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stafford1500
stafford1500 HalfDork
8/17/17 9:28 a.m.

Rain or not the effect near the path of the totality will be interesting. The sudden onset of darkness will flip out a lot of animals. Listen to the nature around you before-during-after the peak and you may be more impressed than the effect of the temperature drop and the celestial lights getting turned off.

Bobzilla
Bobzilla MegaDork
8/17/17 9:40 a.m.

I just realized I'll be working from home on Monday. WINNING! Dust off the welding helmet and go watch it

Bobzilla
Bobzilla MegaDork
8/17/17 10:37 a.m.
stafford1500 wrote: Rain or not the effect near the path of the totality will be interesting. The sudden onset of darkness will flip out a lot of animals. Listen to the nature around you before-during-after the peak and you may be more impressed than the effect of the temperature drop and the celestial lights getting turned off.

This is true. I remember back in april of 2000 we had a small earthquake (3.6) that was literally 3 miles from the folks house. I was working 3rds and was asleep when the dog and cat, who tolerated each other, but refused to be in the same room with one another started flipping out. NExt thing I know they are both on the bed with me, curled up tight to one another. I remember looking at htem and then felt the house start to shake. They knew about 5 minutes before it actually happened. Freaky... and awesome all at the same time.

dculberson
dculberson PowerDork
8/17/17 11:08 a.m.
Stefan wrote:
alfadriver wrote: In reply to Stefan: Why in the world are people who want see a total eclipse "mouth breathers"??? I thought this is more of nerd-centric board, and would be more accepting of people who want to see a special event that is incredibly rare. But no, they get labeled "mouth breathers". I guess I'm not cool anymore.
Because they aren't techies or nerds, they are tourists and many aren't the good tourists. because they aren't prepared, they are a plague of locosts traveling through an area of the state that is woefully ill-prepared for a million extra people traipsing through the land and is also already suffering from issues related to forest fires. I mean, its bloody Wednesday and the roads south are already full and the gas stations are running out? Seriously? If/when we ever get hit with the big earthquake we are already over due to receive, this area of the world is screwed. Big time. If you honestly think I'm calling you a "mouth-breather" then you have some personal issues to handle.

Or maybe the stores are selling out now because the people are getting prepared for the coming event? Sounds more like the stores and gas stations are the unprepared ones.

SVreX
SVreX MegaDork
8/17/17 11:11 a.m.

In reply to dculberson:

Pretty hard for a gas station to store more fuel than will fit in the tanks, and pretty hard for a tank truck to negotiate streets with 1.2 million extra people on them.

Some towns will have fuel shortages.

trucke
trucke SuperDork
8/17/17 11:17 a.m.

This appeared on my commute Wednesday morning. Not looking forward to Monday. This is near the Pisgah Forest in North Carolina.

Not far from this place:

Pisgah Astronomical Research Institute

iceracer
iceracer UltimaDork
8/17/17 11:22 a.m.

We are supposed to get 66% here. I remember the last one. It got a little darker for a little while.

dculberson
dculberson PowerDork
8/17/17 11:53 a.m.

I was thinking about heading to where I have some family in Ettowah, TN. But I'm not sure having a 2 year old and 4 month old in the car stuck in traffic is a great idea. I'd head down Sunday and back Monday or Tuesday. The 4 month old hates car rides, so 6 hours in the car would be rough, much less additional hours stuck in traffic.

Erich
Erich UltraDork
8/17/17 12:17 p.m.

If you can go see totality, do. A partial eclipse is kinda interesting, but we've all seen a crescent moon in the sky and looking through eclipse glasses it's about like that.

Totality is a whole different animal. Make sure you take off your glasses when the sun is fully obscured. Look around you. I promise you'll never forget it.

Tom_Spangler
Tom_Spangler UberDork
8/17/17 1:13 p.m.

I also plan on sacrificing a goat. Maybe two, you have to be sure about these things.

stafford1500
stafford1500 HalfDork
8/17/17 1:27 p.m.

No one has mentioned making a pin-hole camera (camera obscura) yet. That is a good way to let multiple people look at what is happening without having the dark shades on.

Nick (Bo) Comstock
Nick (Bo) Comstock MegaDork
8/17/17 1:45 p.m.
Erich wrote: If you can go see totality, do. A partial eclipse is kinda interesting, but we've all seen a crescent moon in the sky and looking through eclipse glasses it's about like that. Totality is a whole different animal. Make sure you take off your glasses when the sun is fully obscured. Look around you. I promise you'll never forget it.

From where I was in the one mentioned earlier it was very close to total. Just a sliver from being so. It was pretty cool.

Toyman01
Toyman01 MegaDork
8/17/17 3:33 p.m.

The traffic is already starting, and I've got to go to Myrtle Beach tomorrow.

Pete Gossett
Pete Gossett MegaDork
8/17/17 4:26 p.m.

In reply to Toyman01:

I wonder if the number of visitors will eclipse their expectations?

Toyman01
Toyman01 MegaDork
8/17/17 4:30 p.m.

In reply to Pete Gossett:

Stefan
Stefan MegaDork
8/17/17 4:39 p.m.

There's a 15-mile backup on Hwy 26 into Prineville, Oregon:

I'm really glad I'll be able to see it from home, that does not look like any fun at all.

Toyman01
Toyman01 MegaDork
8/17/17 5:43 p.m.
Bobzilla
Bobzilla MegaDork
8/17/17 5:55 p.m.

I remember the one in '94. It was my senior year of high school.

Pete Gossett
Pete Gossett MegaDork
8/17/17 6:45 p.m.
Bobzilla wrote: I remember the one in '94. It was my senior year of high school.

I remember a partial eclipse way back in the 80's. The trick then was to poke a hole through a box & watch the shadow on the ground. Welding lenses sound like a much better option this time...

Nick (Bo) Comstock
Nick (Bo) Comstock MegaDork
8/17/17 7:19 p.m.

In reply to Toyman01:

How did you embed a Facebook video?

Chadeux
Chadeux Dork
8/17/17 7:36 p.m.

I need to actually look into this and see I care enough to travel to some place closer to the line. I live in Glasgow. Hopkinsville is apparently clusterberked because of this. I've heard Bowling Green is supposed to get close to a minute or so of totality so I may go over there and call it good enough. If campus wasn't closed specifically for this event I'd have to be there for class anyway. I'm thinking that parking lot actually might make a decent place to go for this.

Toyman01
Toyman01 MegaDork
8/17/17 7:36 p.m.

In reply to Nick (Bo) Comstock:

Click on the video to open it in it's own window. Pause the video and in the upper right corner, three dots appear. Click the dots, and a drop down shows with "embed" on it. Clicking that will give you the embed code to paste here.

David S. Wallens
David S. Wallens Editorial Director
8/17/17 7:37 p.m.
Nick (Bo) Comstock wrote: In reply to Toyman01: How did you embed a Facebook video?

Click the little chevron in the upper-right corner of the post.

Then click "see more options."

Then click "embed" and grab the code.

Paste that code into your post, and the video should magically appear.

Nick (Bo) Comstock
Nick (Bo) Comstock MegaDork
8/17/17 7:38 p.m.

In reply to Toyman01:

Amazing! Thank you

Toyman01
Toyman01 MegaDork
8/17/17 7:38 p.m.

In reply to David S. Wallens:

That's no fair. You know all the cool jargon to make it sound official.

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