Was the eclipse a bust in your area?

FYI, I live in Central Texas.

I missed it too. In Canada. Too much smoke from the wildfires.

It was picture perfect in Tennessee.

A cloudless, beautiful day here in WV. We had a 90% view.

It was good in Kansas…the only thing I missed were the crescent shadows thrown by the leaves during the eclipse. I vaguely remembered it from the eclipse in 94, but I didn’t see anything like it this time.
Well, then people started posting pictures of it and I realized we were around the wrong kind of trees. I happens with leafy trees. All we had to do was walk around until we found some, but I didn’t realize it till after I got home.
So, we had about 90%, but missed the cool leaf shadows. My fault.

Just what were you expecting

I was in front of my office building in a busy New York city. Not New York City, but a city in New York.

I thought it wasn’t impressive but when I borrowed someone’s paper glasses and then looked at the sun, it was very impressive. It was about 10 seconds of “wow!” Other than that, it was just fun to go outside and be with everyone on the street, excited. I took photos of the crowd and posted them on FB. To me, that was more interesting than the sun itself.

https://stfudamnit.com/ryan/eclipse.mp4

Not the best video and doesn’t do it justice.

I traveled to the zone of totality with my mom and will do a quick recap of my experience.

While driving there it looked totally normal and then we parked. I wasn’t aware that there was any action. But I put on the glasses and looked at the sun and it had already started. About 15% of the sun was covered by the moon. Again, to the naked eye it looked just like normal.

This continued for about a hour where the sun looked normal without the glasses but with them on you could see more and more being covered.

While looking normal to the naked eye there was a sudden temperature drop. There was just a tiny sliver of the sun visible with glasses. It was very odd. I went from being hot in a t-shirt to needing a sweatshirt in just a few minutes. And it felt like the humidity jumped way up.

This is when the birds freaked the fuck out. We were basically on open fields but there was a lot of trees too. It went from no birds to thousands of them randomly flying around. It was almost scary.

Then the sky starts dimming and it pretty much turns to night in a matter of seconds. At this point you don’t need the glasses. There is just a big black disk covering the sun and you can see a glow around the disk. With the glasses on you actually see nothing.

Then just as fast a tiny sliver of sun pokes out and it is back to daylight.

And yeah. There is a massive difference between 99.38% coverage and 100%. From what people that stayed in Eugene said they didn’t even notice it without glasses. But we went 30 miles north and got one hell of a show.

Mad props to Luckyguy for kicking me in the ass to make the trip. It was well worth it.

Thanks for the description @johnpowell. Very interesting about the birds.

I guess it depends on where “your area” lies geographically in relation to the “line of totality”. Here in Aurora CO, it’s said to have reached 0.93 magnitude. I went to a park with some friends, and noticed the air cooling and the birds got really quiet for a couple minutes before and after maximum magnitude, which happened approximately 11:46 AM, Mountain Daylight time.

I was pretty impressed. We got to see the moon covering about ⅔ of the sun at peak with glasses. Didn’t have any of the other effects such as darkening or animal reactions; I’m sure the total was more dramatic but I was glad I went to view where I did.

Crickets and cicadas came out here, we had about a 10 degree temperature drop. I left a drop cam running in my yard while we were away and it caught the edge at about 99.9% I’ll upload it later but it confirmed that if you are not in totality, you missed the show.

Ohh. And I left out the best.. AKA as the most horrific part. There were people that pulled up behind us. The female in the car went off into the woods to do something and I was chatting with the guy. He asked if I saw where his mom went. I pointed in the direction she went.

I told my mom that they were a son and mother too. So my mom has to mention this as the lady walks back. My mom says something like “That is cool you are here with your son too”. Then my mom talks about how good she looks for having a kid his age.

A few minutes later we hear some screaming and they drive off. This is about a 30 minutes before the eclipse. I am fairly certain he was married or dating her.

Memphis, Tennessee, here. We should have been able to see 90% eclipse. Unfortunately, thick grey clouds rolled in, and a heavy rain started around the time the eclipse should have been at its fullest. Bummer.

I was in downtown New York. There was an odd light, and standing directly in the sunlight there was no feeling of heat the way it had felt an hour earlier.

All the tourists on Wall Street moved out of the shade onto the steps of National Hall.

There is no way that the eclipse was a bust anywhere when it gathered so many people, so many strangers together for happiness instead of protesting and riots.

@chyna :: There was a huge eruption of screams and clapping when it happened. Then on the drive home people drove like assholes.

But at least we had that one moment of solidarity

Nothing to see here really, just a thick blanket of clouds all day.

@chyna I agree. I think it was wonderful that people were excited and were gathering together to see a scientific phenomenon.

We saw the 87% crescent sun through breaks in the clouds.. I was in a little group of about 12, mostly strangers, sharing glasses and trying to figure out how to capture a cell phone picture.

Not a bust at all, it was a good time.

It was about 75% here and it wasn’t that impressive.

@SQUEEKY2 :: I get what Luckyguy was on about. At anything less then 100% it is just a partial blocking of the sun. But at 100% percent it is cavemen 20000 years ago thinking it is the end of the world.

And just because I don’t know any of you “totality” lasted longer than the first time I had sex.

@chyna Maybe do in most places, in my area of Texas it was same ol’, same ol’. People driving 20 miles over the speed limit in the fast lane, Farmer Cletus poking along in the right lane like it’s time for a Sunday drive. Sun or no sun.

And on a positive note!!

I had a blast hanging out with my mother. It seems ages ago that we did something that wasn’t problem solving and painful.

So it was really fun to hang out with her for just a simple stupid excursion to sit in a field and wear funny glasses and eat hoagies and drink PBR. There was no real life drama involved.

And yes.. My mother will kill a PBR with me at 9:30AM.

@Johnpowell cavemen 20000 years ago thinking it is the end of the world

There are old stories in some cultures about archers firing flaming arrows in hopes of re-igniting the sun.

Unfortunately that sounds like something I would do.

I recall seeing on TV Cambodian troops firing weapons at an eclipse in the traditional way to stop a mythical dragon from eating the sun. It had to be in the early 1970s.

It was 95% totality where I live. After the sky darkened I heard bats. This was at 1:25 pm Central time.

I want a refund. Or a lunar eclipse so I won’t be cheated. Again.

@NomoreY_A Just wait 7 years. You’ll be near totality again. https://www.greatamericaneclipse.com/april-8-2024/

@NomoreY_A you’re in luck! The next total lunar eclipse is on January 31, 2018. This will be visible for those living in northwest North America, including Canada and Alaska. Parts of Washington, Oregon and California might also be able to see parts of it, according to this site.

Yes. There was a little cloud cover so didn’t see anything. Eclipse should go over Texas in 2024.

@AshlynM Well, I’m not holding my breath for that one… ; )

@josie I wasn’t expecting much, I knew it wasn’t going to be total down here. But I expected at least a little darkening up, somewhat like a cloudy day. But Nadda…

@NomoreY_A I didn’t see anything noticeable in the surroundings but looking at the partial eclipse with glasses was pretty stunning. If you didn’t do that, you would have missed the partial.

Didn’t think about that. Duh, my name is NoMore, I’m smart!

Now I wonder how many eclipses I’ve been in in my life that I didn’t even realize was happening. I was born in 1958. The very first one couldn’t really have been in 1994! And then 23 years later another, and 7 years from now another!

@Dutchess_III

Total solar eclipses happen fairly often (like once every 1–2 years) somewhere on the planet, but one happening over any given location is fairly rare. Yesterday’s was the first one observable across the entire continental US in nearly a century, and the first observable anywhere in the continental US since 1979.

I missed the ‘79 one too, probably stoned.