Post-Eclipse Post · 3:51am Aug 22nd, 2017
The solar eclipse was every bit as awesome as promised. I drove down to Ware Shoals, South Carolina, late morning. Despite fears of excess traffic, the roads were actually very quiet. Met up with Needling Haystacks who had arranged a small gathering at the Harmony Church. We were joined by a mix of locals and visitors, including some who just drove up and asked if they could stop. We were only a few hundred metres from the centre of totality path line.
There were initially a few too many clouds in the sky for comfort. First contact was at 1:09pm. We could then watch the circle of the moon edging into the sun through our glasses. Totality was not until 2:38. Professor Haystacks gave a short lecture to the crowd on the physics of eclipses. At this point some heavy clouds had moved in the way, and looked for a while as if they would stay. But after he finished his talk, they moved on and the bright sunlight returned.
The sun is so bright that you only notice it starting to get dark once it is almost entirely covered by the moon. This feels somewhat eerie. It’s like night is approaching but the shadows don’t get any longer. The street lamp across the road turned on. Then once the moon was completely blocking the solar surface the sky turned a dark blue with the horizons all around the shade of twilight. The circular disk of the moon was then perfectly centred on the sun leaving a black hole in the sky surrounded by the shimmering aura of the corona. It really is an amazingly beautiful sight.
I didn't take any pictures (I just wanted to sit back and enjoy the sight), but Needling Haystacks set up a telescope and took some pictures with the aim of looking for the shift in the positions of the stars as predicted by general relativity. He might upload some videos, so subscribe to his YouTube channel if you want to see this.
After spending the last few days talking about how amazing it would be, and sometimes getting less than super-enthusiastic responses, it’s quite nice to now bump into random strangers in the hotel lift and hear them say “Did you see the eclipse? That was awesome!”
¡Wow!
I saw the eclipse in Salem, on the Willamette University quad across from the Oregon state capitol, and it was amazing. Traffic was good going in, even leaving us with enough time to tour the capitol before first contact - we hit everything coming out, though, but by that time we didn't really care.
I was watching through my goggles as the last crescent visibly shrunk to a point, and then everything went dark - then I took them off, and saw totality. The corona was a glowing ring around the moon; I could make out vague features in the moon in the center - and there were the
flarescoronal mass ejections (it sounded incredible when our neighbors said so, and I forgot to ask the solar physicists across the quad, but I just confirmed) stretching out; it seemed to be almost as far as the diameter of the sun itself.Pictures can't capture how breathtaking this is. If you haven't seen a total eclipse yet - you need to go see one for yourself.
Nice! I saw it from work, via a paper cup turned pinhole viewer made a few minutes prior. I'm a long way from the path of totality, but it was still an awesome sight to behold.
We didn't get the full deal here in Arizona, but I was stuck inside with a crowd of 300 rowdy 6th graders for the whole thing anyway. We didn't let them outside because children are dumb and probably would have tried staring right at the sun. :\
Got the whole thing in the Wal-Mart parking lot in Marysville, Kansas. Only bummer was the wife couldn't get her expensive solar telescope to work. Suspect its because the thing is a cheap telescope with an expensive price tag. The wind surprised me.
Indianapolis "only" achieved 90%, which makes for a very interesting sight, even through a pinhole camera. It got slightly darker right at the maximum, but not very much. Cloud cover was rather more obscuring than the moon, really. But the crescent sun is pretty neat. Got a good look for a brief second when a cloud went in front, darkening it enough that you could risk a brief look straight at it.
Can't wait until 2024 :D
I got to see a total eclipse here at Campbellsville, Kentucky. It was pretty cool.
4644333
You blew a chance to teach science and ignite curiosity, and by forcing the children to ignore the partial eclipse, squashed their curiosity., You should have gotten EclipseGlasses (I got a score (20) from American PaperOptics and gave away all but the pair I used to random strangers) and if some kids damage their vision, it is on them.
4644722
I agree whole heartedly. However, I'm just a wee baby tech monkey with a lunch duty. I don't get to make calls like that. I know they did some eclipse related stuff in science classes that day though, so partial credit. Maybe.
4645040
Ah, ¡the risk-averse beancounters! The odds are nonzero that some drooling moron might stare at the sun without EclipseGlasses like our clever truthful President did, so we need to lock all children inside with the blinds drawn. It is not like we expect these children to be able to function in the real world 1 day.
It's terribly appropriate that you saw the eclipse at Harmony Church. Elements of Harmony for the win!
4645422
I did not even think of that! If I had it might have encouraged me to try for that spot more. :P The church was well away from major cities and had a clear field of view, while still being near the central line. I found it with some google maps work. :P
I totally forgot about uploading the videos! I've been focusing my creative energies (which admittedly are kind of low lately) on preparing for Nightmare Nights! I'm nearly done with that, though, so I will endeavor to upload a video and a slideshow to my channel soon-ish.