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 attention goons who go outside, this is your 13 month warning On Monday April 8th, 2024 a Total Solar Eclipse will grace North America for the second time in only 7 years! If you caught totality in August of 2017 then you know what the hype is about, but if you missed it this will be your last chance to see one on this continent until 2044. Here is a map of the path of totality, overlayed on a map of typical cloud cover for April:   Since we are LESS THAN ONE WEEK away, weather forecasts are starting to get somewhat meaningful. This website has a nice dashboard which shows four different forecast models for April 8th, automatically updated when the models update. It also has an explanation about each model’s strengths and weaknesses. Here is the current run of the model it describes thusly “Its forecasts for cloud cover are the most nuanced and realistic available on this page”: (Note that cloud cover is shown in blue here, clear skies in white)  (last updated Tuesday April 2nd mid-day) I am planning to be in Mazatlan, and the hotel we’ve been eyeing there just this week opened up reservations for April ‘24 so I’m in spread-the-word mode now. So who else is planning to travel for this one? Use this thread to share wisdom learned in 2017, or convince other goons that it is worth their time and effort to travel to the path of totality (99% is extremely NOT the same!) You want to be in the tiny black dot on this animation. The huge less dark shadow is for chumps!  edit: Eclipse Links and Resources General info including some detailed local maps of totality Interactive google map of the path, you can click any point on this map to get a pop up showing the times and duration of the eclipse at that spot. Note that all times are listed in UT. Here is another map with similar features but a pulldown to change timezones. Eclipse Photography Goon Testimonials: Edgar Allen Ho posted:I tried to photograph the 2017 eclipse with my phone, from the wastelands outside North Platte, Nebraska, USA at the centre of its path. It didn't work out but the event was still amazing toggle posted:I recently watched the total eclipse in Western Australia, just a surreal experience. Highly recommended. tarlibone posted:I'm an astronomy nut, and even though I don't bust out the telescopes as much as I used to, there is no way I'm missing this. I'm in southern Illinois, not far from St. Louis, so I didn't have to drive far to catch the total eclipse last time. I kept all the stuff I bought, too, so I don't have to do that again. ProperCoochie posted:Literally the greatest show on earth. I traveled so long and hard to reach the path of totality in 2017 and it was soooo worth it!! honkwins posted:my partner and I got married on Borah Peak in Idaho during the last one (which was in the path of totality) and it was 10000% worth it XYZAB posted:I drove to the middle of nowhere Idaho for totality in 2017 and it was the coolest thing I’ve ever seen in my entire life. Would highly recommend anyone on the fence to just loving do it. PokeJoe posted:I saw the last one in the middle of oregon with a very clear sky. i thought it would be cool but it was even cooler than i expected. go check it out if you didn't do the totality thing. its worth it Haschel Cedricson posted:It's one thing to be told how cool a total eclipse is, and another to see it actually happen. Every single person in this thread who is hyping it up is still managing to undersell it, and I absolutely understand why in the days before astronomy an eclipse would cause people to freak the gently caress out. bawfuls fucked around with this message at 19:50 on Apr 2, 2024 |
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Mar 7, 2023 06:55
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To reiterate how rare and unique this is, let’s ponder the fluke of cosmic history that allows us to experience a total solar eclipse. What makes totality special is the fact that the disks of the moon and sun are almost identical in size from our perspective here on the surface of the earth. That is what lets the moon perfectly block out the sun while leaving the sun’s atmosphere (corona) safely visible to the naked eye. But this wasn’t always the case and won’t always be the case! It is a fluke of the moon’s size and distance from earth. Hundreds of millions of years ago the moon was closer to the earth and thus would have also blocked more of the corona. And about 600 million years from now the moon will be too far away from the earth to ever fully cover the sun. Total eclipses will cease to occur, replaced instead with gradually less spectacular annular eclipses. We just happen to be alive at a time and place where the moon sometimes perfectly obscures the sun such that we can observe this beautiful interplay.
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Mar 7, 2023 18:50
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Also looking at that cloud cover map, I’d highly recommend that anyone who’s not planning to view this from Mexico have a car and a plan to drive for open skies based on the weather the night before or early that morning if need be.
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Mar 7, 2023 20:17
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Spamming this thread with some more info and resources: So You Want To Photograph a Total Solar Eclipse Here is a page with a lot of detail on eclipse photography, from Fred Espenak who is one of the biggest eclipse chasers out there and has many decades of experience doing this. I will excerpt some highlights here to give an idea of what's involved and drive home the general point that it is difficult and not recommended, especially if you have never seen totality before: Fred Espenak Mr Eclipse.com posted:
But hey, if you already have a cool telescope with a motor drive and a fancy DSLR you can attach to it and automate, go for it!
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Mar 8, 2023 20:08
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Beware of clouds in Newfoundland
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Mar 12, 2023 04:25
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Bumping this thread cause the eclipse is one year from today! Do you have lodging? Have you scouted camping or viewing locations on Google earth? Are your friends and family already tired of your eclipse proselytizing?
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Apr 8, 2023 16:02
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Nothing, aside from the median 60-70% expected cloud cover
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Apr 9, 2023 06:36
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If you had a ship capable of interstellar travel you could park yourself the perfect eclipse distance behind any planet or moon at any time
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Jun 5, 2023 20:27
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Judgy Fucker posted:So with it being a given that it'd be better to be inside the red lines, how cool or not would the eclipse be in Oklahoma City? It's so close to the red lines, relatively speaking. I could probably convince my wife to rent a cabin in SE Oklahoma for it, but that's You either make the effort to get to totality, or you are effectively ignoring the eclipse. There’s really no in between. You live SO close, you’re incredibly lucky to be within a day’s drive of a total eclipse at all. Absolutely make the effort to get there. As I mentioned upthread, the next total solar eclipse in North America isn’t until 2044! bawfuls fucked around with this message at 15:30 on Jun 6, 2023 |
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Jun 6, 2023 15:27
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Judgy Fucker posted:Fair enough, I'll pitch it to her tonight. Been too long since we've visited the big city lights of McCurtain County, Oklahoma anyway.
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Jun 6, 2023 17:04
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In 2017 I scouted our spot on google maps (cross referenced with BLM land maps, but that part isn't really applicable for this one as there's virtually no BLM land east of the Great Plains). You might start by checking for National Forest land within the path (green here) there is definitely some in AR/MO/IL: 
bawfuls fucked around with this message at 18:29 on Jun 7, 2023 |
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Jun 7, 2023 18:22
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SgtScruffy posted:My friend pointed out that maybe instead of Illinois and Ohio, we looked northeast, which is about the same drive, to like Vermont and Upstate New York, which has infinitely more protected land and also isn't Ohio, so I think I answered my own question there Just depends on your priorities and risk tolerance. Edit: depending on where exactly you target, upstate NY could be similar cloud odds to parts of OH and IL. The other thing to be aware of is further east means eclipse happens later in the day which means lower in the sky, which means you need a larger portion of the sky to be cloud-free to see it bawfuls fucked around with this message at 02:34 on Jun 8, 2023 |
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Jun 8, 2023 02:30
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Mantle posted:I skipped driving from Vancouver BC to Oregon for the 2017 eclipse because I didn't realize how rare it was to be within distance and with the correct weather conditions. Near the Texas/Mexico border for example, being right on the centerline gets you about 4m26s of totality while being half way between centerline and the red edge gets you 3m50s. The duration falls off faster as you get closer to the edge of totality.
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Jun 14, 2023 20:55
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Thus post has some details about trying to take pics of an eclipse. As noted already, it’s probably not worth your effort unless you already have a lot of gear. You can however use your nice camera to take some wide shots during totality that capture the landscape with the eclipse in the sky:  Especially if you’ve never seen totality before, I’d definitely recommend enjoying the moment and not fiddling with a camera. bawfuls fucked around with this message at 00:27 on Jul 18, 2023 |
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Jul 18, 2023 00:24
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The eclipse this October is annular, not total
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Aug 13, 2023 15:37
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Just checked my flights from TJ to Mazatlan thanks to a Reddit post, and they bumped our return flight home from Wednesday to Saturday. So anyone flying for this, double check your flights again cause the airlines are already loving around.
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Nov 14, 2023 00:20
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Bumping this thread because we are only 2 months out people, 60 days until totality!
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Feb 8, 2024 20:21
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more falafel please posted:My plan is to be in Austin proper -- we have friends we can stay with out there so we don't need to get lodging. Is there any consensus on a park or something where the viewing will be good? Austin is near the edge of totality, so right in the middle of the city it's about 90 seconds. The airport is outside of the path. You can get about 3m30s by going maybe 30 miles east or around 2m30s by traveling 30 miles north. Round rock is ~20 miles up the highway and it's ~2m45s there. When you're near the edge of the path, you can get a lot of additional time by just getting a little bit closer toward the centerline. I don't know the area but it's something to consider. bawfuls fucked around with this message at 09:26 on Feb 9, 2024 |
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Feb 9, 2024 09:21
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The thing is in 2017 a lot of people weren’t familiar with eclipses. Millions of Americans saw it for the first time and told all their friends who missed out. Many saw partial coverage because they didn’t know what a difference totality makes, but they found out when their friends or family came home and told them. Just look at this thread or the Reddit sub for how many posts there are from people who saw 90%+ last time and are determined to see totality this time. I think significantly more people will seek totality this April than did so in 2017, and traffic could be much worse. This one does go over more major metro areas though. I’m not sure if that will make traffic better or worse, hard to say. But if your rural traffic experience in 2017 was mild, I’d say you were the exception not the rule. bawfuls fucked around with this message at 19:34 on Feb 9, 2024 |
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Feb 9, 2024 19:31
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From Toronto it might be worth a game-time decision if you can’t commit to a more involved mission. Keep a close eye on the weather in the days leading up to the event, if the forecast looks good the night before then get up early and make the drive in the morning. If the weather prospects for everything within a reasonable driving distance look lovely the night before then just stay home. I’d be prepared for a VERY slow drive back home that evening though. Ideally you could find somewhere to sleep in your car Monday night and drive home Tuesday morning. That’s how I’d be thinking of it if I were in Toronto with a little time but not enough for a bigger trip.
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Feb 9, 2024 20:00
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Mantle posted:If anyone is on the fence about going to the path of totality because you are hanging around the umbra, GO TO THE TOTALITY. But yeah the rarity is not so obvious at first.
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Feb 9, 2024 22:38
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xzzy posted:but they're also great places to just visit. He keeps an eye on where they are going to be and if there’s one that coincides with a place he wants to visit anyway, he plans the vacation around it. In typical retired boomer fashion this has taken him to Egypt, South Africa, Chile/Argentina, China, Iceland, and the South Pacific among others. But a lot of people are less interested in or able to travel the world like that so that’s why I’ve been hyping this year and did the same for 2017 to friends and anyone else who will listen.
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Feb 9, 2024 23:12
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As we approach the one month countdown, I was recently reminded of a very goony but effective tip for total eclipse enjoyment: wear an eye patch over one eye from the start of the partial phase until totality. This lets the covered eye adjust to low light conditions during that time. Once totality starts and you remove the eyepatch, the dark-adjusted eye will help the other eye adapt more quickly, and overall you’ll see more of the Corona and more stars etc because your eyes would otherwise not be able to adjust to the lower light in time. I did this in 2006 and 2017 with good results both times. Just don’t injure yourself walking around without any depth perception for an hour. bawfuls fucked around with this message at 19:11 on Mar 4, 2024 |
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Mar 4, 2024 19:08
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Partial is cool and all but if I had a sick telescope and a motorized tracking mount I’d care more about using it for totality anyway. You could just cover the end completely during partial phase and uncover for the main event
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Mar 4, 2024 20:02
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Yeah sorry what I meant to emphasize was that a film filter with a diy housing is probably sufficient because it’s not the main event. A fancy glass filter would be useful if you’re gonna get into solar photography or something.
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Mar 4, 2024 20:35
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If you want to drive yourself insane we are now in the realm where weather models will make specific cloud cover predictions for April 8th. They are still changing wildly from day to day however, so not very reliable at all, yet.
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Mar 27, 2024 17:11
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I have not, but my understanding is yes. With full cloud cover you would not see the moon and the sun's corona, which are the main attractions. You'd barely notice that it got darker, you wouldn't see the 360-sunset, stars and planets, etc. Clouds are killer and dedicated eclipse chasers will go to great lengths to find clear skies for totality. In 2017 my dad was in Jackson WY, some of the people in his group got spooked by the forecast and hit the road at midnight the night before to drive for more favorable conditions. Jackson ended up being fine but clouds are the enemy here.
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Mar 27, 2024 22:19
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I dunno, my dad was targeting Jackson for 2017 at least a decade before it happened. I think he started calling the ski resort about 5 years in advance asking when he could book a tram ride to the top for the eclipse. He had a big group of fellow eclipse nerds with him, like 40 people or something.
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Mar 28, 2024 01:11
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Since we are now ONE WEEK away, weather forecasts are starting to get somewhat meaningful. This website has a nice dashboard which shows four different forecast models for April 8th, automatically updated when the models update. https://www.pivotalweather.com/eclipse2024/?m=cmceens&p=cloudcover_labeled&r=conus It also has an explanation about each model’s strengths and weaknesses. Here is the current run of the model it describes thusly “Its forecasts for cloud cover are the most nuanced and realistic available on this page” (Note that cloud cover is shown in blue here, clear skies in white)  The other three models disagree to varying degree on Mexico and the path between Texas and Ohio. But all models seem to agree now that Texas is likely hosed. If you have plans for Texas I would recommend investigating a plan B this week in case these forecasts hold. bawfuls fucked around with this message at 21:21 on Apr 1, 2024 |
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Apr 1, 2024 21:19
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xzzy posted:It's been shown to be very hard to predict numbers for eclipses, they happen so rarely that no one really has good data on them. So most agencies plan for the worst and at least for the two since 2017 attendance has been less than forecast. Oregon roads did fill up post-eclipse but that's because there was only a couple two lane roads available for use, but the state got well under the million they expected. Wyoming saw less than 200k people show up. Obviously the closer to a major population center the worse it's going to get, southern Illinois had ~300k show up in 2017. South Carolina saw many less than predicted, but they also had clouds move in so it probably pushed people away. And if Texas is rained out like models are predicting, who knows how that throws other spots into chaos as some number of people try to change plans over the weekend and drive several states away.
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Apr 2, 2024 16:47
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Reminder for anyone traveling to Vermont or similar locations in the eastern end of the path, totality for you will be in mid afternoon which means the sun won't be super high in the sky. You can check the map in the OP for exact geometry at your intended location but in Vermont it will be about 40 degrees above the horizon, so don't pick a spot that is too heavily wooded, lets you block your view with trees. Maybe this is obvious to people already there, but with the forecast the way it is now there might be some last minute eclipse chasers scouting for spots. Also I added the Pivotal Weather dashboard link to the OP for your F5'ing pleasure this week. bawfuls fucked around with this message at 19:49 on Apr 2, 2024 |
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Apr 2, 2024 19:46
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What up Mazatlan crew! I live in San Diego and am flying out of TJ via CBX, it is very convenient we've done it a half dozen times before for other Mexico trips. Flights were very reasonable a year ago, not so much in recent months. I have friends who live in New Jersey that are flying into SD and then out of TJ because it was significantly cheaper than getting a directly connection. bawfuls fucked around with this message at 06:29 on Apr 4, 2024 |
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Apr 4, 2024 06:26
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There is still significant disagreement between several cloud models in many areas. Click through the four models here and compare (third one only has precipitation, not cloud cover): https://www.pivotalweather.com/eclipse2024/ For example, Dallas cloud cover %: 32/92/56 Cleveland: 38/40/45 actually decent agreement there Mazatlan: 26/87/51 (wtf)
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Apr 4, 2024 17:06
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ymgve posted:Cuttently in Montreal, which stores/chains might have eclipse glasses for sale? bawfuls fucked around with this message at 04:34 on Apr 5, 2024 |
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Apr 5, 2024 04:27
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SulfurMonoxideCute posted:Mazatlán had a forecast for 80% cloud cover today, weather apps all say partly cloudy. Someone from the eclipse chasing group on Facebook that I'm in just posted a photo they took from the beach and it's just some wispy cirrus clouds. The Canadian model shows like <20% cloud cover and is allegedly the most nuanced cloud cover model. The American model tends to overestimate and shows 80% or whatever, but it also has a cloud thickness foreceast which is <20%. High thin clouds aren’t necessarily a show stopper. We do have some people with rental cars in our group for Plan B near Durango if it comes to that but as of now I don’t expect it will be necessary. Here’s hoping!
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Apr 6, 2024 03:37
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Forecast in Mazatlan is just borderline enough to still consider driving inland. But it’s all thin high clouds here and it is not clear to me that the Durango area will be significantly better in this regard. The models show it being pretty similar and the current satellite images do as well. Spending a total of 8+ hours in a compact rental car doesn’t sound appealing to me and it’s really not clear whether that will buy us any better conditions. Decision paralysis is real
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Apr 7, 2024 17:59
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Cthulu Carl posted:I guess I could drive a couple minutes west and get the totality, but as it is I'm supposed to get like 99.8% totality, and I don't think 0.2% is worth dealing with Ohio drivers trying to do the same thing. Pack your poo poo up right now and get on the road. Bring food water camping chairs sunscreen and a shade structure if you’ve got one. You WILL regret it if you sit there at 99.8% bawfuls fucked around with this message at 14:57 on Apr 8, 2024 |
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Apr 8, 2024 14:55
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ENEMIES EVERYWHERE posted:I’m posted up at a public park in McLeansboro IL. The sky is clear (for now??) and the sun is shining and there’s a well-equipped bathroom and a grand total of four other eclipse tourists here.
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Apr 8, 2024 15:42
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Mazatlan sky status: clear now with a vague threat of high clouds to the west. Not much wind now tho so hopefully they stay away another four hours 
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Apr 8, 2024 16:00
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Sirotan posted:I cannot find any kind of map that tells me that so I got no clue. Not invested enough for a multi-hour return trip so I'm happy with whatever I can get here.
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Apr 8, 2024 16:53
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