something) that she wants our kids to experience it now that they're old enough to remember it.

[tater]

[PakledHostage]

@tater: is Missouri too far of a drive for you? Probably 20-24 hours one way?