Solar Eclipse - August 21st, 2017

I love the media hype over the eclipse, and the stupid news stories they try to make out of a natural occurrence.

First, they report that there will be $700 million in loss of productivity due to people taking time off to view the eclipse.

No sh*t, Sherlock! Now tell how many billions of dollars have been spent by people in preparation - the parties,travel, sunglasses, vendor gouging, etc. I'm sure the money spent will more than offset an hour of non-productivity.

Then here in CA, PG&E is talking about the loss of power due to the decrease in output of their solar arrays and the need to come up with alternate supplies. What they DON'T figure in is the millions of people who will be effing off watching the eclipse and NOT using the power they might have. And, the estimated 20 degree drop in temperature will surely cause AC units to shut off for some time.


Did you know that the price of porta-potty rentals in parts of Oregon have quadrupled for the day? That ought to help the cash flow!!
Marvin would have just said "Don't bother, I've seen it. It's rubbish".
 
Last edited:
Watched it from my friends' cabin along the MO River south of Columbia, home of the mysterious BoatHenge. Right in the zone of Totality.
HPIM2804.JPG

The Katy Trail goes along the old rail line here all the way across the state. They set up a tent and the boys sold Sunkist orange soda and Moon Pies. People stopped from all over - this crew in matching flag outfits came all the way from Tennessee.

HPIM2802.JPG

We had a good view of the river from in front of the Civil War era cabin although it was a little tree covered. We were going to go up on the bluff or down to the sand beach by the river but someone decided to cook burgers at the wrong time so we were eating just as the eclipse got pretty intense.
HPIM2817.JPG

Got this pic of the gang at Totality almost by accident - I had turned off my flash earlier but it must have reset itself when I shut the camera off.

A Great Blue Heron flew down along the river bank, probably heading for bed which is what the herons and geese do at dusk. Crickets and cicadas were intense for that few minutes. We also saw (we think) one of the fast moving NASA WB-57 planes that were going to fly at mach speed at 50,000 feet with cameras on board.

Afterwards I popped open a Corona. What better way to celebrate seeing the solar corona?
 
The eclipse came and went....and the world didn't end. :banana:

On a serious note, I think this was a really great event for the US. There's a lot going on in our country as well as the uncertainty of North Korea. For a day, most American's had a pleasant distraction and came together as the eclipse passed across the country.
 
I tried to get pics through the welding hood but it just gave me a green blur. I watched it through a 10 shade plus the 5 shade brazing goggles. Of course one of the people at work came out with sunglasses and looked straight up at it as soon as she was warned not to. Polarized sunglasses ain't gonna cut it. The stacked welding shades were dark enough, but unless I was looking straight up I couldn't see a thing.
 
The weather station showed the visible satellite image of the cloud line that crossed behind the eclipse. Pretty cool effect.
 
Watched it from my friends' cabin along the MO River south of Columbia, home of the mysterious BoatHenge. Right in the zone of Totality.
View attachment 990378

The Katy Trail goes along the old rail line here all the way across the state. They set up a tent and the boys sold Sunkist orange soda and Moon Pies. People stopped from all over - this crew in matching flag outfits came all the way from Tennessee.

View attachment 990379

We had a good view of the river from in front of the Civil War era cabin although it was a little tree covered. We were going to go up on the bluff or down to the sand beach by the river but someone decided to cook burgers at the wrong time so we were eating just as the eclipse got pretty intense.
View attachment 990380

Got this pic of the gang at Totality almost by accident - I had turned off my flash earlier but it must have reset itself when I shut the camera off.

A Great Blue Heron flew down along the river bank, probably heading for bed which is what the herons and geese do at dusk. Crickets and cicadas were intense for that few minutes. We also saw (we think) one of the fast moving NASA WB-57 planes that were going to fly at mach speed at 50,000 feet with cameras on board.

Afterwards I popped open a Corona. What better way to celebrate seeing the solar corona?

The Katy Line runs along the north bank of the Neosho River, about 2 miles south of my parents' farm. I used to walk part of it when I was a kid.
 
We were out in the middle of Lake Murray (Columbia SC) for the show. The weather worked out perfectly. Funny. As the shade increased and the air cooled, the clouds building up largely disappeared. Sky was perfect for August. We had a boat and many miles of water, so it did not realy matter. It really cooled down for August in Columbia. I think the "feels like" temp dropped below 120 for a few minutes.

As far as the totality, 99.99999% does not cut it. Not even a squint. When that thing goes fully blocked you get the full point of what is going on up there. To me, it was a sense of perspective as to how large and far away these objects are. You never get a sense of that otherwise.

The blacked moon looked what I presume a black hole must look like. Impossibly black surrounded by the solar corona. Just crazy.

On the horizon you can see blue sky and sun light clouds- in all directions. Freaky.

The build up comes slowly with progressively less light. Eventually it gets disconcerning, like you have polarized eyeballs and there is nothing you can do about it. The totality hits really fast. Instantly.

It was an experience everyone ought to see at least once. We lucked out to have relatives on the lake down there. The little dotted center line on the map cut right across the lake. Amazing. Exceeded expectations almost universally.
 
We were out in the middle of Lake Murray (Columbia SC) for the show. The weather worked out perfectly. Funny. As the shade increased and the air cooled, the clouds building up largely disappeared. Sky was perfect for August. We had a boat and many miles of water, so it did not realy matter. It really cooled down for August in Columbia. I think the "feels like" temp dropped below 120 for a few minutes.

As far as the totality, 99.99999% does not cut it. Not even a squint. When that thing goes fully blocked you get the full point of what is going on up there. To me, it was a sense of perspective as to how large and far away these objects are. You never get a sense of that otherwise.

The blacked moon looked what I presume a black hole must look like. Impossibly black surrounded by the solar corona. Just crazy.

On the horizon you can see blue sky and sun light clouds- in all directions. Freaky.

The build up comes slowly with progressively less light. Eventually it gets disconcerning, like you have polarized eyeballs and there is nothing you can do about it. The totality hits really fast. Instantly.

It was an experience everyone ought to see at least once. We lucked out to have relatives on the lake down there. The little dotted center line on the map cut right across the lake. Amazing. Exceeded expectations almost universally.

It was a great show. I live a couple of miles from Lake Murray.
 
Just returned from central Oregon where we watched the total eclipse with friends on a ranch.
Very civilized and experiencing the total eclipse for about 1 min 40 seconds was as extraordinary as reported.

A funny anecdotal story that I heard from several sources so probably some truth to it, but unconfirmed.
A casino on the Warm Springs Indian Reservation was totally rented to a Japanese group because they believed any child conceived during an eclipse would be special.
So they were there but busy so missed the experience of the eclipse.
 
The Chinese were doing that in St Joseph MO

The Japanese also go to Barrow AK to be under the Northern Lights to conceive for the same reasons.
 
Last edited:
The Chinese were doing that in St Joseph MO

The Japanese also go to Barrow AK to be under the Northern Lights, to conceive for the same reasons.
While that's mighty nice of the Chinese, How does being conceived under the northern lights help make a bike/hike trail?
 
Back
Top Bottom