I saw some similar projections for the St. Joe area and I am highly skeptical. What data are they basing all this on?

I was planning a gravel ride (to avoid any traffic problems) to reach an area which will be in the direct path, but I might not be able to get off work that day. Oh well.

I won't be riding but I will be camping in Yellowstone with my wife, father, and step mother. Driving into Grand Teton NP the morning of.

I will most likely take an easy ride over to Edmonds and watch it from Hickman Park. Why? Because the park is on the former site of Woodway Elementary, which is where I saw my first and only solar eclipse on July 10, 1972.



We got about 50% coverage on that one. We'll be closer to 95% on this one

DD

I haven't got a plan yet. I was thinking about taking a bus to Nashville, where the randonneuring club had scheduled a 200k ride for the eclipse; but that ride was cancelled "due to lack of interest," so that scotched that plan.

It's nice to read other people's plans, though. But you PNW people, isn't anyone going to Stonehenge?

I speak from experience of having witnessed a total solar eclipse in Turkey in March 2006.

If you are within a few hours drive of totality on August 21, don't hesitate to make the effort to find a spot to view it. This is one of the best Maps by Xavier M. Jubier for mapping the eclipse in your part of the USA. Just zoom in and click on a spot and it will show you the duration and percentage of the eclipse which you will see.

Take off work. Take the kids out of school. Do not miss this amazing natural spectacle of astronomical alignment. If the weather cooperates, it will be worth whatever hassle you have to go through in order to experience totality.

There will be a second chance as mentioned earlier, on April 8, 2024. Totality on that day will last over 4 minutes in many places. On that eclipse totality will sweep in from Mexico and run from the southwest to the northeast from Texas to Vermont.

On August 21 I'll be at an undisclosed location near Nashville.

Thanks for that map, PB! That is excellent.

Looks like my part of NJ will see about 74% obscuration. That's pretty much exactly what we had in 1972.

Thanks also for your advice about not missing this. I'm thinking about the options....

Tom if you are in the path of totality, it is quite safe to view the TOTALLY obscured sun with the naked eye. Indeed, don't bother trying to take photos of it, just lie back and enjoy the spectacle and count yourself incredibly privileged to be able to see one. Don't take a chance of missing any of it due to fiddling with a camera. A small cloud could block the view at a crucial moment. (If you are a professional photographer making your livelihood from astronomical images that is a different story.)

Until the sun is 100% TOTALLY obscured by the moon there is not much to see really -- it doesn't even get very dark -- so there is little point in trying to look at it safely. All you see is a bite being taken out of the sun that gets progressively bigger. We in Toronto were under a (rare) annular pseudo-total eclipse several years ago and while it was cool to see a narrow ring of sun around the moon, the residual brightness was, as expected, enough to obscure the corona -- and, I add, not safe to look at.

So just sit with your back to the sun as the eclipse progresses and resist the temptation to glance up. In the last moment before totality -- someone in the gathering will have equipment to see it coming -- turn toward the horizon
and watch the moon's deep shadow racing toward you across the landscape as the earth rotates under it. When it gets dark and the stars come out, look up and enjoy. Be prepared to look away the instant that Bailey's beads re-appear, ideally a few seconds before, as the brightness rises rapidly from there. And then it's over.

Oh, and be sure to visit the bathroom well before totality. There are stories of people missing the whole thing on account of being stuck in a long queue inside somewhere.

*(Much of this advice comes from the Hamilton Amateur Astronomers who are organizing a trip to Missouri which I am going to miss )

I was going to ride the Portland Century on Sunday, the day before the eclipse but they cancelled it, due in part to "Eclipse Mania". They said that they couldn't guarantee the safety of the riders with all of the craziness that is expected. Maybe I will go ride in Forest Park instead and stay off the weird streets of Portland while everyone is losing their minds!

One lousy overcast forecast could make it all for naught.

Nice imagery, but it's well north of the path of totality. Maryhill, Washington will get to 98.9%, but that's a world of difference from 100%. Madras, Oregon is about 100 miles south and dead center of the eclipse path. Madras, though, is going to be a madhouse: Madras, A Little Farming Town, Sees Big Opportunity In Solar Eclipse . News | OPB


Since I'll be at work, I may just fire up a browser and watch the NASA live stream: https://eclipse2017.nasa.gov/eclipse-live-stream . I wonder what the view from the ISS will be like?

I know my family in Portland will get a better view/greater percentage of totality. I also anticipate that FB and the entire internet will be monumentally burdened with eclipse videos and posts. I will be...at work, but I surmise that the whole of downtown Seattle will empty out of their buildings, head to a lookout point that is best, and clog the streets at 10:20AM or so for the 92% of totality. I'm not going to drive to say, Burns, OR, to get away from people. That's freaking forever, and I didn't ask for the time off. Actually, I'll have to ask work about what they may or may not be doing.

Gang,

I gotta chime in with the safety precaution. Don't make your own glasses or be duped. As a public service, more than 6,800 libraries across the U.S. are distributing 2 million pairs of safety-certified glasses.

For a listing of participating libraries, visit here: Libraries Hosting Eclipse Events - STAR_Net

I believe The Science Channel has a special, live, beginning at 12:00 noon that day.

Something else to look for during the eclipse, whether you are in totality or not: Pay attention to the shadows on the ground or sides of buildings. Two things occur, yet are easy to miss.

First, at some point during the partial eclipse, you should be able to see little crescents on the ground in the shadows under trees. Depending on the tree and the conditions you might see hundreds if not thousands of crescents, and if there is a breeze, they will "dance." It is really cool to see.

Second, as the eclipse approaches totality, or the greatest extent of obscuration, pay attention to shadow boundaries, especially the one your body casts. Make certain you note your shadow before it starts, and as obscuration increases. To begin with the edge will be diffuse and rather soft. This is because the sun is a relatively large light source. As more and more of the sun is obscured by the moon, the edge of your shadow will become more and more sharp. This is due to the light from the sun being narrowed to a smaller and smaller "point." Just before totality, the shadow edge will be exceptionally "crisp."

Both of these effects are easy to and worth photographing. Dancing crescents should make a nice short video.

Below is a cell phone photo of a photo I took in Turkey. My daughter's science project that year was to measure the temperature change from start to finish over the course of almost 4 hours. The temperature never fully recovered after totality.

2006 Solar Eclipse in Turkey.jpg

Eclipse glasses are the cheapest and easiest way to go -- just make sure they have the proper certifications. I bought a five-pack on Amazon. Heck, I even saw them in our local Home Depot yesterday.


Things are going to be crazy here in Idaho. So we are heading to a remote area where I chukar hunt every year.
Far away from the insane crowds we are expecting, so riding a bike isn't practical.

Our concern out West is wildfire smoke.

i'm 70 miles north of Carbondale IL. I will ride at my normal 4:15-5:45 am - 20 mile route in the dark.

My current plan, such as it is, is to take a bus from NYC to Greenville, SC, that arrives there around dawn on Saturday 8/19. From there I'll do a three day tour up into the Smokies, winding up back on a bus leaving Greenville on Monday, a few hours after the eclipse. Camping out in people's yards. So it'll be a bit of a bike tour and I'll get to see the totality.

Haven't decided where to be at totality. There's an event at Clemson University that might do, but it'll be crowded.

Yep. Large fires are already closing large pieces of the Mt. Jefferson wilderness, plus there's a fire on the Warm Springs reservation.

Well, for the last couple of weeks we have had mini eclipses when the black clouds come across and let loose on us. It gets so dark my neighbors light comes on. We will have 94% totality but with the clouds thrown in, even better chance of a blackout. Plans to ride and go to the festival in doubt cause of the good chance of bad weather. We will see, either way, we have out glasses so anywhere we wind up will be fine with us.

I wrote this as the daily darkness descended upon us. We will have the eclipse at 2:48. That's right about the time we are getting the booms and bucket rain. The rain has come now, 2:34

We shall see. At least I got a short ride in before the wet.

Saw a near-total eclipse in 1994 through about 6 sheets of microfiche. My eyes were none-the-worse for it.

About the closest place to here where it will be total is Paducah - so I'll just stay home and work and watch it online or on tv.

On NPR this a.m. they were talking about how Carbondale will go to school on this one because they get to do it again in April 2024.

Yurp. Carbondale is about three miles NE of the "maximum" location for 2024. Pretty remarkable occurance.

We waited on line for about two hours at the supermarket in Missouri for eclipse glasses. Limit five per customer.

I've seen glasses going now for $10-15 a pop and higher. Supply and demand exemplified... I bought 20 of them back in July for a buck apiece and I've given quite a few away to friends who procrastinated.