Solar Eclipse - Aug 21

My two brothers and I traveled to west central Idaho along the Sweet-Ola Highway north of Boise and the Payette River to view the eclipse on Monday. Here is the best pic that turned out during the 2 minutes of totality. Many didn't because it was hard to focus plus didn't really want to miss the real event screwing with a camera. The brilliant white flares (gaseous coronal ejections) we estimate shoot out 1-2 million miles from the sun's surface but are not visible under normal sunlight and even up to 99% of coverage just before the moon covers the sun completely. Venus appears in the lower left corner plus we saw perhaps another 6 of the brighter stars in that region of the sky (Sirius, Orion's Belt, Beetlejuice (Betelgeuse) and Capella). The aura around the moon was 100 times as brilliant white as any white fireworks show or stadium light you ever saw (duh!). Forgot to look at the ground at that time to see what shadows looked like but the sky was indeed a God moment! Didn't notice any cricket, bird or frog noises during the eclipse but a few horses at a nearby ranch came out of their barn around the halfway to totality point and slowly roamed the fence. Had a nearby thermometer and nothing changed until the sun was completely covered and then the temp dropped nearly 10 degrees instantly and stayed that way even as the sun was exiting the eclipse for a good 15 minutes or so, just like at dawn. The brilliance of the sun didn't really change the landscape much until perhaps 2/3rds of the way to totality an then it was like looking through very good sunglasses and then progressed almost to a black and white or sepia setting with colors fading away for about 10-15 minutes just before, during and just after totality. All in all - very well worth the effort and resources it took to wander out into strange boonies of Idaho. We had on eclipse T shirts made up like rock concert tour shirts (front and back) that glow in the dark - of course we forgot to look at each other during but they did work back in the hotel room for what it's worth.

Hope you all enjoyed it from where you were to the extent you could - being within the 65 mile wide path of totality though was the difference between (wait.....) day and night.

Glad to have represented each of you at ground zero. Start planning for the Texas to Maine eclipse in 2024 - not sure of the particulars quite yet as far as time of the year or day, width of totality path, coverage size of the moon (this one the moon was at 103% of the sun) or length of totality along it's US tour - but hopefully its as good or better. Someone will have to swing by Leisure World at that time and pick me up to hitch a ride - don't forget.

 

Here is Monday, August 8, 2024 total solar eclipse path - supposed to last nearly 4 1/2 minutes in southern Texas which would be about double the maximum totality time of this weeks eclipse (3 1/2 minutes in northern Maine) - no reason for anyone east of the Rockies to miss this next one - I've already made my reservation to stay at my step-daughters place in Houston. Can't wait.

 

Looks like I'll be able to fish Kentucky lake for that one.

 

You must be living right Sir. I wonder how many States will have seceded by then. I may need a passport to travel to The Texas Republic from the California Socialist Union.

 

Yes I love Idaho and Montana too - legal speed limit was 80 mph in Utah and Idaho and last I was in Montana the speed limit was "Reasonable and Prudent"- been through Idaho Falls several times and was hoping to revisit there this week but couldn't get anywhere near there with I-15 going right through the City and it being near the eclipse centerline - apparently it was one of the most impacted towns in the USA this past Monday traffic and crowd-wise.

 

Dang it Mojave! I saw this post without my eclipse glasses on! Now I'm screwed!

 

You obviously forgot about TTF's app. You're safe Rev - you're in the Cone of Totality on this MB. However, I think you're being targeted, the paths of the 2017 and 2024 eclipses converge as a gigantic X just about over Tenn - I'd keep those shades on at all times, make sure the mirrors are facing outward and don't daydream about the Sta-Puff Marshmallow Man!

 

Yes indeed, the Big Sky Country is almost spooky at night with so many stars - one of my hobbies is astronomy and in Montana I was having a hard time finding the primary stars for triangulating my scope tracking due to the 1000's of others that were visible and messing me up - the other darkest spot was on the roof deck of a houseboat on Lake Powell AZ a few times - best place to sleep on a summer night with a pair of binocs handy (and a chilled refreshment).

 

Or travelling from pont A to point B on a boat. Especially in the tropics when it's grease calm and still 80 degrees at midnight. You can sit on the flybridge and look at, as Sagan would say, billions and billions of stars.

 

Here's my experience from it. It was so fun leaving my house that morning, and with the possible rain/clouds in the region, I had no idea where I was going. The way the clouds/rain was coming onto the coast from over the ocean, I knew I had to get away from the beach. Living in Myrtle Beach, my neighbors said it took them 3 hours to get home from Georgetown after it was over (roughly 35 miles away). They got very lucky and were able to dodge the clouds down there. But between the clouds and traffic, I wasn't taking any chances. My commute from the location in this video was about 105 miles, and yet I was home in just under 2 hours. Lets just say, I researched different areas to go based on possible scenarios for probably 5-6 months. I waited a LOOOOOONG time for August 21, 2017!

If you weren't able to get to totality, I cannot stress enough that you have to experience this sometime in your life. It may only be 2-3 minutes, but it's just somethign that no video is ever going to do justice. The 15-20 minutes before totality begins, you can just sense that something is happening. It's like somebody has their hand on a dining room light dimmer, and they are just ever so slowly turning it down. Then the last couple minutes it speeds up and them BAM...darkness. Again, it's almost hard to put into words. In the video, all I could get out of my mouth was "this is absolutely insane" over and over...lol I was just completely in awe....

 

There are an awful lot of people out there that didn’t see it in totality and have no clue what they missed. It was stunningly beautiful. So glad I took the time off from work to experience it