Posted on 08/19/2017 12:06:21 PM PDT by djf
In addition to the eclipse sun glasses, I’ll just say that I NEVER take a road trip without lots of water, jars of peanut butter, crackers, water, sterno stove with fuel, candles, flashlight, matches, lighter, pocket knife, multi-tool, bullion and cup of soup ramien noodles, tea bags, hot chocolate mix, and coffee bags-like the tea bags, coffee mug, blanket, change of clothes, and tarp.
That’s because I used to commute 150 miles round trip to work in the winter time, and had to drive through some blizzards that stranded many people. Could have been me in the ditch-never know when some thing weird could happen.
Extra mags and ammo?
You can safely use binocs to look at the fully eclipsed sun. Put them down when the “diamond” returns.
Sorry to hear that! I’m 66 and made a 650 mile solo trek from the San Fran Peninsula to the Painted Hills near Mitchell, Oregon. Had a SPECTACULAR viewing spot on a high hill overlooking the John Day River with a commanding east/west view up and down the valley. Watching the penumbra coming in from the west was mesmerizing as everything descended rapidly to black; then somebody on the hill shouted “There it is!” and I turned around to see the fully eclipsed sun in all its glory. I used my Nikon binoculars for the entire two minutes of totality - the huge corona and “Bailey’s Beads.” It really is unbelievable. This is my first trek to observe a full solar eclipse and I sure hope it isn’t my last.
I sincerely hope you get your health back so you can enjoy this in the future!
Toilet paper viewing glasses? Just when I thought everything had been invented, along come something entirely new.
Toilet paper viewing glasses? Just when I thought everything had been invented, along come something entirely new.
OK.
I am home and dog tired, I5 was the mess from hell.
I will cover more of this later, but for right now, I can say this:
It was the most spectacular event I have ever seen!
For 2024 eclipse?
Thanks for your reply.
Oregon was one of my options as I have relatives in Washington and was going to make this a family outing. Was worried about the frequent cloudiness, though.
I’m looking forward to the much closer solar total eclipse through Texas in 2024. By then I’ll be 61. This has been my first debilitating health problem (sciatic nerve) that I’ve ever experienced, so the feeling of helplessness in not being fully mobile was just as discouraging as not seeing the eclipse.
BTW, I’ve got sciatica on my right thigh and leg — it is awful. I’ve found that lots of waking and hiking helps keep it under control and livable. Mine seems to flare up if I don’t walk, so it’s a good reminder to keep active. Sounds like mine Iis nowhere as severe as what you are experiencing. Good luck getting it under control.
Sitting for even short periods of time becomes unbearable. After driving errands on Saturday, I could tell that an 8 hour drive would have been pure torture.
Beginning physical therapy this week.
OK!
I’m home and slept a bit so can report back.
I gassed up and left from east of Tacoma about 6:30 PM on Saturday. Jumped on 512 and headed towards I5.
Got on I5 and drove south, passed over 205 and back onto I5 and ended up in North Salem just a bit over 4 hours later, around 10:45.
Gassed up at a 76 station and parked in a legal spot at the station to try to sleep.
A lady from the station came out and told me “You can’t sleep here... have to go over the road to a Fred Meyer parking lot”,,, so I left.
After sleeping/trying I decided to find my way to route 22 to drive towards the southeast. Damn! Oregon has the prize for confusing roads. When I used to drive through Oregon to California, I almost never drove off I5 because I ALWAYS GOT LOST.
No reason this time should be any different. I promptly got lost.
But after driving around for a bit, about midnight I see a sign saying Silver Falls park so I head that way.
Now Oregon once again proves how helpful and courteous they are when ALL the spaces where you might park have cones and NO PARKING signs on them.
Eventually I find a turn off where there are like three cars and a couple setting up a tent so I pull off and once again try to sleep. Remember, it is now Sunday morning, still 28 hours or so till eclipse zero!
A few cars drive by... eventually a big truck comes by and it is Oregon dept of transportation. I could only hear bits of the conversation, but they basically tell the couple that the tent has to go. So they pull it down and drive off. I was thinking that if they really want a tent, they sould just get addicted to heroin, and go to Salem, where the state would set them up in a tent on the capitol steps and probably give them a medal.
Well Oregon DOT had left me alone so I got some sleep and woke up just before sunrise.
If you have or ever had a Christmas tree, it probable came from the area. Scores of fields of small doug fir trees are growing here, tens of thousands of trees, maybe millions!
Being on Silver Falls road I decided for Sunday to spend my day at the Falls. So I went up to the south entrance and found the parking lot, paid my fee and parked. Slept for a bit more and woke up about 10:30 am. Started hiking but couldn’t see much on the south side so tried to drive up towards the North Falls.
Got to Winter falls and too a look. It was pretty good.
Kept going up towards the North falls, no parking spaces, so drove a bit further north around the edges of the park. Go to a day use area and parked for a bit. Went hiking for a mile or three.
Came back and went down once again to the North Falls paring area and found a spot and parked. Now this is on a Sunday, absolutely perfect weather, and the park was jamm packed.
I went hiking again and what a sight! You can hike up to a spot where you see all this rock carved out under the falls, all the way around the valley. You keep going on the trail, and it actually runs underneath the falls, in a huge area as big as a football field, and if you struggle to stay safe, you can get to the bottom and hang out there for a while.
Now a bit about the geology of the park. When I first took a look from a foot bridge over the river I thought Huh?
All there is is black rock - volcanic basalt for the whole park! It’s one big sheet of volcanic basalt!
A bit later I saw two old guys like prospectors or something talking about finding gold there = I pretty much told them that if they find gold, it’s gonna be some ladys wedding ring she lost, because of the geology!
(more later)
Anyways the trail to the North Falls forks off to the trail to the Upper Falls which I took. The Upper Falls was my favorite spot in the park. Huge trees fallen down litter the bottom of the falls. A bunch of huge trees hang off the edge of the falls, ready to fall themselves! A beautiful pool exists at the base of the falls, the whole area basically being this brown or black basalt rock, with little sedimentary or other rocks in the pools.
I hike back and head back to the south falls. It’s finally getting a bit later (about 5 PM) and I hike down and visit the South Falls. It’s very similar to the North Falls, with the addition of a bunch of caves under the rim. You can see here the basalt laying on top of a sedimentary layer. I also visited the Nature store and the Lodge.
So now I’m back in my car driving to find a place to stay. I should just say a place to PARK! because I’m planning on spending another night in my car.
North of the park I stop at a camping area - the campsite person says no spots are available. I explain I don’t need a campsite, just a place to park. She says Oregon parks don’t work that way, in order to park, you have to be registered to camp. I didn’t tell her to her face how stupid that was, but left.
I drive by a farmer with a sign for eclipse gatherers. I pull in and ask him how much to park my Nissan Sentra. He says 100 bucks, so I get ready to leave, Said he charged the motorhomes that were there 250.
So I drive back through the park and find a road - Jasper Lane - and drive out it. There is a very nice spot where I can back up to a field. I park there and open my windows - soon I hear the crickets and then the tree frogs - a perfect spot! I soon fall asleep, about ten PM.
Then in the middle of the night OSP drives up - asks for my license and starts yammering about how with all the land there, the owner would be worried about yada yada yada and he just blathers on and on, tells me to go back to Sublimity.
So I go back to Sublimity and find an industrial/retail area to park. Get some sleep. It was very quiet there.
I wake up about 6 in the morning - eclipse day! And head back from where I was. At the vary least, I can go back to the park which opens at seven. But ob the way, I spy a cut off where there is a truck and about three cars parked so I figured what the heck!
The sun rises early when I am there. I chat with a guy from Maryland. He’s excited! and so am I.
An Oregon DOT truck drives up and we talk with him. He says we are all far enough off the road so we were cool.
He also says Oregon has the rights to the road from the center line to thirty feet in either side. I had known about these easement rights for a while and was pretty curious about how OSP could have thrown me off of the spot on Jasper Lane earlier that morning. Well, whatever.
(more later)
A few minutes before the eclipse... the sun is bright and getting hot in the sky. The animals are kind of far away, a few horses grazing nearby. One thing I saw that I was surprised at was a HUGE jackalope type thing running across the field! Never saw a rabbit that big before! The thing was like two feet tall, not counting his ears!
So we all keep looking at the sun with our eclipse glasses. It’s just a round brown space in the glasses.
But soon - around 9:07 or so, ECLIPSE ZERO arrives! The moon is clearly carving out a small piece of the Northeast corner of the sun.
There is no change in brightness without the glasses. Everything seems to be just a regular day.
But it keeps going on... around ten percent or so, then around a quarter or so, then it keeps getting more and more.
I would estimate that the apparent brightness without the glasses didn’t diminish until it was at least 75% gone, then it seemed only slightly less bright outside.
But it kept going. Soon it was 80%, then 90%, then it got dark! Not as dark as midnite. But very, very dark overhead except a circle around the sun which was fairly bright, but small.
The sun’s corona.
It was due to show for about two minutes, maybe a tiny bit more. We were located about two miles northeast of Sublimity, Oregon which is about 15 miles Southeast of Salem. Almost exactly on the center line of the eclipse.
Now I’ve heard all kinds of descriptions about how it was. The corona was in an almost black sky. All around on the horizon it looked like sunrise, but immediately above us, it was black.
The stars came out. Jupiter and Venus came out. I had thought about but didn’t look for the Big Dipper, oh well!
And it seems like a minute later, it happened. The diamond effect!
Now this makes me state about something people have been saying. They’ll say things like 90% is enough, or 60% is enough, or it will almost be totality so that’s good enough for me.
Nothing could be further from the truth. Totality is an entirely different animal from a partial. Completely!
We all hung out about ten minutes after totality, then began to leave. It was about 10:45 am Pacific time. I would not get home until after three o’clock this morning. If anyone wants the details, I will share it with them.
Overall I can say this. My neighbors asked me if it was worth it... all O can say is, YES!!! Absolutely!!!
If there is ever an eclipse near you and the weather is good, then go! By all means! It is truly a once in a lifetime event, and at 63, I have to admit it was astounding!
Anyways, I took many, many pictures but didn’t do anything to my cameras before the event, so the quality just isn’t there. You can easily search for them.
That’s my eclipse report!
let me tell you though...90% is NOTHING...its like a cloud....
and yes, unless you look thru the glasses or in our case, the welders helmet, you don't notice much...
I did make myself a contraption as well but it was not very good...
2024.
I had read somewhere that at the moment of Diamond time, the amount of light from the sun is TEN THOUSAND times the amount during totality. It’s literally like the difference between night and day! If you are young enough, and have an inclination to go, I say get ready! I’m 63 and this was probably my last chance, so I said what the hay and went!
It was TOTALLY worth it!
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