USA Eclipses: Oct 2023 and April 2024 (pics welcome!)

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Is there some group/caravan planned for the April 8th, 2014 eclipse? Here is a great animated video - simulation: https://www.greatamericaneclipse.com/april-8-2024

Because it is past 1pm, best strategy might be to stay overnight somewhere few hours away, then drive to a place with best chance of clear sky. For few minutes, you can stay off any local road, as I did for the last year annular eclipse.
 
wanderlust said:
Is there some group/caravan planned for the April 8th, 2014 eclipse? Here is a great animated video - simulation: https://www.greatamericaneclipse.com/april-8-2024 Because it is past 1pm, best strategy might be to stay overnight somewhere few hours away, then drive to a place with best chance of clear sky. For few minutes, you can stay off any local road, as I did for the last year annular eclipse.
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My experience from the last eclipse is that people do in fact pull off the road anywhere. The big hassle is when the traffic gets going again. I-5 was a very slow-moving parking lot for HOURS after the event. It took me 18 hours (including a couple of breaks) to get from Salem Oregon to Vashon Washington, inching along the whole way, a drive that in normal circumstances takes about 4.

So my intention would be to be in place at least 24 hours ahead of time, and to stay in place after for at least another 24. Because why the hell sit on the freeway when you could be sitting at a parking spot, dozing in the sun or the shade?
 
Gr8ful said:
Carla, I thought you were heading southwest a week or two ago. Spring is almost here, 64 deg today.
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no, i'm heading to the gulf coast either this week or next. my kids and grandkids are meeting me there in april. they have to return for work and school, but i might stay on in southern illinois for the eclipse. It's a beautiful area for camping... shawnee national forest area.

i have surgery april 30. by june 1st i want to be on my way to washington. But my cardiologist wants another echo in June. Grrr.
 
I am planning to be in TX, west of Austin somewhere, depending on cloud cover. So sleeping a day before somewhere around Amarillo I guess? Or if I can meet someone in person?
 
I'll be in Concan Texas. Concan will have totality for 4 minutes 24 seconds. I am hearing you can take your glasses off in a Quora discussion. "The moon has blocked all of the harmful UV rays" "lower your shield and you will see the stars, the planets, it will be pitch black" "the temperature will also drop 10 deg". Now I just saw an article about the Devil Comet and the last sentence in the article says, "do not take off your eye protection during totality". So, I guess more research on this. (The Devil Comet is appearing same time as totality this year, it makes an orbit around the sun every 71 years)
 
During totality of a FULL eclipse, you can take your eclipse glasses OFF. 100% correct.

In fact, you will need to take them off or you wont be able to see much.

But then, as the sun's bright rays start making it past the moon, you will need to put them back on to keep watching.

This is NOT true during a partial eclipse, like the one that occurred back in October. During any partial solar eclipse, the eclipse rated glasses must remain in place for direct viewing.
 
Why do so many people get so excited when a shadow is cast on the sun or moon for a few minutes? It is kind of cool to see but thousands of people driving hundred of miles just to see it? That might border on being a mass hysteria🤣
 
When you are WITHIN a total solar eclipse path of totality, you don't just 'see' it. You experience it.

The temperature rapidly drops, sometimes 10-30 degrees in a matter of seconds. People reach for their jacket, if it's nearby. Some of the stars come out. The horizon, all 360 degrees around you, begins to glow. People cheer, and then they get very quiet, as if they don't wish to disturb the effect. You dont need to turn on flashlights to see, but it is very dark. Automatic street lights will come on.

If you are anywhere near areas with birds, they change behavior, usually becoming silent.

It's all very surreal.

Then, in a few minutes, it starts getting brighter, and people start cheering again! It warms up, rapidly. It feels as if you are slowly being pulled back into reality.

But if you are outside of the path of totality, it's just not the same..its just a sunlit day, but a bit dimmer than normal, almost like a cloudy, overcast day.

I will head for the central part of Texas, depending on the predicted weather, and enjoy one last total eclipse. The next one thru North America is something like 20 years from now.

I'm not sure I'll be around for that one, and even if I am, I probably wont be able to travel as easily as I can now.
 
maki2 said:
Why do so many people get so excited when a shadow is cast on the sun or moon for a few minutes? It is kind of cool to see but thousands of people driving hundred of miles just to see it? That might border on being a mass hysteria🤣
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Can't speak for anyone else.

The sun's corona is the single most magical thing I've ever seen. Photos and videos don't do it justice - in order to see how it dances, you must see it live.

Also, it has an amazing emotional resonance for me. To think that what used to be a dreadful and terrifying thing to witness is now a thing to cheer (and people do cheer for it - imagine a nationwide "wave") is a sign of how far humans have come, and therefore it is a sign of hope for me.

Plus, I will be 77 years old this year, and this will be my last shot at seeing a total eclipse, since I don't have the money to travel to the next one.

I'll be leaving Anaheim around the first of April, and traveling to Texas. Looking for someone who knows about Texas to meet up with for camping. I'm in a regular cargo van so it's easy to squeeze me in. I am not at all familiar with Texas.
 
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maki2 said:
Why do so many people get so excited when a shadow is cast on the sun or moon for a few minutes? It is kind of cool to see but thousands of people driving hundred of miles just to see it? That might border on being a mass hysteria🤣
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I am guessing that you never experienced full eclipse? Or did you?
 
wanderlust said:
I am guessing that you never experienced full eclipse? Or did you?
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Yes I have seen several of them. The first one in was the 1950s. I saw the one in 2017, I just had to walk outside in the parking lot. I have seen lunar eclipses as well. But I still would not drive hundreds of miles to see one.

Maybe I am just spoiled as an eclipse truly can’t hold up to seeing the Northern lights in Alaska with 5 curtain layers that were flashing brilliant colors for hours of time. See it out in the wilderness where there is total dark sky? Now that is worth traveling to see! But most nomads will not experience that as it cannot been seen in the land of midnight sun in the summer months. Would you travel a long distance to see that? Some people do. I did not have to I lived in Alaska.
 
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But I do agree with this statement I found on the NASA website that the solar eclipse has a psychological effect on some humans. I guess I am just not in that category of people who get a psychological influence from seeing one.
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