The Great American Eclipse**Where will YOU be?

A bus field trip, with alternative sites planned if there is cloud cover in the first spot. Wish I could go with. A very rare event, not to be repeated in my lifetime over the US.

the "go with" sentence. Not "Wish I could go with you." or "Wish I could go with them."

but simply "Wish I could go with." I still get called on it here on the west coast.

Hi ex-Illinois here!

Although Easter Missouri does not seem like "Mid-west" to me!

I thought the "go with" was a thing for everyone!

But yes. still wish I could go with. Even though I know better than to end a sentence with a preposition with. Ha.

(Winston Churchill on forbidding ending a sentence with a preposition.)

To the hills RUN!

My best.

By the way, Churchill had no problem with ending a sentence in a preposition, as his quote indicates.

This year's will only be about 60%
We had about 60% with the 1991 eclipse and it was pretty much a dud. The 1984 eclipse was 90% and it got dark and was pretty cool.

Thanks for posting.

I'll be watching with some science fiction friends of mine.

I've been looking forward to this for at least five years.

There's going to be another total eclipse in 2024. I have an acquaintance in Austin, TX, who still doesn't take me seriously when I tell her I'll be visiting her that week.

And then there's the one in 2045, which I hope to be around to see. Totality for that one can be as long as six minutes. Wow!

I don't know the odds of me being around for 2045!!! 6 minutes! wow! I think it is about 2 minutes of totality here.

We plan on playing "The Dark Side of the Moon" in it's entirety. I need to calculate it so we are hearing the end line during the dark time!

I keep telling people I have plans for that birthday. My sons know that if I'm still around, and I'm not so gaga I don't know my own name, they must make sure I see it.

probably posthumously.

My mom is still kicking at almost 82 so I might make it!!!

I frequently tell young people about that eclipse, and if they are under 35 I point out that they will be younger then than I am now. It's interesting to watch them take that in.

On July 4, 1976 I was on the Mall in Washington DC, our nation's Bicentennial. I recently did the math and realized that my two sons will be 89 and 93 on that date in 2076. I've told them that they must be sure to be on the Mall that date, and tell everyone they see that their parents were there one hundred years before. (My now ex was also there, but we didn't meet for a couple more years.)

I recently decided that I want to be there on July 4, 2026, for our 250th, and I already know what hotel I want to stay in. I'll call them up about two years ahead of time to book a room.

Long range planning, baby.

I grew up in a little house on Avenue I, near Emerson Elementary.

My only excuse is that I'll be travelling there from NM to meet up with the friends.

I would point out some tolerable eats & things but who the hey knows what's there now. I can recommend a visit to the MONA art museum downtown at the site of the old post office. The building is one of the few lovely historical places not destroyed in a misguided attempt to project the image of a modern town.

Kearney is a tiny, dusty, windy little place that smells like the wrong end of a cow a great deal of the time. If you note the stink, someone will tell you, "smells like money! ha ha ha."

Most of the people are nice enough, but I could not tolerate the conformity, the lack of imagination, the pervasive, sterile, corporate franchise cookie-cutter-culture.

The charm is not entirely disingenuous, but it is decidedly thin and superficial. We could never go back.

we went to Omaha to visit her fiance. We are friends because our children were in pre-school together. Other than that, we have almost nothing in common. She's a fundamentalist Christian, very strong in her faith. The first few years of our friendship we absolutely avoided discussing such things, because the connection between us, because of our children, mattered more than our religious beliefs. It's hard to describe what her friendship has meant to me. On one hand we've bonded because of our children, as all of you who are parents will understand. On another hand, I'm horrified at her beliefs, as she may well be about mine. We mostly handle this difference by NEVER discussing such issues. Which is all very well.

On one hand I consider her a close and good friend. On another, I cannot fathom her beliefs. But I do want to emphasize the good of our friendship. When my older son was in sixth grade and it had become clear that continuing in the very good (and I want to emphasize the very good part here) public school system because he was being bullied, I turned to her for advice. Here's the relevant facts: My son was (and still is) extremely bright. Even in this good public school system his intelligence wasn't respected. On top of this, he looked different because he had alopecia areata, an auto immune disorder that causes hair loss. He had the most extreme version of this, called alopecia areata universalis. That last word is helpful. Think of the entire universe of hair. He had none. No head hair, no body hair, no eyebrows, no eyelashes. It made him look quite different from his classmates.

Anyway, when another mom told me I should not send my son to the public school's middle school, grades 7 and 8, and gave me chapter and verse what was happening to her son (a year older than mine) who was much better equiped to deal with such things, I called my above friend, whom I'll call Anne. She had five children, who at the time were attending four different private schools. She thought for a minute, and then named one of them. We paid a visit, and I never looked back. I enrolled that son at the beginning of the next school year, and then transferred his younger brother at the start of the spring term. It was the very best thing we could have ever done, and I am eternally grateful to Anne for her advice.

Well, that has digressed a bit. I am very much looking forward to my trip to Kearney and seeing the eclipse. And even if it is totally overcast that day (please, whatever or whoever is responsible, give me clear skies) it will still be totally amazing.

Oh, oh. The "Smells like money" comment I have heard in other places, and I find that totally offensive. Bad smells are bad smells.

Fare thee well.

If you eat meat, try a Runza. It's just a thing, like Cincinnati chili, and probably just as unimpressive. Also; It's a little hokey, but go to the Archway Museum over the interstate that was dedicated by President Bill Clinton. It's pretty well done actually.

I'm going to see the eclipse in Teton National Park. I look forward to comparing notes with everyone one DU!

One of the friends I'm meeting with is a recently retired physics professor, and I didn't ask him, but I'd bet he knew that when they decided on Kearney.

but northern texas is

Austin is at the very southern edge of totality for that one.

I will be sure to locate myself much closer to the center of that path to view it.

Everywhere else is partiality. So a small bite out of the cookie rather than the full corona display.

shown on the NASA map. The entire area between the two blue lines is where totality is. It will last the longest if you are in the exact center of the path, the red line. Here's a link to that map: https://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/SEgoogle/SEgoogle2001/SE2024Apr08Tgoogle.html If you click on the center of Austin, you'll see that totality will last a bit over a minute. I will probably plan to drive a bit closer to the center, to get two or more minutes of the total eclipse.

If totality were only along that narrow center line, hardly anyone would ever see a total eclipse, because if you were just ten feet in either direction you'd see only a partial one. In fact, the width of the path of totality is about 100 miles.

If you click on any spot in the U.S. on that NASA map, it will tell you the exact start and end times of the eclipse, including the start and end times of totality, or maximum coverage of the sun.

This year, the eclipse will be visible in the entire continental United States. https://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/SEgoogle/SEgoogle2001/SE2017Aug21Tgoogle.html
Kearney, where I will be, is in the path of totality, with just under 2 minutes for the total eclipse. We will probably drive a bit to get a longer eclipse.

What you said was true for the map you posted. But someone in Austin will only get a partial eclipse.

On edit: I see they're talking about 2024 in Austin, not 2017.

Austin, TX in 2024, and maybe Colorado Springs in 2045. Here's a link to the NASA map for that one: https://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/SEgoogle/SEgoogle2001/SE2045Aug12Tgoogle.html That's another one that will be visible across the entire US, although obviously in most places it will be partial.

As I said, I believe in long term planning.

My chief concern is weather. So I'll try to be someplace where it won't be hard to shift a few hundred miles east or west depending on cloud cover.

I'll either be in the midwest or Oregon. Either way I'll be a day trip away from a "home base" so I won't need to worry about getting gouged for lodging

But who knows with the way our weather patterns are now. We have had so many 60 and 70 degree days in FEBRUARY!

I imagine hotels are getting booked up already! And I hope they don't take advantage of the situation.

It will be interesting to see how many folks come into the area.

I got lucky about Kearney, as some friends told me they'd made plans to go there, and I was able to get a room there in January.

If you have any idea at all where you might go, check immediately to see if hotels still have rooms. And in many places the room rates have skyrocketed. Hotel operators are not fools.

I had originally thought I'd go to Oregon, as I have a son in Portland, and by last fall the hotels in prime viewing areas were almost completely booked up, and what rooms still available were like $600. I'd almost decided I'd have to miss it, when the friends mentioned Kearney.

My husband wanted to go to Jackson Hole, Wyoming, but by the time we were ready to make reservations, there were no spaces left.

A seminar I like to go to every year will be in Asheville through the day before the eclipse so we'll just stay over an extra day and drive down for the day. My great aunt used to go to the John C. Campbell Folk School and I haven't been back since she died. She and her friend were going to build a house on the grounds until her friend died. After the death my aunt sponsored the building of a garden that was dedicated to her friend.

I've emailed the school and have permission to view the eclipse from their grounds. We can visit the garden and check out what the school is doing these days. It will be interesting to see it after not visiting for fifty years!

I was just mentioning how I figured the hotels must be booking up.

I told my daughter that I want her to keep my grandsons home from school. It will be the third day of the new school year. (We start early around here!). I think it would be more meaningful for our family to experience it all together.

Be sure to get some eclipse glasses to protect everybody's eyes. I got three pair from http://www.eclipse2017.org/glasses_order.htm

They were cheap and arrived quickly in a mailing tube that will be handy to pack so they don't get messed up.

Going with 4 friends. Traveling down from Wisconsin.

Already booked room can't wait. A trip to Loveless Cafe.

My daughter and her boyfriend have already rented a house for all of us to stay in. It's a short drive from the path of totality.

We are very excited! This will be our second eclipse.....the first one was 1991 in Hawaii.

I'm hoping for some decent photos.

I need to read up on taking photos! I've seen some amazing ones!
I have read where it says to set up a recording device (I have an old Flip video camera I may use) so that you can listen to how everyone reacted later, since it seems like it is going to be pretty intense!

I seem to recall a very partial eclipse here (SW of St. Louis) around 1995 or so. I remember the lighting being a little off and the shadows seemed to disappear!

Kansas City, MO. Bring it!

i may go to northern kentucky,depending on the weather. ill have a telescope with a solar filter plus assorted camera also with solar filters.....

We'll all be long gone by the time LA gets a total eclipse again.

Where we live is apparently on of the best spots in the US! I plan on taking that day off to enjoy it with him!

That will be a very memorable birthday!

I'm a pilot, and I'm debating whether I should fly during the eclipse to experience it going from light to dark and back again while in the air.

But, if I do, I'll miss out on being able to watch the sun as it happens.

Either way, it's going to be cool!

this reminds me of that line in "You're So Vain" about flying to Nova Scotia to see the total eclipse of the sun. (I may have paraphrased that so I don't get an ear worm!)

Folks are already ordering special eclipse glasses, which are inexpensive and enable safe viewing.

I need to get quite a few pairs for our group!

St. Joseph is right on the center line of the eclipse's path, so it will have one of the the longest totality durations of all: 2 minutes and 38 seconds!

I hope I can get some friends together to go with me to watch.

My daughter is getting married in Ithaca, NY, just 5 days later, so if she had moved her date a little, I would have had to miss either the eclipse or her wedding.

Would surely be a fun visit! Not sure if I'll go but it would really be special.

It was, alright. The atmosphere dims like a cloud passing in front of the sun. There were barrels of solar glasses for sale in all the convenience stores. By the time of the actual event, you couldn't find any.

right in the path. I gotta get some eclipse glasses.

Can you prove this is going to happen? Huh? I can't find it in the Bible.


It's JUST A THEORY





....

I do like to imagine what it must have been like for the humans of many, many years ago who had no idea it was going to happen and then it did!

"...what did I do, lord??!?!??!!"

or used this stupid pin hole box. Nowadays you can buy Eclipse glasses. Won't have to drive far to get the full effect.

in Dolores Claiborne (Stephen King). I was thinking of maybe making one, or at least looking them up on the net to show my grandsons. It seems to show another way of how it protects the eyes when viewing the eclipse. It is very important for them to understand why there are all these precautions!

better. But I have to admit, I did peek and look directly at the sun for a few seconds. Maybe that is why I had to have cataract surgery last year.

It's also my birthday, which has got to mean something!

Awesome

WoooooHooo!

I can visit family in Portland,, Oregon or drive down to Wyoming. It all depends on which location has the best weather.

We decided - because of your post, so thank you! - that this would be the perfect time for me to take my first trip to visit her!

i told my family in Madison that they are coming down then! Normally, I do not tell them when to visit, but this is a great exception! Also, I told them they ALL have to come down. Usually at our family get togethers someone or two is missing!

Motel rooms are crazy expensive that weekend even for ones near the airport.

Should be fun though.

Both are within easy range, and that will be a good trip before school starts.

Maybe I should start organizing a Front Range viewing trip.