Eclipse!

[lhb412]

Anyone else excited for the solar eclipse tomorrow, Aug 21!?! Cosmic event! A thing is gonna block another thing!

I'm glad I bought several eclipse glasses (for each member of my family) a few weeks ago. They're sold out everywhere now, and when a business gets a shipment in for sale or a giveaway (a local mall gave thousands away last week) it's big on local news.

The classic rock station is gonna start playing Dark Side of the Moon in the hope that it all synchs up!

If you've ever wanted to try your hand at sorcery nows probably a good time to do it!

[Dr Kain]

I might if I can get some glasses. I didn't even know this eclipse was happening until about 2 weeks ago. We have people coming for the next three days to give us new floors, new appliances, light fixtures, etc, so we hvae been focused on that.

[Benjamin Haines]

It's going to be really cool. I live in the for this solar eclipse. A lot of people from out of town are flocking to this area and the traffic has quickly gotten crowded.

Beware of counterfeit glasses! Don't look directly at the sun without authentic eclipse glasses except for the moment when the sun is totally covered, which only occurs in the path of totality. Don't look at the sun without the glasses at any point if you're outside the path of totality. There are no pain receptors in human retinas and you won't feel them burning if your eyes aren't properly protected.

[lhb412]

[Dr Kain]

[jellydonut25]

I have welder's glasses so I might check it out but I'm not in the path of totality, so...meh.

[Benjamin Haines]

[Benjamin Haines]

[Dr Kain]

So yeah, not happening. The local library has a line of people going around the building and halfway down the block. Some of them said they camped out over night. The fact that people camped out for glasses is so stupid.

[klen7]

The library closest too me has been out of glasses for weeks. Theres another one not too far that was only giving them out today, and they had people camping out too.
We have one pair of glasses for our whole family, so i guess we'll be taking turns looking up. although their calling for afternoon storms... so maybe we'll be looking at clouds

[canofhumdingers]

Build a shoebox eclipse viewer if you don't have safe glasses. I just built a giant one out of a massive amazon box for my kids. In stead of a viewing window, I left the bottom completely open and they can both stand under it and watch the eclipse while I hold it. It took all of 10 or 15 minutes to do. All you need is a box, some scissors or a knife, a piece of paper, some tape, a small piece of foil, and a thumb tack or needle of some sort to prick a tiny hole in the foil.

Instructions:
https://youtu.be/PMPBWLSYKaw

Mine:




We also have glasses, but at 1 and 3 years old, don't really trust our kids to use them safely...

[lhb412]

The moon is eating into the sun!!!

AHHHH!!!

[canofhumdingers]

We keep going out in the back yard every few minutes checking the progress. The viewer works well and is great for the kids. But looking directly at it through a safe pair of glasses is SOO MUCH more impressive!

We're only gonna get about 65% blockage here, but I'm already working on the wife about planing a special trip for totality in 2024! The impressive images from live news coverage are helping too. Watching day turn to night almost instantaneously is very very cool.

[lhb412]

All the local channels (as well as the cable news networks) have switched over to eclipse coverage starting noon-ish. It's a lot of fun!

[Dr Kain]

We ended up with a pair of glasses and the eclipse was... rather underwhelming. The sky barely got dark at all and it was more like a crescent moon than what was advertised. No God Hand showing up. No battle between Kamen Rider Black and Shadow Moon. Nothing. I could have gotten the same effect by just looking at the moon tonight.

[lhb412]

^Even here at 97% totality it never got darker than what you'd see on a late afternoon - but I think I liked the 'crescent sun' (which lasted for a long time) even more. I especially liked holding my eclipse glasses a few inches from my face so I could see the sun as well as the surrounding daylight environment. Pretty surreal!

Everyone's now gone back to work, and I'm really glad I got to spend the time with my family.

[canofhumdingers]

At 67%, it didn't get dark at all here, but I didn't expect it to either. However, the sunlight did feel DRAMATICALLY less intense. And because of that, it felt significantly less hot (it didn't feel cool, but it didn't feel like you were actively frying in direct sunlight the way it normally would here in Houston).

But it was really awesome watching the moon pass in front of the sun. Sorry you didn't enjoy it Kain. It's a pretty awesome event, but it sounds like you weren't particularly well informed about what to actually expect.

We had a blast watching it with the kids and explaining to them (well, to the 3 yr old anyway) what was happening. My older boy is actually really into NASA and rockets and astronauts so this was a really neat event to be able to share with him.

[jellydonut25]

There was a huge cloud overhead for most of the time, so I didn't really bother.

[O.Supreme]

I was supposed to be working and wasn't planning on doing anything eclipse related, but my kids had a field trip planned to a local park to do a bunch of science experiments etc.... so I ended up going. In Sacramento we got about 80% coverage at 10:17 am. It was slightly darker than normal, but nothing too significant. I wish I had been at my aunts house in Idaho Falls as they would have had 100% totality. But what I could have taken 5 minuets to see and go back to whatever I was going ended up being a 2+ hour ordeal. I mean I'm glad my kids had fun...But man that seemed like an agonizingly long time... heh...

[Benjamin Haines]

The eclipse was an amazing experience. It was crazy being able to look up directly at the sun through the glasses as the moon slowly blocked out more and more of it. It had been a blazing hot day but it felt noticeably cooler as the amount of UV radiation decreased palpably. The sunlight shone through treetops and created dozens of crescent-shaped light spots among the trees' shadows. The sky gradually got darker and the crickets started chirping.

The moment of totality was something else. It was a few minutes after 2:30 in the afternoon but the surrounding landscape looked as if the sun had just set in the evening. It felt surreal to be staring directly at the sun without any eye protection. The moon was this dark blue silhouette with the sun's blue-purple corona shimmering around it and the surrounding sky bathed in an indigo aura. I'm glad I got to share this eclipse with my girlfriend. Totality lasted about a minute and a half before it was clear the sun was about to peek back out, then it was glasses back on as the whole eclipse process unwound in reverse.

[lhb412]

^ Your and the many other descriptions I've read and heard in the last two days have convinced me that if I ever have a chance to go to the path of totality for a future eclipse I defined should.

[KaijuZoo]

Captured these two pics in Locust Grove VA on our side deck at the height of the partial eclipse. The sunlight filtering through the tree leaves left many of the solar crescents visible.

[Benjamin Haines]

[lhb412]

^Hmmmm... should be about five or six hours for me to get to that. Not too bad!