The August 21, 2017 Great American Eclipse

[wxdude64]

Ended up at my 3rd choice, but boy was it a winner!

Look Rock on the Foothills Parkway in TN. I stumbled upon Jim Renfro and his family and friends 'safeguarding' the air quality/weather instruments and they invited me to join them for the day! Awesome as  being 1500-2000 foot above the valley floor to the west we got a spectacular view of the darkness/shadow rolling in towards us from the WNW. Jim kept track of the weather and the temp dropped from 84 to 75 and the solar radiation went to zero like at night. He had set up a white sheet and we were able to capture the shadow snakes on recording. Being up that high I got a really cool pic of the horizon and the 360 degree 'sunrise' too. Maybe 10% cloud cover, and nothing overhead and in path during, great view of the totality! I am ready for 2024!

[wxdude64]

7 minutes ago, TellicoWx said:

Absolutely amazing here in Tellico Plains, SE TN. The 360 sunset with the lights from town and corona were breath taking.

Hey! I was just above you on Foothills Parkway. Yes, it was awesome. I was cool watching all the lights turn on down in the valleys as darkness approached.

[Paragon]

44 minutes ago, TellicoWx said:

Absolutely amazing here in Tellico Plains, SE TN. The 360 sunset with the lights from town and corona were breath taking.

Looks like you captured a bit of the solar prominences that were occuring!

[Paragon]

1 hour ago, weathafella said:

If you burn your retina you could be seriously visually impaired-way worse than your current vision.   Don't do it next time!

True that, Jer.  You should come to Upstate NY for the 2024 eclipse!

I wonder if there is software somewhere that shows when the next total solar eclipse will be and when the last one was.  (Like let's say if I click on a random small town it will show me those dates.)

 

[weathafella]

11 minutes ago, Paragon said:

True that, Jer.  You should come to Upstate NY for the 2024 eclipse!

I wonder if there is software somewhere that shows when the next total solar eclipse will be and when the last one was.  (Like let's say if I click on a random small town it will show me those dates.)

 

Definitely aiming for 2024 if I don't do 2019. Gotta stay healthy though tonight I'm celebrating in downtown Nashville.

[bdgwx]

We setup near the Perryville Municipal Airport on the MO side of the Mississippi River. I knew CU suppression was a very real effect, but I had no idea how effective it would actually be. We went from solid coverage at 12:40p to very sparse coverage at 13:10p and then just wispy remnants at 13:20p. In probably the most frustrating and unlikely coincidence ever we had exactly 1.5 minutes of cloud obstruction and it just happen to be from a lone dying rouge cloud that moved right in front literally seconds before totality started. Fortunately we had 2:40 of totality so we got a solid 60s of an unobstructed view of the corona. And wow...that was awesome. Pictures and videos don't even come close to doing justice to the experience. I'm all in for 2024.

[ice1972]

There's no question that all the work I put in today to get myself into the centerline and the miles I had to drive to do that was worth it.....for 2.5 minutes....some might say "are you insane that you drove 600 miles today for 2.5 minutes?".....and I would say "I see you've never seen totality.....next".....

[Hoosier]

I have never seen as prolonged of a traffic cluster**** as I-57 northbound in Illinois now.   I don't think I've gone more than 100 miles in 6 hours of driving.

[ice1972]

4 minutes ago, Hoosier said:

I have never seen as prolonged of a traffic cluster**** as I-57 northbound in Illinois now.   I don't think I've gone more than 100 miles in 6 hours of driving.

Damn dude.....

[ice1972]

I just got back to my hotel in Iowa City.....there were a couple backups leaving Columbia MO but I think I was outside the major ****....took 5 hrs still

[ice1972]

Somstarted in Omaha headed south on 29 to 70 and got to Columbia MO.....then straight north through super rural MO into Iowa to Iowa City....hell of a day....like a chess match...playing with the clouds trying to get to a clear spot....amazing few days

[Paragon]

15 minutes ago, ice1972 said:

There's no question that all the work I put in today to get myself into the centerline and the miles I had to drive to do that was worth it.....for 2.5 minutes....some might say "are you insane that you drove 600 miles today for 2.5 minutes?".....and I would say "I see you've never seen totality.....next".....

To be fair, it's more than just totality.  The 20 min before and after totality are great too.

[ice1972]

3 minutes ago, Paragon said:

To be fair, it's more than just totality.  The 20 min before and after totality are great too.

No question....the approaching darkness from the west and the birds and wind thing were all real and the stars and planets thing....Venus in this case was awesome....and how the cu field dissipated....all of it was just so fantastic....I stayed the entire 3 hours....my glasses appear to not be fakes....keeping those for 2024.....

[Paragon]

20 minutes ago, ice1972 said:

No question....the approaching darkness from the west and the birds and wind thing were all real and the stars and planets thing....Venus in this case was awesome....and how the cu field dissipated....all of it was just so fantastic....I stayed the entire 3 hours....my glasses appear to not be fakes....keeping those for 2024.....

The trip should be a much shorter one in 2024!  I just hope the weather holds.  I don't care if the entire winter is a torch as long as it's clear on April 8th!

[ice1972]

13 minutes ago, Paragon said:

The trip should be a much shorter one in 2024!  I just hope the weather holds.  I don't care if the entire winter is a torch as long as it's clear on April 8th!

It would be nice if confidence in cloud cover in an April eclipse in New England was higher.....I've already told my wife we're headed to at least Texas.....after today you gotta do whatever you can to get in a spot where totality happens combined with low prob cloud cover.....that was brutal today.....would have been nice today to not have had to drive 350 miles to get to clear totality.....but I would totally do it again....lol

[Torchageddon]

1 hour ago, Paragon said:

I wonder if there is software somewhere that shows when the next total solar eclipse will be and when the last one was.  (Like let's say if I click on a random small town it will show me those dates.)

 

I think I came across something on eclipsewise.com that does that. I don't know what kind because I quickly went through some sites yesterday.
 

[Drz1111]

I flew into Des Moines, with a return flight scheduled from Omaha, intending to target south of Lincoln.

about 5 days ago, it became clear that was a high risk idea.  I changed my return flight to Denver and changed my target zone to Grand Island.

about 2 days ago, it became clear that wasn't going to work either.  Luckily, a hotel opened up in Gothenburg, about 25 minutes east of  North Platte.

Yesterday, it became clear I was too far east.  So I woke up at 4:45 and bolted west. I ended up north of Torrington, WY...and it was SPECTACULAR.  Found an elevated bluff on open prairie and could see 20 miles away in every direction but North.   Not a cloud in the sky.  Perfect, perfect conditions.  A steep temperature drop during totality.  Gorgeous.  

Then, while waiting for traffic to clear, I bagged Medicine Bow Peak, which was always on my list.  It was a very good day.

 

[ice1972]

4 hours ago, Drz1111 said:

I flew into Des Moines, with a return flight scheduled from Omaha, intending to target south of Lincoln.

about 5 days ago, it became clear that was a high risk idea.  I changed my return flight to Denver and changed my target zone to Grand Island.

about 2 days ago, it became clear that wasn't going to work either.  Luckily, a hotel opened up in Gothenburg, about 25 minutes east of  North Platte.

Yesterday, it became clear I was too far east.  So I woke up at 4:45 and bolted west. I ended up north of Torrington, WY...and it was SPECTACULAR.  Found an elevated bluff on open prairie and could see 20 miles away in every direction but North.   Not a cloud in the sky.  Perfect, perfect conditions.  A steep temperature drop during totality.  Gorgeous.  

Then, while waiting for traffic to clear, I bagged Medicine Bow Peak, which was always on my list.  It was a very good day.

 

Isn't it crazy how as diligent and prepared you try to be and think you are you have to keep adapting all the way up to zero time.....I booked into and out of Madison WI as it was the cheapest I could find and accepted that I'd have to drive pretty far....initial target was Ravenna NE but it became clear that was out by last night.....so sitting in my hotel room in Omaha I figured I'd drive southeast into central MO and assess visible satellite once I got to around Marshall......so when I pulled off 70 into a fireworks station - they love their fireworks in MO apparently - the sun was obscured quite a bit so I fired up COD weather and visible was just coming in and it looked like a good spot might be Ashland - about 40 miles more east and south.....so I bolted but couldn't find a decent public spot there so went back to Columbia and found an awesome soccer field full of folks with wide open 360 views......sun was only behind light haze.....which didn't matter in the end and the 2.5 minute experience - all of it really - was totally worth it......I'm hooked

[ice1972]

Seems like everybody and I mean everybody on this board that committed to witnessing this incredible thing didnwhatever it took to make it happen.....I was nervous I would not get there but in the end I made it.....nice work everybody.....I feel so blessed to have seen that.....I don't ever say that about anything....peace

[Roger Smith]

The models kept giving me a peaceful, easy feeling for Oregon-Idaho from about two weeks back, and by the weekend it was pretty obvious that Oregon would be cloud-free. So we moved up from our week's tour of NV-UT to the hills south of Baker City, OR on Sunday night and had an astounding view. We chose to go down into Baker City, sacrificing 30 seconds of totality for various other gains, but in reality I think 2 min or 2 min 30 sec would be about the same experience. This is my second time in the total zone with visibility and then there was one cloud-out (so 2-1 for those keeping score at home).

Quite the meteorological day -- at 0400, with Venus so bright it was casting shadows in the forestry clearing, temperature felt like about 35 F. By 0800h in Baker City it was maybe 65, then by 0930 about 80 (all under clear skies with the exception of one large contrail). By 1000 (PDT) it was falling back from 80 and by 1015 it was maybe 70 and getting a little less bright by the minute. It then looked like a nice day in January (in terms of ambient sunlight). By 1020 it was 65 degrees and as many of you experienced, the light just went out so fast that a crowd of several thousand people went from awed silence to various shouts of amazement. Then the diamond ring effect flashed on and it was late twilight dark. Venus was now visible again almost directly overhead. I tried to spot Mars closer to the Sun-moon and failed.

During the two minutes of darkness, the corona was quite delicate compared to the 1970 eclipse that I saw (a higher solar count then). I would describe it as two equal portions on the solar equatorial plane and a third one pointing upwards (so at about a 45 degree angle to that plane which at 1022 PDT was oriented "NE-SW" against the eclipsed Sun. At mid-eclipse I spotted a red prominence near that offset portion. The crowd at this point was hooting and hollering encouragement (I assume 90-95% had never seen this before). It was chilly now, maybe 58 F. Then the second diamond ring appeared and the light came back on as abruptly as it had vanished earlier. At this point there was a round of applause mixed with the odd "too soon" commentary. 

I think the temperature minimum came about 1-2 minutes after totality ended (estimate 55 F) then the temperature began to soar back towards its interrupted progression to the ultimate high of about 95 F. An interesting visual phenomenon was that all the tree shadows on the sidewalk moments after the total eclipse had images of the 99% eclipsed sun embedded. I did not spot any ground interference patterns as I had in 1970 at Virginia Beach, and I did notice bird activity consistent with evening. Dogs were going nuts at various times but then big crowds of people can set dogs off as much as strange changes in the light.

The USPS were delivering the mail across the street from the park right at totality so you can add that to the list of things that will not prevent the mail (I guess the internet is the only thing that can).

Pictures are still in my camera (and wife's camera also), not sure if any of my astronomy shots will be all that good but I have some nice views of the approaching darkness on western hills, and of the crowd (which was quite a mixture of ordinary folk, new age types, obvious eclipse-chasing maniacs, and a couple dressed up as court jester and clown). Well, it's the Pacific northwest man. 

Then of the traffic home I shall not speak, except to comment that interstate construction zones forcing three lanes into one are not welcome sights post-eclipse and to rub salt in the wounds, no construction was taking place in most of the blocked off lanes. Oh well, home at last. 

[Drz1111]

3 hours ago, ice1972 said:

Isn't it crazy how as diligent and prepared you try to be and think you are you have to keep adapting all the way up to zero time.....I booked into and out of Madison WI as it was the cheapest I could find and accepted that I'd have to drive pretty far....initial target was Ravenna NE but it became clear that was out by last night.....so sitting in my hotel room in Omaha I figured I'd drive southeast into central MO and assess visible satellite once I got to around Marshall......so when I pulled off 70 into a fireworks station - they love their fireworks in MO apparently - the sun was obscured quite a bit so I fired up COD weather and visible was just coming in and it looked like a good spot might be Ashland - about 40 miles more east and south.....so I bolted but couldn't find a decent public spot there so went back to Columbia and found an awesome soccer field full of folks with wide open 360 views......sun was only behind light haze.....which didn't matter in the end and the 2.5 minute experience - all of it really - was totally worth it......I'm hooked

Yeah, I think that unless you're going to a desert (or semi-desert), booking travel to a specific 'spot' for an eclipse is an extremely high-risk idea.  Better to target a region where you have good mobility within the totality stripe and then make a decision night before as to where you'll be targeting.  Not entirely unlike storm chasing.

I planned my entire trip within 10 days of the eclipse and had a near-perfect experience.  A colleague of mine booked some special camping thing a year in advance and got clouded out.   Really, you're 'clear skies' chasing, not eclipse chasing.

[ice1972]

6 minutes ago, Drz1111 said:

Yeah, I think that unless you're going to a desert (or semi-desert), booking travel to a specific 'spot' for an eclipse is an extremely high-risk idea.  Better to target a region where you have good mobility within the totality stripe and then make a decision night before as to where you'll be targeting.  Not entirely unlike storm chasing.

I planned my entire trip within 10 days of the eclipse and had a near-perfect experience.  A colleague of mine booked some special camping thing a year in advance and got clouded out.   Really, you're 'clear skies' chasing, not eclipse chasing.

Same....I knew I was going but got lazy and didn't plan it out until late and it was a meh plan in the end that got thrown in the fire ultimately......when I decided to fly I should have just flown all the way to Oregon but I wanted to be in the longer totality zone....not that it matters much.....oh well I got an amazing show and a marathon experience I won't soon forget

[wxeyeNH]

It's really fun today watching the Utube videos from people in totality.  So many people really had no idea what to expect.  The hooting and hollering of normal folks is so fun to watch.  Kids just jumping around.  I knew it would be a total over performer for people that had never seen one.   Watching totality with many other people adds to the excitement!

[heavy_wx]

I ended up witnessing the total eclipse at Edgar Evins state park 60 miles east of Nashville. The build-up to totality was amazing; it got noticeably colder and the cumulus died as if an outflow boundary had swept through the area. The light got noticeably dimmer, and it kind of looked like those scenes in old movies where they film shots in the day and darken them to make it seem like night. Totality itself was of course awesome; light from the corona seemed to extend away from the sun in a wishbone shape, with one wispy strand of light to the left and two strands to the right. We were also able to see Venus, and I think Mercury during totality.

My favorite picture of the event (the only one I took during totality):

[eyewall]

It is an experience I will never forget! I ended up not far from the centerline in Williamston, SC:

 

[Hoosier]

Finally made it home at an obscene time last night.  But you know what, I would do it again.

It was cool to see Goreville IL, a town of about 1,000, transformed into a bustling place yesterday.  I read that there were thousands of people there throughout town, and I believe it.  People outside their houses with cameras and telescopes and numerous small and some larger viewing parties.  

I was thinking ahead to 2024 and how tempting it would be to get to the exact same spot, if feasible (they get about 4 mins totality).  How many people can say they watched 2 total eclipses from the same location?  

[RutgersWx92]

I drove with friends all the way down to Kentucky to see it, and it was one of the most spectacular things I've ever seen. Even though it was only two minutes, it was well worth the 14-hour trip. Words and pictures cannot do it justice. It was like someone turned a switch between day and night, and the temperature dropped very noticeably. Seeing the Sun's corona shimmering around the moon, and then the "diamond ring" effect as the Sun peeked back out, was beautiful. The 20-minute period before totality was cool too with everything gradually getting dimmer and the crescent shadows.

For a very short time, the nation forgot all its problems and differences and just focused on the beauty of our universe, and remembered how small we are compared to it.

[yak]

An amazing bucket list trip with my son despite the 15 hour drive home to PA.  Many thanks to the Virginia DOT for their diligence on those night construction projects that had people sitting for hours waiting to merge into one lane at multiple locations on i81.

We wound up in the tiny town of Madisonville, TN near Sweetwater very near the center line and 2 min. 39 sec totality.  Weather was perfect although pretty hot.  I was surprised at the lack of crowd considering the location but I think 95% of the cars were from out of state. We had no trouble parking on Main St.  I saw very few people taking advantage of $20-30 parking areas when there was plenty of open space in and out of town.  I offered my extra glasses to total strangers but nobody needed them.  One dude offered to find a needy family to give them to and proceeded to sell them.

The main show snuck up on me quicker than expected.  I thought there would be a longer transition from crescent sun to totality but there was a very noticeable change in the quality of light even before it got noticeably darker.  Did anyone else notice that?  Images and shadows become noticeably sharper and everything becomes clearer somehow like your vision has suddenly improved and you've enter into a type of hyper-reality.  I know that sounds weird but it is one of my most vivid memories.

I set up my iPhone to record the last few minutes.  The visuals are awful but it captured cool stuff like 17-year locusts going into full freak out mode, dogs barking and the small crowd's reaction.  Definitely some notable prominences visible near the top of the solar disk.  The diamond ring effect induces a weird and awesome sense of rebirth.  It was an amazing experience overall and well worth the two day pilgrimage and traffic headaches. Glad to hear most everyone hear found the same...

 

[Freshgeek]

To everyone who bailed on Central Nebraska, I guess I need to thank you lowering the traffic congestion, lol. Coming north from Moore, OK, I kept watching the models as they showed my original target, Grand Island, NE being under cloud cover. I considered changing my destination to somewhere in north central Missouri, as it would be about the same driving distance. If it was just me, I wouldn't stress out about this so much, but I was bringing my mom, girlfriend, and a dog with, so I felt so much more pressure.

We stopped in a McDonald's parking lot in Wichita, KS and I debated for like 30 minutes as to where to go. One model run showed that Missouri was the better choice, and the next would say Nebraska. Finally, I forced myself to choose and I decided to go to my first choice, Grand Island, NE.

The whole way there I was second guessing myself. When I wasn't driving, I was thinking about how terrible I would feel if I blew this, and I couldn't sleep. Even when we got to Grand Island, I never feel asleep as I kept looking at model data to see if we should move further west, and I never got a clear answer.

The morning comes and one of my coworkers was also going to Grand Island, but wasn't as willing to move. I could see clouds to our south and southeast, but our southwest was clear, save for a few cirrus. Time kept passing and I finally said that I'm willing to take our chances at the Grand Island Walmart Supercenter parking lot on the south side of town.

As the eclipse started, the clouds stayed away and I was paranoid that something would block our view of totality. But as we got closer to 12:58 pm, there was nothing moving into the path of the sun and moon. the lights dimmed around us, and it was a very eerie feeling. Like, if you stepped outside and had no idea what was going on in the sky, you could tell that something was off. The temperature began to drop and we could see the sliver of the sun start to fade through our eclipse glasses. Finally the sun was completely blocked and we got the experience of a lifetime.

My girlfriend had her tripod set up and was able to take some great pictures, but this one of the eclipse with Mercury to the left is my favorite.

I just sat in the grass and took it all in. The stress of planning, travel, and spending money was all worth it for this moment.

If you missed this one, start planning now for the 2024 eclipse. It will be worth it, especially if it's your first one.

We got home at 9 pm last night, and I slept like a rock.

[Roger Smith]

Astronomy notes: For anyone looking at their pix and wondering what they captured near the eclipsed Sun, a bright star (Regulus) was located just above and to the left of the eclipsed disk. The Sun moved just below Regulus at 22:06z and I think that appears in at least one posted picture above. Regulus is a "first magnitude" star and about as bright as the less prominent corner stars of Orion, or Castor and Pollux in Gemini, or Spica which these days is just to the left of Jupiter in the evening sky.

Mercury was located below the eclipsed Sun about twelve solar diameters away (Regulus about two), and would appear about as bright as Regulus. Mercury was on its way to "inferior conjunction" or the point in its orbit between Earth and Sun which it reaches on 26th around 06z. This would leave Mercury at a rather average brightness as almost five-sixth of it would be in darkness (the Sun shining mostly on its far side, offset by closer distance to earth than most non-eclipsed views we get). Mercury is currently near its aphelion meaning it is closer to earth than at most inferior conjunctions. 

Venus was very easy to see but very high almost overhead in western states, probably high to west-south-west for eastern watchers. You may have missed it if you didn't scan a wide portion of the darkened sky but to my eye it looked about half as bright as it had earlier in full pre-dawn darkness. 

Mars might have been observable by some, it was located about one-fifth of the way from Sun-moon disk to Venus. Mars was basically behind the Sun back on July 28th and is still over 2.5 a.u. distant from Earth, so a lot less bright than when we see it near opposition in the night sky. Mars is currently approaching its aphelion. It is in the part of its orbit that lies off beyond where earth will be in the first week of February.

Jupiter would have been visible to eastern viewers, rising in the east at eclipse time. 

Currently working on my pictures.