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Solar eclipse 2017

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

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JJBers

Here's what it looked like fore me. (I have no filters, so I cranked the EV down to -2 and flash on)

I got about 60-65%
*for Connecticut
Clinched Stats,
Flickr,
(2di:I-24, I-76, I-80, I-84, I-95 [ME-GA], I-91)


Jim

In Grand Island, Nebraska, the weather cooperated and we got an absolutely spectacular show.  No luck really getting my own pictures of the eclipse itself, but I can now confirm that a total eclipse is thousands of times more impressive than any partial.  Get in the shadow in 2024.
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SSOWorld

Quote from: Jim on August 21, 2017, 08:12:21 PM
In Grand Island, Nebraska, the weather cooperated and we got an absolutely spectacular show.  No luck really getting my own pictures of the eclipse itself, but I can now confirm that a total eclipse is thousands of times more impressive than any partial.  Get in the shadow in 2024.
Excellent show indeed.  You probably found a spot remotely away from the established sites I assume.  I as at the Mainstay suites in same said city and I just camped right there.  An astronomy group set up 4 filtered telescopes (2 visible and 1 red color - to see the prominence storms off the solar surface) -  I caught sunspots (or was that the International Space Station?) and a couple others had huge ones with filters of their own.  Cirrus clouds plagued the partial phase going in and caused sun dogs and a halo as the sunlight failed to burn them off once the moon covered enough of the sun.  However, they drifted off in time for a good show when the moon covered the sun completely and the corona flared up.  There were a couple city lights that went on but they did not defeat the twilight the small shadow had produced.  That will be different in 2024.
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.

Jim

Quote from: SSOWorld on August 21, 2017, 08:28:53 PM
Quote from: Jim on August 21, 2017, 08:12:21 PM
In Grand Island, Nebraska, the weather cooperated and we got an absolutely spectacular show.  No luck really getting my own pictures of the eclipse itself, but I can now confirm that a total eclipse is thousands of times more impressive than any partial.  Get in the shadow in 2024.
Excellent show indeed.  You probably found a spot remotely away from the established sites I assume.  I as at the Mainstay suites in same said city and I just camped right there.  An astronomy group set up 4 filtered telescopes (2 visible and 1 red color - to see the prominence storms off the solar surface) -  I caught sunspots (or was that the International Space Station?) and a couple others had huge ones with filters of their own.  Cirrus clouds plagued the partial phase going in and caused sun dogs and a halo as the sunlight failed to burn them off once the moon covered enough of the sun.  However, they drifted off in time for a good show when the moon covered the sun completely and the corona flared up.  There were a couple city lights that went on but they did not defeat the twilight the small shadow had produced.  That will be different in 2024.

We found a great spot in L.E. Ray Park on the south end of town.  Can't complain a bit.
Photos I post are my own unless otherwise noted.
Signs: https://www.teresco.org/pics/signs/
Travel Mapping: https://travelmapping.net/user/?u=terescoj
Counties: http://www.mob-rule.com/user/terescoj
Twitter @JimTeresco (roads, travel, skiing, weather, sports)

US 89

Here in SLC, we had 92%, which is actually much less than you would think it is (that 8% is pretty bright!). It stayed light, although a couple of weird things did happen. We got the crescent shadow thing, the light got dimmer, the temperature actually dropped slightly, and a breeze started which wasn't blowing an hour earlier. I really want to go to the 2024 total eclipse, and I hear that there will be an Annular (ring of fire) eclipse in UT in 2023.

SSOWorld

Quote from: Jim on August 21, 2017, 08:33:08 PM
Quote from: SSOWorld on August 21, 2017, 08:28:53 PM
Quote from: Jim on August 21, 2017, 08:12:21 PM
In Grand Island, Nebraska, the weather cooperated and we got an absolutely spectacular show.  No luck really getting my own pictures of the eclipse itself, but I can now confirm that a total eclipse is thousands of times more impressive than any partial.  Get in the shadow in 2024.
Excellent show indeed.  You probably found a spot remotely away from the established sites I assume.  I as at the Mainstay suites in same said city and I just camped right there.  An astronomy group set up 4 filtered telescopes (2 visible and 1 red color - to see the prominence storms off the solar surface) -  I caught sunspots (or was that the International Space Station?) and a couple others had huge ones with filters of their own.  Cirrus clouds plagued the partial phase going in and caused sun dogs and a halo as the sunlight failed to burn them off once the moon covered enough of the sun.  However, they drifted off in time for a good show when the moon covered the sun completely and the corona flared up.  There were a couple city lights that went on but they did not defeat the twilight the small shadow had produced.  That will be different in 2024.


We found a great spot in L.E. Ray Park on the south end of town.  Can't complain a bit.
Yep, you were 4 minutes away from me then. (east then north on Locust)  :sombrero:

Beatrice had a filtered eclipse but it did show.
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.

hbelkins

Met my brother in London, Ky., this morning and we headed to Tennessee. This was the first time I'd been on I-75 south of London in years, and traffic was remarkably light crossing into Tennessee, across Pine Mountain at Jellico, and down the other side and into Knoxville. Even the one-lane ramp at I-640 was not jammed up.

We ran into nearly standstill traffic on I-40/I-75 in the Westgate/Farragut area, for no apparent reason. We bailed onto US 70 and stayed on it even though Google showed traffic on the interstate clearing up well before the 40/75 Nashville/Chattanooga split.

We took TN 58 south out of Kingston and traffic was beginning to get heavy as people were going into a city park on Watts Bar Lake. My brother had decided on a spot at a boat ramp just upstream of Watts Bar Dam, across from the nuclear power plant. There were already several people set up there when we arrived.

The weather was hot and humid, but the sky conditions were perfect. It didn't get as dark as I thought it would during totality. Even when the sun is 99 percent covered, it puts out a lot of light.

We left shortly after totality ended, and saw that a tremendous crowd had gathered at Watts Bar Dam. We took TN 68 north to US 27, and the Spring City/Rhea County authorities did a TERRIBLE job of directing traffic. They had some lanes blocked on four-lane US 27 which caused the traffic jams to be worse than they needed to. North of Spring City, things opened up until we got to US 70, where it choked back down at a couple of traffic lights. We stayed on US 70 east back to Kingston, where traffic knotted up again at the TN 58 traffic light. I noticed Google showing I-40 eastbound as a solid red mass, and the places where we could see the interstate, eastbound traffic appeared to be crawling. It opened up at the TN 58 north exit, which is where we're staying tonight at a Motel 6.

For dinner, we went back into Kingston to a Buddy's BBQ, and noticed that traffic was opening up about the Lawnville Road exit. West of that, it was stacked up. East of there, it was free-flowing.

Tomorrow we're going to do a tour at Oak Ridge before he drops me off at London and he heads north on I-75 toward his home.


Government would be tolerable if not for politicians and bureaucrats.

Alps

I posted my photos on Facebook and made them public, so hopefully anyone here is able to see them. If you know my name.

Beltway

I got some good photos of totality. Will post. Madisonville, TN. Clear sky. Saw shadow bands right before totality. Clearly saw Jupiter and Venus from about 10% Sun and down.

Eastern TN traffic was a disaster this afternoon, 4 hours to drive 56 miles on mostly I-75 and I-40.  I-75 and I-40 from Loudon to East Knoxville were a rolling backup nearly the whole way.

The trip down from Richmond on Sunday was a piece of cake, I-64 to I-81 to I-40, two accidents that caused about 15 minutes delay each, no other major problems, trip computer said average speed was 61 mph.
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US 41

I went to Princeton, KY and went northwest a little bit out to the middle of no where on a dead end road (Craig Cemetery Road). This was my first solar eclipse and it was definitely one the neatest things I've ever witnessed.

I got on the interactive NASA map and it turns out I was only 2 miles from the greatest point of totality. It says it lasted 2 minutes and 39.8 seconds. For anyone that's curious the line of greatest totality only lasted 0.3 seconds longer than where I was at.

Luckily I didn't have to deal with any traffic at all except for at the US 41 Ohio River bridges where there was a huge backup due to the construction. After the eclipse I went to the Ohio / Mississippi confluence and visited an Indian mound near by. On the way back to Terre Haute there was some traffic in Marion, IL due to a wreck probably, but I did an illegal U turn. I wasn't going to just sit on the interstate.
Visited States and Provinces:
USA (48)= All of Lower 48
Canada (5)= NB, NS, ON, PEI, QC
Mexico (9)= BCN, BCS, CHIH, COAH, DGO, NL, SON, SIN, TAM

empirestate

I was right at the point of greatest eclipse (Cerulean, KY). It was astounding.


iPhone

Gulol

Made it to Guernsey, WY yesterday ... 5 hours up from Denver and 6 hours back to Denver when it was all said and done.  Amazing and beyond worth the drive for those 2:20 of totality.

Bruce

It took me 11 hours to return to Seattle from Salem. Traffic from Salem to Portland was insane, as predicted. Also back ups from Castle Rock to Centralia.

Here's my totality pictures, taken in Buena Vista, Oregon.


Total solar eclipse from Buena Vista, OR by SounderBruce, on Flickr


Buena Vista Park during totality by SounderBruce, on Flickr


Buena Vista Park after totality by SounderBruce, on Flickr

CtrlAltDel

Quote from: hbelkins on August 21, 2017, 09:20:58 PM
We took TN 58 south out of Kingston and traffic was beginning to get heavy as people were going into a city park on Watts Bar Lake. My brother had decided on a spot at a boat ramp just upstream of Watts Bar Dam, across from the nuclear power plant. There were already several people set up there when we arrived.

Quote from: Beltway on August 21, 2017, 11:59:08 PM
I got some good photos of totality. Will post. Madisonville, TN. Clear sky. Saw shadow bands right before totality. Clearly saw Jupiter and Venus from about 10% Sun and down.


I wasn't too far from you two.

My original plan was to head west on I-40 to Knoxville and then south on I-75 to the rest area at mile marker 45. I had feared that traffic would be horrendous, but it really wasn't that bad. It was pretty much just morning rush-hour Knoxville traffic. So, I got to the rest area at about 10:30, but it was already full. There were no spots available, so I parallel parked on the edge, behind the diagonal stalls, along with a dozen or so other cars. This is apparently a big no-no, however, since the state police made us all move.

I scrambled to find some other park-like area from which to view the eclipse, since I thought the parking lot a of a Walmart wasn't going to do it for me aesthetically. I stumbled upon a city park in Athens, which turned out pretty nice. There was a wall of trees, right in the direction of where the sun was, which ended up framing things nicely.

As for the eclipse itself, it didn't get as dark as I had expected, and it took a lot longer into the eclipse for the darkness to be noticeable at all. During totality, I only noticed 1 star, but the street lights did come on for a moment. One of the highlights for me was watching the ground get darker and darker (over the course of only 30 seconds or so) until it matched the darkness of the shadows cast by the trees. It was almost like a regular sunset, in that the light got yellower and dimmer, except that the sun was in the wrong spot, the shadows didn't get hazy toward the end, and it went very, very quickly. I didn't notice it getting cooler, but I did notice the dew that appeared on the grass. 

The sun/moon combo was weird at totality. It was like there was a dark sun in the sky, giving off light, but only enough light to light the ground to, say, 20 minutes or so after sunset. The corona at this point looked a bit like the old Pontiac logo, except wispier, and with the top oriented to the right. I thought the corona would move around more, but it didn't.

Then everything ended, and things went back to normal pretty quickly, although according to the scientific data I looked at, it took about the same amount of time. I stayed until the end of the end, and then, I went to McDonald's for ice cream, food, and water, and to see what traffic was going to be like. It turns out, as most of you know, that it was a big red line on I-75 away from the center of totality, and I decided to wait it out to avoid getting frustrated and annoyed so soon after such an interesting event.

So, I went back to the park for a while and looked at some other local things (and then went back to McDonald's) and left at about 9:30. By then, all the congestion on I-75, I-70/40, and I-40 and in Knoxville was gone. But there was still a slowdown on I-81 between miles 11 and 25, which at midnight, annoyed the hell out me. Unfortunately, even with this slowdown, it was the fastest way home, and so I just dealt with it.

On the roadgeek side of things I found a picture of the traffic after totality, which I think would be interesting to post here:

Interstates clinched: 4, 57, 275 (IN-KY-OH), 465 (IN), 640 (TN), 985
State Interstates clinched: I-26 (TN), I-75 (GA), I-75 (KY), I-75 (TN), I-81 (WV), I-95 (NH)

Duke87

Looks like there were several impromptu eclipse-viewing road meets, though ours in McMinnville, TN probably had the largest turnout of them with 7 people (9 if you include the 2 in utero).


Left to right: Anthony Costanzo (NY), Alyssa Torres (NY), Brian Rawson-Ketchum (MI), Cody Goodman (AL), Katie Goodman (AL), Steph Illyes (TN), Jason Illyes (TN).

If you always take the same road, you will never see anything new.

hbelkins

Quote from: Beltway on August 21, 2017, 11:59:08 PM
I got some good photos of totality. Will post. Madisonville, TN. Clear sky. Saw shadow bands right before totality. Clearly saw Jupiter and Venus from about 10% Sun and down.

Eastern TN traffic was a disaster this afternoon, 4 hours to drive 56 miles on mostly I-75 and I-40.  I-75 and I-40 from Loudon to East Knoxville were a rolling backup nearly the whole way.

US 411 would have been your friend. I wouldn't have even attempted the interstate. I would have taken US 411 all the way to Newport, where there were several options. I know I-81 in Virginia had issues, but I'd have been very tempted to then follow US 321 to Johnson City. Depending on the condition of I-81 at that time, I'd have followed 321 all the way to Boone, then 421 to Greensboro and then 29 and 360 to Richmond.


Government would be tolerable if not for politicians and bureaucrats.

cl94

I took US 31E up to Cumberland Parkway from my location in Portland, TN to avoid I-65 traffic after the eclipse. Bad idea, as two major accidents between the KY/TN line and the parkway reduced it to a crawl. Took roughly 3 hours to get 50 miles from Portland to Cumberland Parkway. East of there, it was pretty fast, as the Cumberland and Hal Rogers Parkways were empty.
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Duke87

From McMinnville we left by taking US 70S to US 70 to I-40 at Crossville, all with no problem. We made it to about MM 335 on I-40 before traffic started getting particularly slow.

Then we attempted a ditch via US 27/TN 61/TN 62, but then that route was packed all the way to Oak Ridge so we doubt it saved us any time (may have cost us some). After Oak Ridge it opened up, we took TN 162 to US 11 before then getting back on I-40 at exit 380, which I discovered was actually near free-flow here and therefore my side trip on US 11 also probably saved nothing.

At this point I concluded that the parallel roads to the interstate were of equal or greater shittiness and gave up on trying to be clever.

I-40 moved OK most of the way through and past Knoxville with only a few short slowdowns... but then it stopped near dead a few miles before the 40/80 split. Shortly, that sorted itself into the left two lanes being stopped dead while the right lane was wide open. So, I of course pulled the shameless New Yorker maneuver of zooming past all that traffic in the right lane and darting back in at the last minute, which given how far I was zooming past traffic for must have saved us at least 20 minutes.

I-81 was moving at 20-30 MPH for the first 15 miles or so, then ~50 MPH to Kingsport, at which point some construction (no lane closures, but lane shift) slowed things down again.

It was 9 PM by the time we got to Bristol and, at this point, I was assuming it must be smooth sailing from there on since surely people would be getting off the road by this time and getting ready for bed or whatever. Haha. Haha. Yea no right after Bristol it got sluggish again. Ended up ditching to side roads for a few miles in the vicinity of Radford, VA since VDOT had a lane closed that night (of all the nights to close a lane...) which of course brought traffic to a near standstill. Then there was ANOTHER lane closure just past I-581.

By the time we got to our hotel (which we had reserved in advance, thank god) off exit 146 it was 12:45. A solid 10 hours after we left McMinnville, which would have been 6 hours in normal traffic.


If Alyssa and I chase the 2024 eclipse we're spending the night afterwards near the path. No attempting to cover ground that evening.
If you always take the same road, you will never see anything new.

7/8

I left Nashville right after the eclipse and took I-24 to Chattanooga, which was busy, but was still moving well. I actually had worse luck with traffic this morning. It took me 3.5 hours to get from Chattanooga to downtown Atlanta (Google predicted 1.75 hours). They had two out of three lanes closed in northwest GA for repaving (with almost no signage of what was going on!), and then three lanes were closed near I-285 from an accident. Not a fun drive...

empirestate

Despite viewing the eclipse at its exact epicenter, I encountered no significant traffic hassles. I could see on the map where they existed, north of Hopkinsville and  around Carbondale, but either they weren't on my route, or I simply chose a route that avoided them. And that's after the event–in the morning, I'm not aware that any major tie-ups even occurred. The worst I experienced was the line entering my viewing site (and another one leaving it, but that was only due to a car needing to be towed off of the narrow back road), and a few spots where traffic slowed on the freeways because people couldn't/wouldn't maintain speed on changing grades.


iPhone

US 89

I heard from several friends that it took around 7-8 hours to drive from Idaho Falls to Salt Lake City, usually a 3 hour drive.

Jim

Photos I post are my own unless otherwise noted.
Signs: https://www.teresco.org/pics/signs/
Travel Mapping: https://travelmapping.net/user/?u=terescoj
Counties: http://www.mob-rule.com/user/terescoj
Twitter @JimTeresco (roads, travel, skiing, weather, sports)

US 41

Here's what it looked like near Princeton, KY. It got too dark for my camera to take a good picture, but you can see how dark it really got.



My camera isn't the best as it picked up a lot of glow, but you can tell there is something in the middle of the glow.



In the day time (or when the sun is not hiding behind the moon in this case) the area looked more like this.

Visited States and Provinces:
USA (48)= All of Lower 48
Canada (5)= NB, NS, ON, PEI, QC
Mexico (9)= BCN, BCS, CHIH, COAH, DGO, NL, SON, SIN, TAM

SSOWorld

Quote from: Duke87 on August 22, 2017, 10:01:41 PM
Looks like there were several impromptu eclipse-viewing road meets, though ours in McMinnville, TN probably had the largest turnout of them with 7 people (9 if you include the 2 in utero).


Left to right: Anthony Costanzo (NY), Alyssa Torres (NY), Brian Rawson-Ketchum (MI), Cody Goodman (AL), Katie Goodman (AL), Steph Illyes (TN), Jason Illyes (TN).


Nice!  Though neither the Sun or the Moon will provide much help.

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.



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