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ARE_you_kidding_me's avatar

Do you have your eclipse plans set?

Asked by ARE_you_kidding_me (20021points) August 15th, 2017

My house gets a whopping four seconds so I’m watching it at my folks where it will be about a min and a half. Authorities are saying they expect the highways to be severely congested so I’m not going to the best spot where it’s about two and a half. Got everyone their safety specks and have the day off work. How will you be spending your time during the show?

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33 Answers

chyna's avatar

I have to work that day, but I plan on going out on my break to watch it. I have my glasses and so far weather reports say it will be sunny that day.

ragingloli's avatar

Summoning a demon.

elbanditoroso's avatar

It’s going to be a full darkness where I live. They are keeping kids in school late because dismissal time would otherwise be right in the maximum point of the eclipse. The state is closing some roads in north Georgia to manage all the tourists expected to be up there.

I’m going to be outdoors enjoying the darkness, but not looking up.

Call_Me_Jay's avatar

I’m making a couple of pinhole viewers. We will be at 87% so it should be pretty good.

Sadly I figured out to late I could take Amtrak to Carbondale Illinois for the totality and be back home at 11pm. No surprise that train is sold out.

Darth_Algar's avatar

I grew up in the Carbondale area. My family still live there. Had considered heading down there for it, but, eh, I’m fine with sticking around here in Chicagoland. The couple of minutes of “oooh…” just isn’t worth the hassle to me.

MrGrimm888's avatar

I’ll be in what’s supposed to be a great place for it, here in Charleston. The roads should be clogged though. I was going to go somewhere, but I may stay home. I entertained going out in my canoe, but I’ve heard that the waterways will be busy too. So, I don’t know. NASA is in town. Maybe they’ll get a good video, that I can watch later…

johnpowell's avatar

Today was actually the first I learned of this eclipse thing. And CNN makes it sound really special.

I just checked and we will get 99.33 coverage here. Since CNN makes it sound like there is a big difference if you get total coverage I looked into the closest place that will be total. Luckily that place is very close and I just bought a bus ticket there. Round trip ticket was 30 bucks so why not. I will get there about 45 minutes before the eclipse and then the bus brings me back a few hours later. Just enough time to get a few slices and a pint.

LuckyGuy's avatar

I am traveling to TN to be in the totality band. This will be my third total.eclipse.

@johnpowell It is definitely worth it. There is a big difference between 99.3% and 100%
Imagine a room lit by a single 100Watt bulb. Now turn off the light. It is dark!
Now imagine there was a 1 Watt night light on. That totally changes the feel of the darkness. The effect is lost.
Go for it!

ARE_you_kidding_me's avatar

@LuckyGuy what part, you’ll be in my neck of the woods.

Mariah's avatar

Got my lodging over a year ago, got flights a few months ago. I’m going to Wyoming for totality and then a Yellowstone trip after. We take our rare astronomical events very seriously in this family. ;)

johnpowell's avatar

NEW ANNOUNCEMENT ::: My mom wants to go see it too. So she is going to drive me. This is good since I have no clue if traffic will be bad. So we will leave at 6AM. And if traffic is normal we will just eat hash-browns until the solar system gets busy.

Call_Me_Jay's avatar

Traffic will be bad. I don’t know the particulars of where you’re headed but I would double check the timing.

johnpowell's avatar

I’m just going form Eugene to Corvallis. There are two routes between the two places. There is highway 99 or I-5. And this is Oregon. Not really densely populated. I plan on taking 99. If people are driving up from Cali they will probably stay on I-5.

gondwanalon's avatar

I’ll be in an airplane heading to Kona, Hawaii.

Stinley's avatar

I’m planning on being very jealous of you lot. Not happening here in UK

LuckyGuy's avatar

@gondwanalon Do you think if you slip the pilot $50 they’ll swing over the path of totality for you? :-).

Call_Me_Jay's avatar

Here’s a flight that was slightly rescheduled to catch an eclipse last year.

March 7, 2016 – Alaska Air blog – Chasing the shadow of the moon: To intercept eclipse, Alaska Airlines adjusts flight plan to delight astronomers

gondwanalon's avatar

@LuckyGuy HA! Maybe next time.

I’m on a tight schedule. Have an outrigger canoe race 2 hours after I get to Kona.

ARE_you_kidding_me's avatar

@Mariah I’m jealous. Yellowstone is on my bucket list

Dutchess_III's avatar

I really want to drive a couple hours North and see a full eclipse.

LuckyGuy's avatar

@Dutchess_III DO IT! You won’t regret it!

Soubresaut's avatar

It won’t be a full eclipse from where I am, and I’m not going anywhere, though I know people who are. Just didn’t work out for me this time. I’ve got eclipse glasses (curtesy of NASA) and I’m in an area that’ll see the moon cover most of the sun. I’m already eyeing upcoming solar eclipses. I want to travel to at least one total eclipse in my life time.

Dutchess_III's avatar

I saw the eclipse in the late 90’s. It was damn cool. The light got so weird…all the kids said it felt like tornado weather. There were double shadows and stuff.
I’ll talk to Rick.

johnpowell's avatar

@LuckyGuy :: I have gone through considerable measures to get to totality with the supplies needed. If this is just two minutes of darkness I am banning you from watching Seinfeld again.

total joke about the Seinfeld thing

LuckyGuy's avatar

It will be ‘totally’ worth it. You’ll thank me!

I’m up to season 4.

Dutchess_III's avatar

Holy cow. I got eclipse glasses!

johnpowell's avatar

Just got back.. @LuckyGuy still has Seinfeld privileges.

That was really cool.

We left at 8:30AM and there was very little traffic. We ended up stopping before Corvallis and pulled off on a side-road between these two fields. In the end there were about 30 other cars that stopped.

ARE_you_kidding_me's avatar

Not a cloud in the sky here in tennessee!! Was very cool!

johnpowell's avatar

@ARE_you_kidding_me :: I was worried too since when I woke up there was a pretty heavy overcast. Luckily it burned off around 9am.

Dutchess_III's avatar

It was cool! But not as cool as I remembered…..

LuckyGuy's avatar

It was fantastic in Townsend TN. Everyone is smiling!

Call_Me_Jay's avatar

It was overcast here, but the clouds broke several times and we could see the crescent sun. At 87% it got slightly darker, but less so than a thunderstorm can do.

I had a pinhole projector (piece of foil and a piece of paper) but it was kind of dim. I had a colander but no luck with that either. People were sharing viewing glasses so I got a good look.

I took a lot of pictures but my phone didn’t capture a good image, so nothing worth sharing.

Fun afternoon, lots of friendly people goofing off in the park!

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