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Did you travel to see the total solar eclipse on April 8, 2024?

Today in Buffalo NY, other than getting dark we had total cloud cover for the total duration including the time of totality.
I didn't even bother with my camera or any sort of glasses.
I think the anticipation of the event was over the top. Today is our normal garbage collection day. It was canceled due to the eclipse. I hadn't noticed that the town had gone to solar powered garbage trucks. I had to call our eye doctor to schedule an annual checkup. Their answering machine said they were closed due to the eclipse. If it weren't for the clouds, they might have missed a significant emergency walk in opportunity. There were large digital signs at entrance ramps to the local interstate that said, "Eclipse Monday, Expect Delays". Yeah, it was cloudy, but the eclipse wasn't delayed. Too bad it couldn't be postponed to a clear day. Schools were closed too. Here in the Buffalo area, we've had widespread closures due to snow, but an eclipse? Please excuse my sarcasm, but this disappointment ranks right up there with 4 consecutive Buffalo Bills Super Bowl losses.

Some years ago, an employee from Denver transferred to the location where I worked here in Buffalo. He was here through the winter and into the spring. One day he was looking out a window with an expression like he had lost his best friend. I asked him what was wrong. He turned to me and asked, "Does the sun ever shine here?"
 
JamVal said:
Today in Buffalo NY, other than getting dark we had total cloud cover for the total duration including the time of totality.
I didn't even bother with my camera or any sort of glasses.
I think the anticipation of the event was over the top. Today is our normal garbage collection day. It was canceled due to the eclipse. I hadn't noticed that the town had gone to solar powered garbage trucks. I had to call our eye doctor to schedule an annual checkup. Their answering machine said they were closed due to the eclipse. If it weren't for the clouds, they might have missed a significant emergency walk in opportunity. There were large digital signs at entrance ramps to the local interstate that said, "Eclipse Monday, Expect Delays". Yeah, it was cloudy, but the eclipse wasn't delayed. Too bad it couldn't be postponed to a clear day. Schools were closed too. Here in the Buffalo area, we've had widespread closures due to snow, but an eclipse? Please excuse my sarcasm, but this disappointment ranks right up there with 4 consecutive Buffalo Bills Super Bowl losses.

Some years ago, an employee from Denver transferred to the location where I worked here in Buffalo. He was here through the winter and into the spring. One day he was looking out a window with an expression like he had lost his best friend. I asked him what was wrong. He turned to me and asked, "Does the sun ever shine here?"
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Buffalo was our first choice and then we switched to Ashtabula, Ohio at the last minute. The weather turned out great with a very thin wisp of clouds that did nothing to dull the moment. During the 6+ hour drive to get to Lake Erie, I kept checking weather reports and radar maps for places between Erie and Cleveland. Ashtabula seemed like the sweet spot regarding weather and a small crowd. We got there from Northern Virginia in around 6.5 hours with no traffic backups and easily found an empty parking lot all to ourselves just a block from Lake Erie. We paid for this on the way back though taking around nine hours to return home due to a logjam of traffic heading east immediately after the eclipse. Below is a photo I took at totality that shows what might be two solar flares erupting at 3:30 and 6:00 o'clock. Or maybe not?


2024 Eclipse - Totality.JPG
 
Blackharp said:
I'd like to try some of what you're smoking!!
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No, not at all. Just reporting my experience and those of others in our little group. One had flown from Switzerland for the viewing, other drove from Seattle, chance gathering. Both were University professors, had wives with them, no children. All of us were as one sharing the experience... a sense of elation.
 
spicer said:
The corona is amazing, couldn't keep my attention off it, Idaho 2017. Like a ring of sparkling diamonds around the edge, simply beautiful, glittering white light I'd never imagined. Diamonds of course reflect light, facets etc., but this is as though they are producing it. Simply beautiful. Then, it is over, back to being another day.
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I really like your way of description about this! Some things skirt adequate explanation via language.

You did that in much the way I described the light around me during a partial or full earlier in the thread.
 
Blackharp said:
I was joking. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to see what you described. It was very cloudy here.
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I know, joking, and much appreciated. For our view conditions were perfect, almost proved cloudy but it opened up, couldn't have been better. Clear atmosphere too, nothing to scatter the light, clear air made viewing the corona even more special. I'd like everybody to experience it.
 
Was lucky enough to be right in the middle of the intended sun path, it was really neat to see the complete black out, with the street light instantly coming on.

A few of the birds ceased chirping, but went right back to it when the eclipse was over.


Just read that back in 585 BC, two armies were in the middle of a battle (Hayles) in Turkey today), and they set down their weapons, declaring a truce when a Sun Eclipse took place.


Q
 
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