HardyWeinberg

Marked down as remainders or up as collectors' items?

RubeRad

I just heard today from the Paula Poundstone Institute that light takes 100,000 years to escape the core of the sun itself (and then of course as we all know, at the speed of light covers the 92mil in 8min)

HardyWeinberg

Some more numbers on that 'time to leave the sun' figure

rachel120

How The Universe Works had a episode devoted to sunlight. Apparently the various layers of the sun play ping pong with the photons produced in the core and how long it takes for the photon to reach the surface determines where it lies in the electromagnetic spectrum. Great episode, great series, they manage to reword astronomical and astrophysics terms into layman's terms without the feeling of dumbing them down.

bobwysiwyg

Good series, watch it often.

KCBikeCommuter

@noglider ...my commuting route takes me from Liberty, west over to Gladstone, and then south toward N. Kansas City, across the Heart of America Bridge and into downtown Kansas City.

BBassett

I did my research and found central Oregon to be the closet and least likely spot to have cloud cover. Went a couple days early and camped in the Malheur National Forest, beautiful, hot, and Way too many humans. Did some great riding while waiting for the show and got a couple hundred dollar speeding ticket. I learned a lot about eclipses having never seen one before. I shot a couple GoPro vids that you can see here - (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCNh..._as=subscriber) that I am happy with. The music was playing off a speaker that was too far from both cameras to be heard well. But if you turn the volume up you will see that the timing was perfect for the totality. Pink Floyd of course. You could get 99.9% coverage and still not understand what totality is like. The sounds, the temperature drop, even smell is affected. And all this is with full understanding what is happening and when. Imagine totality sneaking up on you when you don't even understand what an eclipse is, it would be terrifying. The whole experience was, other than the speeding ticket was fantastic and unforgettable.

fietsbob

My front porch was not under the path of totality but a 90% , and travel expense was zero.

rachel120

Which is why the ancient Chinese would beat drums to scare away the dragon eating the sun.

I do have to wonder how many people had an eclipse sneaking up on them. It seems that a lot of ancient cultures placed a great importance on tracking the sun and the moon and had incredible accuracy.

BBassett

If you have not seen a totality you have not seen an eclipse. You can't understand. 0.01% of the sun still showing is far too bright to look at with your eyes. Totality is just that. I think that is one reason that people walk around saying that an eclipse isn't such a big deal... because they don't understand.

fietsbob

Rich guy, obviously, you have a lot more travel money.. I dont..

BBassett

After how many 10s of thousands of years of study and accumulated data? Until the very 1st eclipse that was actually predicted to happen they All snuck up on us. "Hey... does it look funny to you... WHOLLY CRAP! Go grab one of the kids to sacrifice, quick. Pick an ugly one." It was 10:20 am or about when totality happened for me in eastern Oregon, probably in the high 70s. The drop in temperature was amazing. Can't imagine what it must be like when it happens in the hottest part of the day.

BBassett

I bet it was more a lack of desire.

PaulH

We flew from the Washington DC area to Monroe County Airport (Madisonville, TN) for the day. I picked the site because it was at the center of the path of totality and had the best chance of clear weather. The airport was very hospitable with live music and a barbecue. We brought camera and tripod, beach chairs, and a cooler and relaxed while watching the moon's shadow slowly cover the sun. We experienced the maximum duration of totality of two minutes and 30 seconds, and it was amazing. It was very hot, and the cool breeze that accompanied totality was most welcome. The whole thing was one of the most amazing experiences of my life.

Bike content: next day I was back to my normal commute to work. It felt strange to have traveled for seven hours the previous day, yet ended in the same place we departed from.

rachel120

From your stated location it wouldn't have really been expensive, just gas money to get from the coast to Madras and back. Not much time involved, my family often did the near opposite, Bend to the coast or Portland and back in a day's time. The only other real cost would be taking a day off work, but that could be planned for a couple of months in advance.

The only reason I didn't do something similar is because my husband flat out said no to me doing a day trip to get in the path of totality. And we don't really have travel money, which is why it would have been a day trip and not a three day vacation.

fietsbob

No Car.. never married... haven't dated /girl friend in 20 years and, home alone.. now I'm70..









..

HardyWeinberg

Hey, me too! I found a good camping spot, didn't see anybody until the night before, a couple rolled in from SF. They took off as soon as totality hit. And of course as soon as totality ended there was like a 2 hr parade that I could hear. I camped through Tuesday, didn't hit traffic until Portland.

BBassett

I went down a couple days early, found a great spot next to a little creek... kicked around and did some riding. Then after discussing it with a nice guy I met on a bike ride I changed up. He had seen other events and I hadn't so I took his advice. He suggested that being able to see the whole event not just totally was very important. To see the "whole show" so to speak. So I finally picked a spot that let me see from horizon to horizon. This is the exact spot, go to Google maps and you can see it (Grant County, Oregon - 44.658787, -119.144152). The picture I took (below) is almost exactly like yours. I think that is Venis showing in the lower left. Interesting how the corona is so similar in pictures. The other obviously isn't mine but it is so beautiful I added it anyway. I also shot a couple of short GoPro vids that can be viewed here at youtube -(https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCNh..._as=subscriber). You were smart to stay for a day or two, the parade you mentioned was a bumper to bumper crawl all the way to Portland. I had to have an Original Taco House meal that I had planned days before. Then another 5 hours traffic horror up to Olympia.

BBassett

Come on Rachel! Don't let him stop you from living your life. These are the special moments that shouldn't be denied to anyone with enough curiosity to view for themselves.

HardyWeinberg

Excellent! A hair south and west of where I was.

That is cool to see near-identical pictures. I am pretty sure that is actually Mercury in the lower left, Venus was a ways off to the right and higher in the sky (see below)

Fascinating!

Very cool, thanks!

huh... I think it was still 3 hrs to Oly for me

prathmann

A very wide range of interest in eclipses. Some travel all over the world to seek them out while others who happen to be in the path of totality don't even bother leaving their house to look up.

I had planned on driving up to Crater Lake and then a little farther north to the totality path. But our daughter, who lives in Michigan, had made plans to visit a few parks in Kentucky and Tennessee. So we changed the trip timing a little based on the eclipse and watched it from 'Land Between the Lakes' nat'l rec. area. in Kentucky.

rachel120

I'll plan it for the next one. He was fussing because round trip I would have been driving 14 hours in one day with my right arm immobilized in a sling. I tried to point out it was an automatic, not a stick shift, but he really didn't get warm fuzzies the night I picked him up and he saw me have to twist all around to get the car in gear with my left hand. Seeing the eclipse would have been nice, but not worth the marital drama, especially since there's another one in 2024.

BBassett

I would have loved to be young and/or in shape enough to be on top of Mt. Jefferson so that I could watch the totality shadow racing towards then away.

BBassett

It is getting more and more difficult for me to advocate for any travel at all. I did the few hundred miles necessary to see this one because it was my 1st. But I can't find it in me to do air travel to see something. Our home here is on fire and closing my eyes and running around the world pretending it isn't is the wrong way to handle it. I will never forget seeing totality unless Dementia or Alzheimer takes it away from me down the road. But travel of any kind does damage to our environment. It comes down to degrees of harm. Car, truck, bus, train, plane, even Musks Hyperloop will have a price to build and operate that the planet will have to pay. The batteries for my ebike are probably pretty hard on Mother Earth to make. When was the last time you walked anywhere just because it was the right thing to do? When was the last time you remember being hungry, really hungry? We have to stop living (and eating) so high on the hog. Future generations are counting on us now. ... and Rachel, you could have always shot him and rented an automatic.

rachel120

At least once a week he says that he knows I'm watching Investigation Discovery in order to learn the best method for killing him and not getting caught. He's a husband. Husbands are never right about anything. Why would I want to let him be right for once?