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Solar eclipse 2017

Started by hbelkins, October 02, 2016, 08:09:44 PM

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hbelkins

#25
I have a PDF of the PowerPoint presentation that was given to the KYTC PIOs and Public Affairs staff up at http://www.millenniumhwy.net/TotalSolarEclipseFinal.pdf

One of the most interesting facts is that there are no port-a-potties available within 100 miles of Hoptown for the day of the eclipse.

Other state DOTs are starting to become concerned about highway impacts as well. States as far away as Mississippi are wanting to help spread the word about traffic impacts that the eclipse will cause.

As for my own attendance, if I do drive down there, my thoughts are that I would spend Sunday night in E-town or Bowling Green and then drive over. From the Elkton area (if traveling from Bowling Green on US 68) I would probably try to use back roads to get to the Cerulean area; if in E-town I would probably bail off the WK near Beaver Dam or Central City and use US 62 to find some back road to Cerulean.


Government would be tolerable if not for politicians and bureaucrats.


hotdogPi

Quote from: hbelkins on January 28, 2017, 04:09:55 PM
I have a PDF of the PowerPoint presentation that was given to the KYTC PIOs and Public Affairs staff up at http://www.millenniumhwy.net/TotalSolarEclipseFinal.pdf

200 million within 6 hours? The entirety of AL, AR, GA, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, MS, MO, NC, OH, OK, SC, TN, VA, and WV is only about 110 million, and some of those states barely touch the circle shown. That picture is really misleading. (200 million within 6 hours of the eclipse path is possible, but not 200 million within the circle shown.)
Clinched, minus I-93 (I'm missing a few miles and my file is incorrect)

Traveled, plus US 13, 44, and 50, and several state routes

I will be in Burlington VT for the eclipse.

vdeane

200 million is roughly 2/3 of the ENTIRE US population.  I think their numbers are a bit off, though it is likely there are people from outside that circle headed there.
Please note: All comments here represent my own personal opinion and do not reflect the official position of NYSDOT or its affiliates.

SSOWorld

Your presentation seriously erred.  It says that the area has least chance of cloud cover along the entire path while the graph contradicts that.  see also http://www.solar-eclipse.de/en/eclipse/detail/2017-08-21/ (in German)
Scott O.

Not all who wander are lost...
Ah, the open skies, wind at my back, warm sun on my... wait, where the hell am I?!
As a matter of fact, I do own the road.
Raise your what?

Wisconsin - out-multiplexing your state since 1918.

Desert Man

#29
I plan to view the total solar eclipse with the path of totality crosses the Salem area, Ore. and hope to find a hotel room to stay on the weekend of Aug 19-21, and prays for no cloud cover to ruin nature's show.

edit: cancelled (sorry!) :ded:
Get your kicks...on Route 99! Like to turn 66 upside down. The other historic Main street of America.

GaryV

I like how the presentation shows a picture of the field where the longest totality will happen, and it's a cloudy day.  :awesomeface:

compdude787

We will be planning to go down to Pacific City, OR to see the solar eclipse. Hopefully, it won't be cloudy or, worse, raining that day.

fungus

Already have rooms and tickets to Portland, Boise, and Kansas City (will cancel about a week or so in advance to allow others to take the rooms and to determine which site has the best chance of viewing the eclipse - my choice has been Portland due to my familiarity with the area, I could use the back roads from Gladstone to Salem). Plan on waking up early that day, though.

kkt

Oregon Star Party, in the national forest east of Prineville.

Beltway

#34
Quote from: fungus on May 30, 2017, 12:05:53 AM
Already have rooms and tickets to Portland, Boise, and Kansas City (will cancel about a week or so in advance to allow others to take the rooms and to determine which site has the best chance of viewing the eclipse - my choice has been Portland due to my familiarity with the area, I could use the back roads from Gladstone to Salem). Plan on waking up early that day, though.

I have rooms reserved near Knoxville, TN and Columbia, SC, and will decide on which when the weather forecast solidifies.

Both are about the same distance, and I favor Knoxville because some fellow members of the Richmond Astronomical Society will be there, actually about 30 miles south of Knoxville.

There are a whole range of road-related things I want to see on the trip, including the Knoxville area and I-81 from there to Roanoke, and maybe the US-58 construction east of Hillsville.
http://www.roadstothefuture.com
http://www.capital-beltway.com

Baloney is a reserved word on the Internet
    (Robert Coté, 2002)

hbelkins

Still undecided as to my plans. I may actually get drafted to work as part of the Kentucky Emergency Management communications team, and if so, I hope that's on the ground instead of at the EOC in Frankfort.

Guess I really should check lodging options in Bowling Green.


Government would be tolerable if not for politicians and bureaucrats.

Beltway

Quote from: hbelkins on May 31, 2017, 10:20:27 PM
Still undecided as to my plans. I may actually get drafted to work as part of the Kentucky Emergency Management communications team, and if so, I hope that's on the ground instead of at the EOC in Frankfort.

Guess I really should check lodging options in Bowling Green.

Definitely want to be in the path of totality if possible.  It is 100 times the experience of a partial eclipse.
http://www.roadstothefuture.com
http://www.capital-beltway.com

Baloney is a reserved word on the Internet
    (Robert Coté, 2002)

Alps

Quote from: hbelkins on May 31, 2017, 10:20:27 PM
Still undecided as to my plans. I may actually get drafted to work as part of the Kentucky Emergency Management communications team, and if so, I hope that's on the ground instead of at the EOC in Frankfort.

Guess I really should check lodging options in Bowling Green.
What, do people get scared that the sun is dying? Is there some Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court business going on? If so where can I get in as Lord Ruler of the Commonwealth?

ilpt4u

Living in Southern IL near Carbondale, I don't have to go very far to check this puppy out. Already right up my alley!

kkt

I don't know about Kentucky, but eastern Oregon will have more people than it knows what to do with.  Tens of thousands of people along the line of totality, while the desert usually has in the low two digits.  Worry about fire danger, drinking water, the two lane roads being completely jammed both in and out.  But it will all be worth while.

Beltway

Quote from: kkt on June 01, 2017, 12:55:53 AM
I don't know about Kentucky, but eastern Oregon will have more people than it knows what to do with.  Tens of thousands of people along the line of totality, while the desert usually has in the low two digits.  Worry about fire danger, drinking water, the two lane roads being completely jammed both in and out.  But it will all be worth while.

I'm not so sure about the crowding estimates.  I drove from Alexandria to Virginia Beach to see the 1970 total eclipse, and traffic wasn't bad.  Traffic was slow on the 2-lane HRBT and in Ocean View where I-64 was incomplete, but probably no worse than normal.  I watched it from Virginia Beach near the boardwalk.

The track was from the panhandle of Florida to Virginia Beach, southwest to northeast, and did not hit land again until Nova Scotia.  So SE Virginia was the closest place for VA, MD, DC and PA, and still no real crowding problems.

Major astronomical events don't generate as much public interest as you would think.
http://www.roadstothefuture.com
http://www.capital-beltway.com

Baloney is a reserved word on the Internet
    (Robert Coté, 2002)

US 81

I am an astronomy hobbyist. I and two of my friends had been just planning to drive up I-35 and find some rural spot between Omaha and Kansas City. . . .

codyg1985

Quote from: Beltway on June 01, 2017, 05:55:59 AM
Quote from: kkt on June 01, 2017, 12:55:53 AM
I don't know about Kentucky, but eastern Oregon will have more people than it knows what to do with.  Tens of thousands of people along the line of totality, while the desert usually has in the low two digits.  Worry about fire danger, drinking water, the two lane roads being completely jammed both in and out.  But it will all be worth while.

I'm not so sure about the crowding estimates.  I drove from Alexandria to Virginia Beach to see the 1970 total eclipse, and traffic wasn't bad.  Traffic was slow on the 2-lane HRBT and in Ocean View where I-64 was incomplete, but probably no worse than normal.  I watched it from Virginia Beach near the boardwalk.

The track was from the panhandle of Florida to Virginia Beach, southwest to northeast, and did not hit land again until Nova Scotia.  So SE Virginia was the closest place for VA, MD, DC and PA, and still no real crowding problems.

Major astronomical events don't generate as much public interest as you would think.

That was in 1970. With the rise of social media and interest in NASA missions on Mars and around Jupiter, I could see there being a lot more interest in it.
Cody Goodman
Huntsville, AL, United States

NWI_Irish96

Quote from: hbelkins on October 02, 2016, 08:09:44 PM
Western Kentucky is prime viewing ground for the solar eclipse that will occur in August of next year.

http://xjubier.free.fr/en/site_pages/solar_eclipses/TSE_2017_GoogleMapFull.html

I've seen a few people talking about traveling to view this.

Hopkinsville is about a five-hour drive from me. Depending on the time of day, I could make this a day trip.

Perhaps an early lunch somewhere, and then going to some remote spot near Cerulean (I can get tips on possible viewing areas) to view it? Or gather at the view spot and then head somewhere for late lunch/early dinner?

If I am understanding the path correctly, the rest areas on I-65 at the KY/TN border are going to be in the path and that's the closest to me (by time if not distance) and am considering going there. 
Indiana: counties 100%, highways 100%
Illinois: counties 100%, highways 61%
Michigan: counties 100%, highways 56%
Wisconsin: counties 86%, highways 23%

Jim

We already have plans to visit and stay with friends in the Omaha area and then drive into the path of totality, maybe somewhere like Beatrice, on Eclipse day.  If there's any chance of weather being an issue, we'll drive where we need to drive to get to a spot with the best chance of clear skies.  Given that every hotel I checked (thinking it would be nice to have even though it's not strictly necessary) that's close to the path in Nebraska is sold out, I'd say there's some solid interest out there.  From what I have been reading, this is not your run-of-the-mill astronomical event, but the best solar eclipse in the U.S. in 100 years.  But really, I have no idea how much the average person who normally has no day-to-day interest in this kind of thing and lives more than an hour or two from the path will be aware of the event, or if they're likely to travel some distance to get into the path on Eclipse day to see it.
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MNHighwayMan

Quote from: Beltway on June 01, 2017, 05:55:59 AM
Major astronomical events don't generate as much public interest as you would think.

Quote from: Jim on June 01, 2017, 08:34:41 AM
Given that every hotel I checked (thinking it would be nice to have even though it's not strictly necessary) that's close to the path in Nebraska is sold out, I'd say there's some solid interest out there.  From what I have been reading, this is not your run-of-the-mill astronomical event, but the best solar eclipse in the U.S. in 100 years.  But really, I have no idea how much the average person who normally has no day-to-day interest in this kind of thing and lives more than an hour or two from the path will be aware of the event, or if they're likely to travel some distance to get into the path on Eclipse day to see it.

Yeah, I mean, most astronomical events aren't very impressive without either good seeing conditions (meteor showers) or equipment (binoculars or telescopes), so of course they're not going to draw much attention. But when the sun gets blocked out by the moon for a few minutes during the middle of the day? Of course tons of people are going to want to see that. I remember reading somewhere that most hotels within or near the path of longest duration of totality were completely booked over a year in advance. This isn't going to be a small public event.

jpi

As for me, I live nearly in the bulls eye of the path, I plan on taking the day off of work, I may still venture up toward Hopkinsville\ I-24 corridor from Nashville to check it out.
Jason Ilyes
JPI
Lebanon, TN
Home Of The Barrel

Beltway

Quote from: codyg1985 on June 01, 2017, 07:05:43 AM
Quote from: Beltway on June 01, 2017, 05:55:59 AM
I'm not so sure about the crowding estimates.  I drove from Alexandria to Virginia Beach to see the 1970 total eclipse, and traffic wasn't bad.  Traffic was slow on the 2-lane HRBT and in Ocean View where I-64 was incomplete, but probably no worse than normal.  I watched it from Virginia Beach near the boardwalk.

The track was from the panhandle of Florida to Virginia Beach, southwest to northeast, and did not hit land again until Nova Scotia.  So SE Virginia was the closest place for VA, MD, DC and PA, and still no real crowding problems.

Major astronomical events don't generate as much public interest as you would think.
That was in 1970. With the rise of social media and interest in NASA missions on Mars and around Jupiter, I could see there being a lot more interest in it.

There was lots of interest in astronomy in 1970, probably more than today given all the technological doo dads that people have today.  Much less light pollution as well, much better skies at night.  By then there had been three lunar landings and a variety of unmanned probes to Mars and Venus, the Space Age had been underway since 1957.  Newspapers and magazines gave plenty of press to such things.

TOTAL SOLAR ECLIPSE OF 1970 MAR 07
https://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/SEgoogle/SEgoogle1951/SE1970Mar07Tgoogle.html

Far be it for me to downplay the need to be well-positioned for the 2017 eclipse and to not take anything for granted in your travels.
http://www.roadstothefuture.com
http://www.capital-beltway.com

Baloney is a reserved word on the Internet
    (Robert Coté, 2002)

Beltway

Quote from: MNHighwayMan on June 01, 2017, 09:19:39 AM
Quote from: Beltway on June 01, 2017, 05:55:59 AM
Major astronomical events don't generate as much public interest as you would think.
Quote from: Jim on June 01, 2017, 08:34:41 AM
Given that every hotel I checked (thinking it would be nice to have even though it's not strictly necessary) that's close to the path in Nebraska is sold out, I'd say there's some solid interest out there.  From what I have been reading, this is not your run-of-the-mill astronomical event, but the best solar eclipse in the U.S. in 100 years.  But really, I have no idea how much the average person who normally has no day-to-day interest in this kind of thing and lives more than an hour or two from the path will be aware of the event, or if they're likely to travel some distance to get into the path on Eclipse day to see it.
Yeah, I mean, most astronomical events aren't very impressive without either good seeing conditions (meteor showers) or equipment (binoculars or telescopes), so of course they're not going to draw much attention. But when the sun gets blocked out by the moon for a few minutes during the middle of the day? Of course tons of people are going to want to see that. I remember reading somewhere that most hotels within or near the path of longest duration of totality were completely booked over a year in advance. This isn't going to be a small public event.

A total eclipse of the Sun is obviously a very big deal.  But it can get clouded out like anything else.  That is why I missed the 1984 annular solar eclipse in central Virginia, the sky was 100% overcast.   ::blow lunch::

That is why I have a room reserved near Knoxville, TN and Columbia, SC, to provide flexibility for weather.

I was surprised at the number of people on the beach in Virginia Beach on March 7, 1970 that weren't really paying much attention to the eclipse which was total for about 2min 20sec, some were playing football, some doing other things.  We got about 30 seconds of shadow bands, which only happens occasionally in a total eclipse.
http://www.roadstothefuture.com
http://www.capital-beltway.com

Baloney is a reserved word on the Internet
    (Robert Coté, 2002)

kkt

Quote from: codyg1985 on June 01, 2017, 07:05:43 AM
Quote from: Beltway on June 01, 2017, 05:55:59 AM
Quote from: kkt on June 01, 2017, 12:55:53 AM
I don't know about Kentucky, but eastern Oregon will have more people than it knows what to do with.  Tens of thousands of people along the line of totality, while the desert usually has in the low two digits.  Worry about fire danger, drinking water, the two lane roads being completely jammed both in and out.  But it will all be worth while.

I'm not so sure about the crowding estimates.  I drove from Alexandria to Virginia Beach to see the 1970 total eclipse, and traffic wasn't bad.  Traffic was slow on the 2-lane HRBT and in Ocean View where I-64 was incomplete, but probably no worse than normal.  I watched it from Virginia Beach near the boardwalk.

The track was from the panhandle of Florida to Virginia Beach, southwest to northeast, and did not hit land again until Nova Scotia.  So SE Virginia was the closest place for VA, MD, DC and PA, and still no real crowding problems.

Major astronomical events don't generate as much public interest as you would think.

That was in 1970. With the rise of social media and interest in NASA missions on Mars and around Jupiter, I could see there being a lot more interest in it.

1970 was at the height of the Apollo program, publicity and interest in space was probably higher than now.

The east coast and midwest states will probably be fine because they have infrastructure built out to support more population year-round.  It's the intermountain west I'm worried about.  They're a good choice from the weather point of view, low chance of clouds.  But a dirt road fine for a couple of ranches all of a sudden getting 30,000 people in a day.

Oregon Star Party in national forest east of Prineville has 900.  Another event nearby on private ranch land is getting 30,000.  That's just two big events.  Many individuals have booked their own spots on private land or in towns or are hoping to find something just coming with no reservations.



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