"Great American Eclipse" II: April 8 2024

[Ultimate Steve]

2 hours ago, Mars-Bound Hokie said:

3 hours ago, Ultimate Steve said:

 

Really? Where specifically?

Lorain County Ohio

[PakledHostage]

I am back at my hotel after 5 hours stuck in post eclipse traffic. But the eclipse was awesome! What stood out to me about this one was how cold it got ahead of the eclipse. Others in the community park where we watched from commented on that too. Also, it struck me how gradual the onset was. The previous two that I saw were members of the same saros series,  so they followed the same pattern.  The sun and moon were a lot closer in size in those two, so by geometry the onset was sudden. This one, the moon was a lot bigger (closer) so it took several seconds for the light to decay.

My family and I watched from a community park in a hamlet in Quebec. We had flawless blue skies. @JoeSchmuckatelli's advice to just pick a community ballpark was good advice.  The park ended up filling up with people who stopped to go pee while enroute somewhere else, and then decided to stay. I had a six pack of Corona with me to celebrate afterwards.  I shared them around and made some new friends. My kids were awestruck. My wife darted around taking photos with her phone. I left my camera in the bag and just enjoyed the moment. It was perfect. 

[cubinator]

23 hours ago, tater said:

Had thought about broken bow ok… trying to stay as easy as possible for RTB to albuquerque since son has not only school, but “grandparents day,” and grandma is showing up

Gonna be a 12+ hour straight drive

16 counting getting to path from here

We drove through Broken Bow on the way there and back. Clouds were nerve-wracking but dissipated just as I'd anticipated and hoped they would. It took another hour and a half driving to be really sure we'd stay clear of it though...Ended up at a convenience store store with a big lawn in Pencil Bluff, less than half a mile from the centerline.

[cubinator]

7 hours ago, Arugela said:

What is the biggest telescope with a solar filter that could watch this? did any large telescopes watch this with good detail and record it?

https://nso.edu/telescopes/dki-solar-telescope/

 

[cubinator]

3 hours ago, Mars-Bound Hokie said:

My family came to visit me in Ohio (and they brought the dog, too) a few days ago for the eclipse. We left early this morning for the Armstrong Air and Space Museum in Wapakoneta, and it's a good thing we did. The line to the museum parking lot was long, but we found an empty field next to the grounds that charged $40 for parking; totally worth being so close to the exit and having grass for the dog to lie on. The next several hours included having breakfast at Bob Evans, walking around, playing card games and mini cornhole, texting friends, drinking water, my mother messing with her camera's new eclipse filter, and also getting pictures in our "Twice in a Lifetime" t-shirts. 

 

When the partial eclipse began, we would frequently look up with our eclipse glasses on and see the sun turning from an orange circle into Pac-Man, then a crescent moon, and then a tiny sliver. While waiting for totality, I used the phone camera filter Mom gave me and took some partial eclipse photos. Below is my best shot from my phone.

 

• Taken 1434 EDT

 

When totality was getting closer, it got dark in Wapakoneta fast. More specifically, it looked like a storm was coming while all the lights were turning on. It reminded us of when we watched the eclipse of 2017, only there were no farm animals making noise this time while the sun was getting blocked. Finally, when totality hit at 1509 EDT, we saw an amazing thin ring of fire. 

• That was also when Dad bunched us all together to take a group selfie with the total eclipse in the background.

 

• Taken 1511 EDT
  • My best shot from my phone, although I think Mom got clearer images with her fancy digital camera.
• We noticed a small orange spot at the bottom of the ring, but we don't know what it is.

 

• Taken 1511 EDT
• At first glance, you would think it was sunset at Wapakoneta. But it was actually early-mid afternoon, and the sun was blocked thanks to the moon.

 

• Taken 1512 EDT
• I changed my phone's orientation to include the eclipse. If you look closely enough, you can see the center of the ring.
  • And you can see Venus in the sky too.

 

After totality ended, we rushed back into our car and left town immediately. Getting out of Wapakoneta had almost zero traffic; we were so close to the field exit and we had packed everything in the car, including the dog, at least 20 minutes before totality even began. However, when we hit Dayton, that was when the major traffic jams began. Long story short, we returned to my apartment in plenty of time for dinner.

 

And that's my eclipse story.

 

  Reveal hidden contents

P.S. Months ago, I had done some research on the pros and cons of watching the eclipse in Dayton vs Wapakoneta and sent it to my family for consideration. While we ended up going to the Armstrong Museum due to it being so close to the highway and having a longer totality time, the Air Force Museum would have also been a good option.

 

 

Really? Where specifically?

Great story! That orange/red spot you saw on the southern limb was a big prominence stretching out from the Sun. There were quite a few of those, but that was the easiest one to see!

I knew from 2017 that the big traffic jam happens when everyone tries to leave right after totality, but the eclipse is only half over at that point, with plenty of interesting effects to continue observing! I stayed for the whole thing today (especially so I could complete my timelapse). Didn't encounter much traffic during the return, although it was a looooong drive.

3 hours ago, tater said:

Yeah, my image

Pictures really don’t do it justice. Maybe if you’re a really phenomenal photographer, and it’s near sunrise or sunset so that the eclipse is near terrain so you can compose something really amazing you could get one 1000th of it in a picture.

Hearing the collective gasps and “oh my God!” in the park was pretty amazing

In short, go to Spain in 2026.

I recorded video with my phone during the start and end of totality in order to try to capture that reaction! I knew that was what my phone would do best, while I already had the special telescope camera trained on the Sun.

I think someone sounded a bugel or something right before and after totality, as if to announce it. Seeing the world get suddenly cast into such darkness really is fearsome!

3 hours ago, mikegarrison said:

So did the world end? I heard from a friend in Texas that some of the locals were worried that might happen.

I think I drove by some of those locals' houses.

 

3 hours ago, tater said:

In the car, we’re talking about other events. I have seen that are in the same league. For celestial stuff. This is orders of magnitude more impressive than anything else I’ve seen. If there were someday a really bright, naked eye comment that might be in kind of the same league. Maybe. For other natural stuff? Seeing the Himalayas. That reset my scale for mountains. Seeing wildlife on the African savanna reset my notions about animals. 

I think the solar eclipse is more than all the other crazy stuff I've seen in the sky put together - Sun image reflected on a Starlink train, a meteor flash striking the Moon during a lunar eclipse, the ISS through a telescope, a comet, giant fireballs, Andromeda, Venus in daylight, Mars occultation...the total solar eclipse is like all that stuff happening at once, to the point where you have to miss one part of it for every other part you focus on.

So today I thought about stuff I hadn't seen last time, or was more curious about having already seen one. I did the photography this time, which turned out really well but I think contributed to making the whole thing feel like it was going by faster. I looked for (but failed to find) the planets, since I'd seen them very early last time. The most fun 'experiment' I did was covering up the tiny sliver of Sun with my thumb and successfully getting a sneak peek at the inner corona before totality truly began, and continuing to see it for a few moments after. And I got to see the prominences more clearly this time. I spent a lot of the time in totality just looking at the corona, because I knew I probably won't get to see that again for a long time.

[cubinator]

2 hours ago, Brotoro said:

Having Venus and Jupiter pop out so obviously at totality was also nice. I was able to find Aldebaran (since I wanted to see an actual star), but I couldn't see Mercury or the comet (too much high haziness, I think…plus, you don't have too much time to look for stuff). Binoculars were very helpful.

Yeah, that comet was hyped up and even I kept an eye on its brightness online, but I never had plans to look for it. I'd already seen it with binoculars at night! Better things to spend my 4 minutes and change on on eclipse day. I was surprised that I couldn't see Jupiter or Venus till right around totality, I guess the moisture in the air makes it a lighter color that washes things out. Aldebaran was the only star I saw too. Could have looked for Capella but, again, I'm not here on months of planning for a four-minute window to look at Capella.

2 hours ago, Brotoro said:

BUT, interesting as all those clouds made things, I'd feel better with a clear sky. Things looked really iffy during the initial partial phases. The Sun was blocked by clouds for ten or fifteen minutes at a time. Then when got a big blue hole in the clouds with twenty-five minutes to go until totality, it was a relief…until it became clear that those clouds at the bottom edge of the hole were going to get up by the Sun before totality (fast moving clouds). And one cloud blocked the Sun five minutes before totality…and the crowd wailed…but it was clear to me that it was going pass over the Sun quickly, and the other clouds were going either side. But, arrrrggghhh, the suspense leading up to totality was killing me. Will it be clear?? Will a cloud cover it at the last second?? So, even though the clouds looked cool…on the whole, I'd prefer a completely clear sky, thanks anyway.

I know what clouds you are talking about. I watched the easternmost part of that break open up, and wondered if we would get into it if we turned around. I was underneath the forwardmost part of that cloud deck, on the northeastern end, struggling to race it out of Oklahoma. But I knew that the only way to be absolutely certain that we wouldn't be clouded over was to outrun the clouds into Arkansas until they dissipated.

I'm really glad to see in the GOES pictures that the clouds down south broke up significantly, and it looks like the passage of the shadow helped to disperse almost all the remaining clouds just in time for totality. But I couldn't have known where that was going to be the case beforehand, and cleardarksky looked way more optimistic than a lot of other models for multiple days, so I decided to go for the safer gamble and the longer drive. I used the NWS point forecasts to choose a destination and GOES to verify that things were going as expected. Even still, being under that dark cloud was nerve-wracking, and makes me feel like the next time I take one of these trips, I want to be either in the middle of the desert or at 30,000 ft.

[magnemoe]

50 years ago some scientists experienced an 74 minutes eclipse. 

I guess some people in Africa the experienced this believe eclipses to be noisy  

[JoeSchmuckatelli]

10 hours ago, mikegarrison said:

So did the world end? I heard from a friend in Texas that some of the locals were worried that might happen.

My kid tells me that the cultish followers of a certain politician thought it might. 

Ah well... There is always next time. 

The best thing about any End Times belief structure?  It's gonna happen SoonTM 

Just you wait! 

[PakledHostage]

On 4/7/2024 at 11:05 PM, cubinator said:

I'm honestly really looking forward to not caring in the slightest what the next day's weather is like.

This. After weeks of scheming and dreaming and worrying,  I'm happy it all worked out for so many people,  but I am also happy I can take a break from weather and jet streams and Google maps and anticipating traffic and on and on... It was a truly awesome experience, and different than the last two that I viewed. The build up makes it more special,  but now I need a rest.

1 hour ago, magnemoe said:

50 years ago some scientists experienced an 74 minutes eclipse.

That eclipse (i.e. that series) will pass over the USA in 2045, following much the same path as the 2017 one. It's of the series that contains the longest eclipses of all the current series. It will be the next "Great American Eclipse ".

Edited April 9 by PakledHostage

[Superfluous J]

2 of my neighbors refused to leave the house for the entirety of the Eclipse. One commented that she had to go inside soon because the partial eclipse was about to start, and another didn't answer the door when I knocked (to give her a free pastry. I mean come on free pastry) about 20 minutes before the partial was over.

I believe they thought that they could just go blind by being outside during the eclipse.

[cubinator]

14 minutes ago, Superfluous J said:

2 of my neighbors refused to leave the house for the entirety of the Eclipse. One commented that she had to go inside soon because the partial eclipse was about to start, and another didn't answer the door when I knocked (to give her a free pastry. I mean come on free pastry) about 20 minutes before the partial was over.

I believe they thought that they could just go blind by being outside during the eclipse.

Some cultures are careful not to observe eclipses. It can sound antiquated to some of us, but a lot of people still practice these traditions.

Edited April 9 by cubinator

[Kerwood Floyd]

My son, my grandson, and I drove about 5 hours to Lake Wappapello State Park, in  southeast Missouri.  I would do it again in a heartbeat. Probably the most amazing thing I will ever see.  It was dang near perfect. Great visibility. We saw the prominence on the lower limb. We saw Venus and Jupiter.  And there was  hardly any traffic on the way home. Totally different from our 2017 experience. 

[sevenperforce]

18 hours ago, Kerb24 said:

I cannot put into words how amazing that was. My mind is still struggling to process it.

It was what you would imagine it would look like to be a god staring into the event horizon of a naked black hole. 

[NFUN]

13 minutes ago, sevenperforce said:

It was what you would imagine it would look like to be a god staring into the event horizon of a naked black hole. 

those by definition have no event horizons...

[sevenperforce]

21 minutes ago, NFUN said:

those by definition have no event horizons...

I meant naked in the sense of having no accretion disk, not in the sense of a naked singularity.

In any event: I am blown away. Unable to really express it. It’s the most amazing thing I’ve ever seen, by far. Doubly amazing because we were getting married during it.

 

[tater]

15 minutes ago, sevenperforce said:

In any event: I am blown away. Unable to really express it. It’s the most amazing thing I’ve ever seen, by far. Doubly amazing because we were getting married during it.

Agreed—and congratulations!

[tater]

 

 

[Gargamel]

18 hours ago, Mars-Bound Hokie said:

Dang it, I was so close. We parked less than 100 feet from the corn field entrance.

Quick side note.   That field was roughly 50 acres.    They had somewhere around 4,000 cars parked there, based on our estimates (as low as 3k, as high as 6k, we agreed 4K was most likely).  
 

At $40 a car.    

That’s $160,000 cash they took in that day.   Roughly 32 years worth of revenue for the corn that normally grows there.   
 

Anyways, going to work on processing the photos tonight and get a start on building the time lapse.    It’s going to need some editing and stabilization, for reasons.  

8 hours ago, magnemoe said:

50 years ago some scientists experienced an 74 minutes eclipse. 

I guess some people in Africa the experienced this believe eclipses to be noisy  

Got thinking about that one today after seeing it a few weeks ago.  
 

I now fully appreciate how ancient cultures thought eclipses were acts of a god or other such powerful being.     Fully comprehend that feeling now.   The sky broke.   
 

But back when they did this flyover, there must have been a large number of areas that had no warning the eclipse was coming.    
 

The day starts darkening, and then all of a sudden It breaks.         And the BOOM, the passing sonic booms hits.       Yeah…. That would really turn your world view upside down if you weren’t ready for it.  

[cubinator]

5 hours ago, sevenperforce said:

In any event: I am blown away. Unable to really express it. It’s the most amazing thing I’ve ever seen, by far. Doubly amazing because we were getting married during it.

 

Congrats! Glad you didn't have to reschedule to 2044 due to clouds.

[Mars-Bound Hokie]

18 hours ago, cubinator said:

I stayed for the whole thing today (especially so I could complete my timelapse). Didn't encounter much traffic during the return, although it was a looooong drive.

I'd love to see the timelapse when it's completed, please. Was it a looooong drive arriving to your watch spot as well?

 

3 hours ago, Gargamel said:

Quick side note.   That field was roughly 50 acres.    They had somewhere around 4,000 cars parked there, based on our estimates (as low as 3k, as high as 6k, we agreed 4K was most likely).  
 

At $40 a car.    

That’s $160,000 cash they took in that day.   Roughly 32 years worth of revenue for the corn that normally grows there.   

My family and I agree that April 8th, 2024 might have been the most profitable day of that farmer's life. With cars from 25 different states (plus at least one car from Ontario) pouring in for the eclipse at a high-demand spot, why wouldn't he take advantage of that opportunity?

• Even on the off-chance he charges for parking on his field for Fourth of July celebrations, the total sales for one of them would still be nowhere near what he made this Monday.

 

I'd also like to see your timelapse when it's completed, please. 

 

3 hours ago, Gargamel said:

But back when they did this flyover, there must have been a large number of areas that had no warning the eclipse was coming.    
 

The day starts darkening, and then all of a sudden It breaks.         And the BOOM, the passing sonic booms hits.       Yeah…. That would really turn your world view upside down if you weren’t ready for it.  

That would make a fun KSP challenge. 

• Waiting for the right time for an eclipse.
  • Will need outside help in determining the dates and times.
• Getting in position for said eclipse.
  • Will also need outside help in determining the location and the path of totality.
• Flying at the same speed of said eclipse when it happens.

 

I may not know where and where said eclipses will happen on Kerbin, but I got a lot of supersonic planes on my KerbalX ready to go.

[cubinator]

I miss it already.

2 minutes ago, Mars-Bound Hokie said:

I'd love to see the timelapse when it's completed, please. Was it a looooong drive arriving to your watch spot as well?

Each 'o' is one hour driving. One-way.

My timelapse is currently in pieces on my phone, as is my realtime/exposure bracketing stuff. Worry not - I will bring it back to my computer desk tomorrow night!

[StrandedonEarth]

7 hours ago, sevenperforce said:

In any event: I am blown away. Unable to really express it. It’s the most amazing thing I’ve ever seen, by far. Doubly amazing because we were getting married during it.

Congrats. That's certainly one way to make it memorable

[tater]

Just now, StrandedonEarth said:

Congrats. That's certainly one way to make it memorable

Saves on anniversary gifts, since they can only be given on eclipse years.

[cubinator]

20 hours ago, cubinator said:

Aldebaran was the only star I saw too. Could have looked for Capella but, again, I'm not here on months of planning for a four-minute window to look at Capella.

Correction: I went back and watched my video this morning, and in it I actually did mention spotting Capella. I looked back at the eclipsed Sun and the vista with greater focus.

Was really amazing to see the stars and planets come out so abruptly right before totality, even though I didn't get as much time to enjoy them that way. It was a really big contrast from 2017.

[Mars-Bound Hokie]

8 hours ago, sevenperforce said:

In any event: I am blown away. Unable to really express it. It’s the most amazing thing I’ve ever seen, by far. Doubly amazing because we were getting married during it.

Bet that will be a great story to tell the grandkids.