Eclipse plans

My family had a small gathering at my uncles house, right in the path with ~4 minutes of totality.

I was not prepared for how abrupt the switch over from 99% to 100% was, almost like someone hit a switch and replaced the sun with a ring of light.

Really one of the coolest things I've ever seen.

Some friends and I drove out of NYC and stayed overnight at a place near Buffalo, and were disappointed the clouds today were so prominent.

We ended up scouring every weather radar, satellite feed, and projection to figure out if we could get a clear view of the sky anywhere remotely close to us.

Ended up booking it out to Erie, PA — then driving a bit further into Ohio where we saw blue skies, then booking it back toward Erie in an attempt to outpace an oncoming blanket of newly formed clouds.

Got a slight lead on the clouds and pulled off with a couple other cars in a big parking lot behind a pet groomer just a few minutes from totality — it turned out both cars had done the exact same doubling back / escape from the clouds that we had done, and one of them set up an AMAZING telescope within seconds of arriving.

We all ended up having an unbelievable view, got to see the umbra up close with the telescope, and had a great time with a pack of strangers that had all come a long way for the same thing — such a great experience.

I live in southern California, so I just poked a hole in a paper plate and projected it on another, went "cool," and went inside.

EDIT: My region is relevant because I was never going to see a total eclipse, but did see what I could, which was cool enough.

I just had surgery at Cleveland Clinic two weeks ago, and I planned to spend about 3-4 additional days here after discharging, and then gtfo before the eclipse traffic started. But Hacker News convinced me to instead spend 2 full weeks in the city and see the eclipse, so I just saw it & will head home tomorrow or Wednesday depending on traffic.

It was incredible!! Super glad I stayed for it.

I was originally planning on just watching it here at home, even though we are about 30 min drive outside the totality zone. However, thanks to some comments in a topic I made about the eclipse in Feb, I decided to change my plans, and we made a family event of it instead. We all went to my BiL's mom's house inside the totality zone to watch the eclipse with my parents, sister, BiL, and 11yo nephew. And I'm very very glad we did that.

It was super cloudy all morning, and you couldn't see the sun at all, so I was genuinely worried we wouldn't be able to see anything. But thankfully about 20min before the eclipse started, the clouds thinned out just enough for us to see the sun, even with our eclipse glasses on. And the clouds eventually thinned out enough that we even got to see the totality in all its brilliance with our naked eyes! But then about 5 minutes after totality the thicker clouds rolled in and the sun was totally obscured again. So we got super super super lucky.

p.s. Thanks for encouraging me to make the effort to go into the totality zone, @blitz and @LookAtTheName. You were right, it really was totally worth it!

p.p.s. Pic I took at totality: https://i.imgur.com/LSQqYsc.jpeg

I live and work about 45 minutes south of totality so my fiance and I took a half day off work and drove and hour north to the mountains in western Maine - it's as clear a day as we could ask for and we're due to get a couple of minutes of totality in about 40 minutes 😎

I'm one time zone off from totality.

The last time I was in a location in totality, I think we were surprised by how ..... slow it is? It's not a video game quick time event type of thing at all, which is silly I don't know why we expected to be faster than tides coming in or sunset kinda thing. We made a cardboard box viewer and my child got bored after 10 minutes and wanted to go home lol

I hope I get over it eventually but I am currently feeling so much resentment towards my cousin
for picking yesterday for her wedding. I had to travel to South America with no way to get back to the US in time for the eclipse.

I didn't make any plans this time around. While the path of the totality goes through my state (Missouri), it's towards the southeastern part of it. So it'd've been like a 3-4hr drive. In 2017, the path was more central across the state, so I only had to drive about 1.5hrs to get to the path of totality, so I did drive out to be in the path.

Today, we still got a 90% partial eclipse here though. And it's cloudless! The maximum eclipse passed about an hour ago, but I did go outside with my eclipse glasses -- searched all morning, all over the house for them! -- for like 45min before and during it. Saw some neighbors outside enjoying the eclipse as well. I've been watching the official NASA broadcast to see the total eclipse. Fun day!

I had plans to travel to Texas for the event, but due to some veterinary issues I wasn't able to travel. So instead I set up my telescope here at home, about 80% coverage, with beautiful weather and hung around outside, taking photos through the telescope, chatting with family, and playing with my pets. All around a good time. The hour or so around maximum was very pleasant. Still bright but noticeably dimmer, like I had sunglasses on, and much much cooler.

A couple (unprocessed) photos:

https://i.imgur.com/bukiohl.png

https://i.imgur.com/GZj0eq1.png

Over the next week or so, as I have time, I plan to work at the photos a bit and merge them into a montage or short animation. I'm a bit disappointed that I didn't have focus quite right - this was about the best I could get it without a focal reducer or external monitor. I need to buy a focal reducer. I should have bought a focal reducer. Oh well.

I will have a focal reducer by 2045.

I'm not in the path of totality, but we'll get about 80% occlusion at the peak. I've already take the kids out to see the start of the eclipse (we picked up some eclipse glasses at the library earlier this week) and I'll take them back out when it's close to the peak so they can see it.

I'm not in the path of totality, but I went to a local community event to see what little I could. It was really fun seeing people of all ages so excited about it.

Traveling to see totality seems really daunting, due to the crowds, the price, and the possibility of clouds ruining the whole thing. I heard some people in Texas got trolled by clouds today, I hope my neighbor who traveled was still able to see it!

Drove about an hour to a brewery in the path of totality and have been hanging out there!

Very convenient to be living pretty close to it for sure

we have a huge cloud passing by in central Jersey during the time where it's supposed to be the most prominent so I guess I'm not watching it :(

I live in the PNW and got hooked after seeing the last one from Portland.

We decided to fly down to Austin because it had the best chance of a clear sky and in the worst case would come with BBQ. Things looked iffy for a bit, but we did get to see most of the totality from a really nice park. The city was half empty, it was weird after how packed everything had been over the weekend. I guess most folks went deeper into the totality.

I'm slightly disappointed there was too much cloud cover to see the weird shadows, but pretty satisfied at the great view we had when the clouds broke for about a minute.

We ended up at a state park east and south of Cleveland. Some high whisky clouds but a great view.

I had posted earlier about my solar viewer. Here is a video I took as totality approached. The auto light balancing means the video doesn't really communicate how dark it was. I wish I had left it rolling just to record the reactions during the totality, but I had told myself I was going to enjoy the moment and not mess around with tech too much.

I felt like the viewer made a big difference watching because I could keep track of the eclipse with the viewer and occasionally watch with the glasses. I also got to share it with other people at the park, and several people thanked me, so it was a really nice moment of human connection.

If there is a next time, I will put it on a more rigid frame and get a tripod or mounting system that can track the sun. As it was, I had to reposition it every few minutes, but it gave me something to do during the buildup.
I may also fix a camera mount on it so I can record the whole thing.

My town in Ohio hosted a small festival for the event. Ride bikes with the family, hung out at the brewery and listened to the DJ while watching the sun do its thing. Was a ton of fun! We only had a few seconds of totality, but it was incredible! The atmosphere was amazing as well, people were cheering as totality hit, and there was a fire juggler that added a cool contrast to the sudden darkness.

My husband and I woke up super early, and drove 5 hrs north to Vermont by the Canadian border to see the total eclipse. We originally planned Plattsburgh NY, which was closer but weather predicted some clouds. So we decided to make the extra journey up. But I am glad we went, because the view was spectacular. When the moon overtakes the sun, really make this whole experience magical. Totality has this cool white glow. It is crazy how dark and cold the place got during the eclipse. My dog barked during the eclipse since everyone was cheering.

We met a few people who almost went to Texas to see the eclipse, ended up driving from the south to Vermont instead. Which is wild how far people will go to see one. We hit heavy traffic, and luckily we modified our car to sleep in the back. So ended up car camping out on the rest stop for some shut eye I didn't get back from th eclipse until this morning.

Picture.
20240408-152817.jpg

We got clouds where we were in the path of totality and I'm kind of really depressed about it. I was looking forward to this for awhile. It getting dark was cool but I don't know, I have massive FOMO right now. Like a weird pit of despair and sadness in my gut. So dumb, I hate being so sensitive.

We made a goal to go to Cleveland from SE Michigan, but ended up in Fremont due to misjudging traffic. The event itself was pretty great even though some chuckle sent up some fireworks during the totality. The traffic going back was so much worse than coming in, which makes sense if someone made a weekend out of it.

PNW is a bit too far, few coworkers went outside to see if they could see anything, but it's too cloudy. :/

I travelled from Newmarket to Hamilton Ontario on public transit. Normally a 2ish hour trip took over 4 hours and it was horizon-to-horizon clouds the whole way. I was sincerely bummed at the weather but we were determined to stick it out anyways. We made it to Bayfront Park in Hamilton around 2pm and as soon as we arrived we noticed blue sky in the distance, the first clear sky we had seen all day. By the time the eclipse was at 50% the clear patch was upon us and we had a perfect view! The crowd went wild when the clouds parted for us.

Totality was truly something else. The entire horizon looked like a sunset in every direction, the temperature dropped dramatically and you could suddenly see your breath, streetlights came on and birds started singing as if it was early morning. I am seriously considering taking a trip to Iceland or Spain for the 2026 eclipse.