Posted on 08/21/2017 9:12:49 AM PDT by Kaslin
Americans with telescopes, cameras and protective glasses staked out viewing spots along a narrow corridor from Oregon to South Carolina to watch the moon blot out the midday sun for a magical couple of minutes Monday in what promised to be the most observed and photographed eclipse in history.
Sky-watchers everywhere — and millions were expected to peer into the sun — set out lawn chairs and blankets and awaited the first total solar eclipse to sweep coast-to-coast across the U.S. in practically a century. Astronomers were giddy with excitement.
Jim Todd, a director at the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry, warmed up the crowd at an amphitheater in Salem, Oregon.
“The world is watching us, folks, because we are going to get the first, best show and the weather is gorgeous,” Todd said. “The weather forecast is crystal clear throughout the state.”
David Avison showed up in Salem before dawn with his wife and relatives, after traveling by car and overnight train from their suburban Portland home. They couldn’t get reservations at a nearby resort, despite making plans six years ago.
“I’m telling people if you want to see the one in 2024, you’d better make your reservations now,” Avison said.
With 200 million people within a day’s drive of Monday’s path of totality, towns and parks braced for monumental crowds. Clear skies beckoned along most of the route, to the relief of those who feared cloud cover would spoil this once-in-a-lifetime moment.
(Excerpt) Read more at apnews.com ...
Absolutely, although I was later told that the big one was really Venus. Oops.
This was up a butte out north of town. Baker City is just out of the Blue Mountains, in high plains desert, so the night sky is usually pretty good. I'd selected an Oregon Trail visitors' center about 6 miles off the highway, thinking that (1) it had a restroom, (2) it had a big parking lot, and (3) I'd want to see the exhibit anyway. I wasn't aware it was up that high or that all of Baker City also figured it'd be a great place. I had plenty of company.
Stunning view of the valley below. I could see the border of the shadow moving toward us. Clear skies - it had been slightly cloudy the day before. Even got one really good picture of the totality and I'm a lousy photographer.
We didn't really sacrifice that virgin. She grabbed the knife and kicked our butts. Dang kids got no respect for tradition these days...
Does anything LOOK wrong?
And, I suppose... Were your eclipse glasses from a reliable maker? I’m no expert on that, but, I do know there was considerable discussion online about that topic.
Most likely, you are just tired... That was a long, tedious drive home!
You said it right—no way a video can reproduce that feeling during totality.
I wasn’t sure about the exact timing of everything, so I never looked at the sun during the 90 seconds we had of total covering; didn’t want to take a chance of misjudging the timing and hurting my eyes.
So I just looked around at the landscape which was a tremendous experience in itself. Plus I did see a star, and also I had watched with glasses the gradual covering leading up to it. But now I wish I had looked at the corona. Was trying to be so careful of my eyesight, didn’t want to take any chances. But maybe should have gone ahead and looked for a little bit.
That feeling, though, during the totality, even not looking at the corona, was just an incredible thing to experience. Can’t really describe it, but amazing.
NASA had (still has) up a cool interactive map that allowed one to click on a location, then read off the exact time of totality beginning and end at that location. Then all you needed was an accurate timepiece with a down to seconds readout, synced to the NIST official time, recently. (I used a netbook, synced about 30 minutes B4 the beginning of totality.) To be ultra-safe, as my daughter was watching too, I padded the times at the beginning and end of totality by a couple seconds. No problems!
I know NASA gets a lot of grief here on FR, but I think they did a pretty good job with this event. OTOH, while our local media was pretty good today, leading up to this event the hype-to-solid-info.ratio was often not good. I also think that in some cases, pure greed overwhelmed sensible promotion of the area for the long run. :-(
Yes, as I stated earlier, it was my fault I didn’t prepare better for the eclipse. The information was out there.
But regardless, it still was an awesome day for me! If I’m alive in 2024, maybe I can visit my brother in Texas and be prepared.
It looked like the sun was melting into the water.
Well, then it probably actually got a wee bit darker where I was too and I just didn't notice. In any case, it certainly didn't get more than a faint bit darker. Not what most would expect from 75 or 80% coverage of the Sun.
Lol! That's what I thought. Heard a big "sizzzzzzzz" in my mind viewing it. Like a red-hot frying pan being dipped in a bucket of cold water.
I was indoors and did not look up at the sky but walked up to my patio door and happened to look right at a spot where a very sharp glint of the sun was being reflected off the shiny metal part of my grill. Yes, I am that paranoid I’m wondering if it was bad to accidentally look at that for a few seconds. Hope your eyes are OK :) Mine are usually always tired starting this time of year due to allergies. Do you have any?
Thanks! I’m up, and my eyes feel “normal” today. A couple of drops of Visine later!
Just fine. I used 'eclipse glasses' to view partial phases, and my NAKED eyes to view total phase. Can still read text here at FR. :-)
Used the colander method with a small box covered in foil. Seen the light of the sun go partial going towards the right side of the covered box.
That is one beautiful photo! Amazing, isn’t it, what God has created.
I’ve also wanted to travel to those remote places where the stars fill the sky at night...that would be incredible to see too.
I know that Columbus’s eclipse was lunar. I am convinced that ... somewhere ... I heard that Cortez predicted a solar eclipse, and when it happened, the natives were convinced he was god. Where did I learn that? Why can’t I find it referenced? Still looking .... Meanwhile, Columbus’s will have to do.
I was in one of those prime viewing spots of Madras, Oregon. We camped in a farmer’s field for 100.00, spent $600.00 in their economy, and endured a 100-mile long traffic jam to get home. 9 hours to get there, 19 hours to get back. 2 nights camping on the ground. And all for a 2-minute eclipse.
Was it worth it? HELL YES!
Viewed the eclipse from Baker City, OR, so not just Americans staked out prime viewing locations, so did ALIENS.
(hoo boy)
Wonderful skies, and two minutes of totality.
My pix can be seen elsewhere on the intertubes.
Traffic was mental, basically OR-WA regional gridlock from 1100h to 0300h next morning.
Three hours from John Day to Burns!
Wow, that’s usually about 45 mins I seem to recall.
The economic boost in east-central Oregon must have been very welcome, we drove through Unity on US26 coming into our campsite and that tiny place and surrounding ranchers were busy extracting cash from the swarming mobs. Every nook and cranny had a kook and granny as they say.
I viewed it from the pool at the Day’s Inn in Seneca, SC. A few clouds threatened, but when the time came it was perfect weather. We could not have asked for more.
Oh, and my eyes are just fine! Can’t wait for 2024!
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