Total eclipse 2024 plans?

[Deset Gled]

I've got a trip scheduled to upstate NY just to see it. I have high hopes for good weather.

 

[Zaukrie]

We missed the one here in Portland a couple years ago, while we traveled independently from each other for work. This year? Traveling to upstate NY to hang out with friends for a week and see this one.

 

[Kaodi]

I have never looked directly at any solar eclipse before, let alone a total solar eclipse. Got glasses from the library this morning - hopefully I do not go blind, lol. I expect that the park outside this same library will have quite a few people.

Years ago in my astronomy class our prof told us a total solar eclipse was comparable in beauty to an aurora.

 

[Umbran]

Here in Boston, if it isn't cloudy, we are apt to get something like 90% totality, which is good enough for me. Might make a quick pinhole projector for it.

 

[Alzrius]

Some of my friends are planning on making a road trip to a 100% zone. I'm going with them, having bought enough of those special eclipse glasses (purchased almost a year ago now, since I was sure they'd sell out fast once the date neared) for everyone.

 

[R_J_K75]

100% totality here in Buffalo if I'm not mistaken. They are expecting an influx of up to a million tourists into the WNY area, which will no doubt be interesting. I'm just going to stock up on beer, liquor, sit in my driveway and fire up the grill...if the weather's good.

 

[J.Quondam]

I have never looked directly at any solar eclipse before, let alone a total solar eclipse. Got glasses from the library this morning - hopefully I do not go blind, lol. I expect that the park outside this same library will have quite a few people.

Years ago in my astronomy class our prof told us a total solar eclipse was comparable in beauty to an aurora.

Yeah, be careful looking at the sun before and after totality. Even when the sun is mostly covered, it can still can hurt your eyes if you stare at it.
One thing I also like to do is look at the shadows of leaves under trees. You can see thousands of wavering images of the crescent sun cast onto the ground in the minutes before and after the total eclipse. (It's the same principle as the pinhole camera that Umbran mentioned.)

But during totality - when the sun is completely covered - it's perfectly safe to look at. Like your prof said, that's the best part, because you can see the faint wispy corona around the sun that is normally too dim against the normal sunlight. It is ghostly and beautiful.

 

[R_J_K75]

I have never looked directly at any solar eclipse before, let alone a total solar eclipse.

I have a friend who told me this story when we were kids. His father and his buddy in the 1960s decided it be a good idea to ignore warnings and looked directly at an eclipse without any protection, thinking "eh what's the worse that can happen?". He still see's spots to this day.

 

[jdrakeh]

My vampire homies and I will be robbing a bank.

 

[Scribe]

Except its work.