2024 Total Solar Eclipse

[YellowKing]

My wife got a pair of eclipse glasses from the school where she works, so the kids and I were able to take turns looking at it when it hit peak. While there wasn't discernible difference outside, it was still really cool to look up and see the sun as a crescent. Since the 2045 will hit the east coast my new life goal is to see that one in totality.

[hentzau]

The willpower it takes to resist belting out Total Eclipse of the Heart today is going to be monumental.

Terra Haute was having a festival called “Total Eclipse of the Haute.”

[hepcat]

[Smoove_B]

Watched it best we could; clouds rolled in and made viewing nearly impossible. Probably saw ~5 seconds each with it 90%+ covered. Still cool but also frustrating. Big difference from the last one I remember seeing in 2017 when all the leaves were making pinhole camera shadows on everything. Now it just looks like a rain storm is coming.

[Holman]

Meh. I can't believe I paid full price for that.

The first sliver of eclipse was supposed to start to be visible on the sun at 1:40 or so, with the peak (90%) at 2:23. I had some glasses and did get a good look at about the 50% point, but then clouds rolled in and nobody got to see anything more.

Still, it was fun to see all the buildings in central Philly empty out as everyone took time off to take a look. It felt like a short street party. Food carts and dogs did well.

[Isgrimnur]

The willpower it takes to resist belting out Total Eclipse of the Heart today is going to be monumental.

Terra Haute was having a festival called “Total Eclipse of the Haute.”

[Kraken]

That was more impressive than I expected. Without the glasses, it wasn't much. The temperature dropped a few degrees and the daylight turned dusky. With the glasses, though, there was only the barest sliver of sun visible. Funny how less than 10% of the solar disk can still produce near-normal daylight. Coinciding within a couple minutes of maximum coverage, an airplane flew between me and the sun, causing a very brief blink that was quite neat.

[stessier]

Just 75% this time around here, and QUITE different than the 100% experience before. Obviously.

85% here and agree - 100% is way more fun. 85% is really not worth making a special trip for.

[jztemple2]

Here in Florida with only 50% occlusion the media hype has been tremendous. Me, I just walked outside at the max time with a piece of paper with a hole punched in it, checked out the shadow on the driveway and went back inside

[Daveman]

I guess I was expecting 90% eclipse to be a lot darker... it was no different than a cloudy overcast day here. Yay for hype!

My wife's school was chaos as quite a lot of parents kept kids home or took them out early.

[Max Peck]

We ended up with broken clouds, but aside from one thicker cloud that moved through just a few minutes before maximum coverage they were thin enough that they made no difference. I was just using a pinhole projector for observation, so the high point was the brief mid-afternoon twilight at peak eclipse.

[Daehawk]

This is from upstate new york at my nephews.

[Jaymann]

My daughter kept the grandkids (8 and 10) out of school. A perfect age to understand what was happening and enjoy it.

[Blackhawk]

The willpower it takes to resist belting out Total Eclipse of the Heart today is going to be monumental.

Terra Haute

Terre Haute. It means 'high ground', which is an odd name for a swamp.

/edit - also, it's pronounced 'hote.'

[Smoove_B]

My daughter kept the grandkids (8 and 10) out of school. A perfect age to understand what was happening and enjoy it.

[Blackhawk]

Since I am lucky enough to live in the 100% zone...

Spoiler:

[Jaymann]

What are the red circle and white ball in that picture?

[Fardaza]

The sun peaked out from behind the thick cloud cover for about 1 minute. The 85-90% part had already passed. As others have said, it looked just like a heavy storm coming in.

[ImLawBoy]

Twins' school gave them eclipse glasses and everyone got to go outside and look. They seemed underwhelmed by the whole thing. I think we were in the 94% range.

I just noticed a weird dimness that was like a cloudy day, but with the coloring of sunlight instead of gray. It was fine.

[Isgrimnur]

[jztemple2]

Since I am lucky enough to live in the 100% zone...

Spoiler:

I'm imagining this is what your camera would have captured if you turned it around the other way:

Spoiler:

[Max Peck]

What are the red circle and white ball in that picture?

I'm not sure which red circle you're referring to, but I'd expect that the white ball represents the planets.

[Isgrimnur]

The red dotted circles would represent the orbits of everything around the Earth.

[Blackhawk]

Since I am lucky enough to live in the 100% zone...

Spoiler:

I'm imagining this is what your camera would have captured if you turned it around the other way:

Spoiler:

It would have just seen me. If I'd turned to my right about 90 degrees, it would have seen the two other groups - five people total. People coming to Indiana to view the eclipse are going to Terre Haute, or Bloomington, or Indy, or one of the other cities. They don't go to one of the many hundreds of rural villages. There were only two other groups nearby because I went to a hill I remembered in the nearby state forest that has parking and an open view.

[Unagi]

My kid and I will be leaving in about an hour for our road trip down into Blackhawk territory (Indiana) to see the total solar eclipse today.

Anyone else taking a journey to see it?

Anyone here living in the path of totality?

Four hours from Chicago - where are you headed?

We ended up getting off 65 at Lebanon. But I also spent a good amount of time on the back roads leading down there, as Waze suggested we would make better time if we bailed.

[Unagi]

Honestly, this was amazing. I loved it.
Really happy we made the effort


It's like, after living 50+ years on Earth, there was suddenly a new object in the sky. It's just so weird to look up at this 'thing' that is not the sun, not the moon - and it's perfect. Just gorgeous.

[Blackhawk]

Ah, not too close to my neck of the woods (it's about four hours from me to Chicago, too.) But close enough for friends who live there to call and ask for help moving (twice.)

[Daehawk]

Cool darkness BH.

[Blackhawk]

Honestly, this was amazing. I loved it.
Really happy we made the effort


It's like, after living 50+ years on Earth, there was suddenly a new object in the sky. It's just so weird to look up at this 'thing' that is not the sun, not the moon - and it's perfect. Just gorgeous.

That's actually close to my reaction. Also unexpected was the moment when the sun peeked out again, just this pinpoint of intensely bright pure white sparkle.

[Unagi]

Honestly, this was amazing. I loved it.
Really happy we made the effort


It's like, after living 50+ years on Earth, there was suddenly a new object in the sky. It's just so weird to look up at this 'thing' that is not the sun, not the moon - and it's perfect. Just gorgeous.

That's actually close to my reaction. Also unexpected was the moment when the sun peeked out again, just this pinpoint of intensely bright pure white sparkle.

Yes, I loved that moment where the eclipse first 'popped' its seam. For us, it manifested as a really bright pink ''sunset' like color pushing open the lower right side of the circle.

[Moliere]

eclipse illness?

Anyone experience this? I was out walking the neighborhood during the eclipse and definitely felt a little weird. No joke.

[Blackhawk]

I'm guessing the unusual light during an eclipse might be disorienting for some people.

[Jaymann]

I actually felt a little weird and was wondering if it was a thing. I shrugged it off.

[Kraken]

eclipse illness?

Anyone experience this? I was out walking the neighborhood during the eclipse and definitely felt a little weird. No joke.

I got a bit woozy standing in the front yard and looking up through my black glasses. I steadied myself against a prop and it passed. It was most likely that the weirdness of craning my neck to stare at the sun made me lightheaded. My cat got kind of weirded out, though.

[dbt1949]

It turned me into a newt!

[TheMix]

Did you get better?

[dbt1949]

Yeh.

[Holman]

eclipse illness?

Anyone experience this? I was out walking the neighborhood during the eclipse and definitely felt a little weird. No joke.

The sudden temperature drop can mess with your sinuses, which feels weird.

[Hipolito]

The willpower it takes to resist belting out Total Eclipse of the Heart today is going to be monumental.

It will only be weird if you don't do it as intended - dressed like a vampire.

This sent me down the internet rabbit hole so I could learn the connection between that song and vampires. I had no idea. Sei bereit ...

[Smoove_B]

This sent me down the internet rabbit hole so I could learn the connection between that song and vampires. I had no idea. Sei bereit ...

Anything I can do to help fill your brain with random (but useless) trivia, I'm all for it.