Eclipse, Anyone?

[Rutabaga]

Here is the path over the U.S. and Canada:

[JamesSavik]

To overcast to see anything today in Dixieland.

[Altimexis]

I briefly considered visiting my family in Indy for the eclipse, but I'd rather jump out of an airplane than stay with my sister. As I'm still recovering from prostate surgery, traveling any distance isn't an option just yet. Besides which, with greater than 60% cloud cover this time of year, the odds of seeing totality were only fair. As it turned out, the view from Indy apparently was spectacular. The eclipse as seen from Indy is on the front page of The NY Times.

So I settled for watching a 90% partial eclipse from the terrace of my apartment in NYC. I bought a $20 pair of Wirecutter-recommended solar binoculars and a $14 solar filter for the tele-zoom lens on my camera. As thin, wispy clouds started to move in, I wondered if there would be anything to see, but the clouds remained sparse and high in the atmosphere until just after the eclipse ended, at which point the sky quickly became overcast. We were lucky.

I would've loved to have seen totality. I would've loved to have seen the corona with my own eyes. I've never seen a total solar eclipse and the next opportunity won't happen until I'm around 90. That said, seeing a 90% partial eclipse was impressive as hell. My photos don't look like much, but they clearly show the sun as a tiny, thin sliver of light against a dark sky. The solar binoculars were one of the best purchases I've ever made. While most people saw the sun as a tiny dot through solar glasses, I saw the crescent sun, magnified by several times. The binoculars were so powerful that it took a lot of patience to actually find the sun in the sky, but I learned to aim it first and then look, with good results. Today was a real celestial highlight.

All said, the most spectacular celestial happening is one that very few people are able to see anymore. Just getting away from the city lights that seem to be ubiquitous, even in the countryside, and the view of the night sky that awaits is nothing short of spectacular. I remember as a kid, looking up at the sky from my back yard in Indy, before there were streetlights in the suburbs, and seeing the Milky Way stretching across the sky. Going camping was even better. Nothing made me feel so tiny and insignificant. There are still places like that, but they're fewer and harder to find, even in the National Parks.

I do hope one day to see the Southern sky. I've been to Sydney, Melbourne and Buenos Aires, but all suffer from extreme light pollution. I hope to get back to Australia and New Zealand within a few years, and this time I'll have to be sure to visit places where the sky's still dark.

[Camy]

Complete cloud cover and drizzle here, in Wales. And as the next total eclipse in the UK is apparently 91 years away, I'll miss that one, too. Rats.

[Alien Son]

2 hours ago, Altimexis said:

Just getting away from the city lights that seem to be ubiquitous, even in the countryside, and the view of the night sky that awaits is nothing short of spectacular. I remember as a kid, looking up at the sky from my back yard in Indy, before there were streetlights in the suburbs, and seeing the Milky Way stretching across the sky.

I see this nearly every night. There's not much light pollution here.

[TalonRider]

I hadn't planned on watching it and that was a good thing. The day started out nice and sunny, then went to mostly cloudy during the eclipse.

 

[Altimexis]

My nephew and his husband live in a suburb of Columbus, just inside the path of totality. He sent me a grainy smartphone photo taken from his driveway. He didn’t have to travel anywhere or pay thousands of dollars to stay in a fleabag hotel. He just stepped out the door and looked up. Lucky dog!