Total solar eclipse 2017

[razztazz]

Overall impression: BFD. Another Kohoutek

 

[Brat]

Grandson (13 yo) sent me this pic from Prineville, OR moments ago...

 

[MichaelB]

Sweet. Thanks for all the photos. Heavily overcast here (Chicagoland) but the clouds broke for a few minutes during the eclipse.

I hear one can get a great deal on barely used solar glasses. Time to stock up for the next one

 

[RobbieB]

We had 78% of total here. My solar panel monitor had the maximum at 10:15;

 

[USGrant1962]

Totality was amazing on Tellico Lake just off Fort Loudon State Park in TN. There are about 100 boats anchored out here, but plenty of space. Blue skies and Blue Moon.

The corona was better than I imagined. Saw Venus, Jupiter, and Mercury.

April 2024, here we come.

 

[nvestysly]

Oh my gosh! This was well worth the drive. The total solar eclipse in Sweetwater, TN was absolutely stunnning! Words simply cannot describe the sensation of seeing this in person.

 

[NW-Bound]

Here, in Phoenix the eclipse looked something like the following photo from the Web.

We were visited by my SIL, and while we were talking inside the home, she said "Hey the sunlight is dimming". We almost missed it. It did not last long enough to help the temperature any. I can use a permanent partial eclipse here.

 

[38Chevy454]

Just got a little darker like thick cloud cover provides, here in Cincinnati and it was not as hot in direct sun. Did not have total coverage, I think we were in the 90% range. I did look and we had a banana on the side of the moon.

I ran errands and it was really nice to have almost nobody in the stores.

 

[Marita40]

We saw...nothing...in St. Paul MN. Heavy cloud cover throughout.

 

[scaubie]

Great view in the clear skies of SC. Awesome event albeit in the mid 90s today. It happened so quickly!

 

[USGrant1962]

Still on the lake here, but as expected Google Maps traffic leaving the eclipse zones in TN and SC looks ugly.

 

[nvestysly]

Let me add that only during the total eclipse did it get dark. During those few minutes we saw stars, the equivalent of a sunset, and the corona was stunning! If you only saw a partial, even if it was 99%, plan now to see a total at some point in your life.

 

[Dawg52]

About 80% here. Temperature dropped(yea!). Other than that......wasn't impressed. I'm sure it would be neat to see a total eclipse, but I'm not driving several hundred miles to see it for 2-3 minutes.

 

[Dreamer]

Yes, I think it would be awesome to see a total eclipse. I think that I am going to do what some people here did and rent a place for a week or get a hotel room for a couple of days, so that you don't have to worry about the traffic.

 

[euro]

About 80% here. Temperature dropped(yea!). Other than that......wasn't impressed. I'm sure it would be neat to see a total eclipse, but I'm not driving several hundred miles to see it for 2-3 minutes.

similar here - we were supposed to be at 93%. Definitely darkened a little bit and because it was dark and sunny at the same time it looked a little surreal. Neat experience, but not life-changing....

 

[homestead]

Here is the sunlight just before totality filtering through tree leaves.

 

[FIREd]

We had a 97% partial eclipse here (around 1:30pm local time). We had a picnic at a local park with DW and MIL. It was fun but the cloud cover almost ruined the day. Thankfully, the cover lifted just 5 minutes before the peak of the eclipse and we were able to see the best part. It did not get as dark as I thought it would, but it was a pretty neat experience.

 

[Fermion]

Sunlight is what, 1000 watts per square meter? So even at 97% you are still getting 30 watts per square meter or so? That is probably more light than a football stadium lighting set puts out per square meter lol.

 

[googily]

I saw the total eclipse, and even at 99% right before totality it was still plenty light out, and that surprised me. But the full eclipse itself was amazing, and I'm so glad I drove a few hours to see it.

Don't let being let down by the partial prevent you from seeing the total in 2024!

 

[W2R]

We had such fun with this eclipse. It was 75% here, but gosh, the fraction of the sun that was dark sure seemed larger than that.

F set up his 6" Schmidt Cassegrain telescope on his patio with the proper filters for looking at the sun, and I walked over there through the gateway in the fence between our backyards. We sat outside for an hour or two, checking the eclipse every 20 minutes or so both in his telescope and directly through our eclipse glasses. Simply amazing! We could see sunspots in the telescope, as well as the rapidly increasing area darkened by the eclipse.

During the eclipse there was a light but increasing surface wind. The usual many butterflies did not seem to behave any differently, although birds seemed more inclined to soar high rather than perch on the power lines. It got darker and darker, although really it never was as dark as it is during some of our severe thunderstorms. The quality of light was unusual but I can't quite describe it.

Finally, when the eclipse had peaked and began to recede, we immediately went to lunch. We took our eclipse glasses and lent them to the (mostly teenaged) wait staff at our restaurant and they were thrilled! Almost all of them immediately went outside to look, and saw most of what we saw because it was only 5 minutes after the peak of the eclipse here.

All in all, we had a great time watching the eclipse.

 

[ERD50]

Sunlight is what, 1000 watts per square meter? So even at 97% you are still getting 30 watts per square meter or so? That is probably more light than a football stadium lighting set puts out per square meter lol.

Yes, and your eyes are non-linear, so they adjust to the dimmer light.

I hadn't thought about the stars and planets being visible at totality. Since we had heavy clouds here, I was watching the news, local Chicago news teams went to southern IL where the totality was the longest, and it was clear there. They mentioned seeing stars and planets - pretty cool!

And now, a couple hours after the event, we have mostly clear skies!

OK, now here's some irony for you. I was the one going on about how I just wouldn't risk my eyes with some unknown source of dark glasses... well, near the 'peak', I was scanning the sky just to see if there were any patches of open sky, thinking there might be hope yet that we could get a clearer 'view' yet (for me, a 'view' of the effects, and through my pinhole box). The cloud cover was so thick, you really couldn't even tell where the sun was in the sky, then suddenly, I saw what appeared to be a crescent moon through the clouds! Ahhh!The sun!! And I looked right at it!!!! Am I gonna be blind!?!!!

I'm not worried, it was a fraction of a second, and those were thick clouds, I could hardly make it out. Though I suppose the UV may have still been relatively high. But ironic that it happened to me, with no eye protection!

-ERD50

 

[Fermion]

Anybody who didn't really trust their glasses could have always just put the glasses up to the lens of their smart phone and viewed the eclipse on the screen of the phone instead. If they suffered damage from that it means a toilet seat from the ISS just hit them in the head.

 

[W2R]

OK, now here's some irony for you. I was the one going on about how I just wouldn't risk my eyes with some unknown source of dark glasses... well, near the 'peak', I was scanning the sky just to see if there were any patches of open sky, thinking there might be hope yet that we could get a clearer 'view' yet (for me, a 'view' of the effects, and through my pinhole box). The cloud cover was so thick, you really couldn't even tell where the sun was in the sky, then suddenly, I saw what appeared to be a crescent moon through the clouds! Ahhh!The sun!! And I looked right at it!!!! Am I gonna be blind!?!!!

I'm not worried, it was a fraction of a second, and those were thick clouds, I could hardly make it out. Though I suppose the UV may have still been relatively high. But ironic that it happened to me, with no eye protection!

-ERD50

Anybody who didn't really trust their glasses could have always just put the glasses up to the lens of their smart phone and viewed the eclipse on the screen of the phone instead. If they suffered damage from that it means a toilet seat from the ISS just hit them in the head.

Our eclipse glasses were among those ISO certified ones for which Amazon provided a total refund, since they never got the paperwork on them.

I tested mine yesterday by holding an intense LED light in front of them, which I could hardly even detect. During the eclipse, I saw nothing that was any brighter than my nightlights. So, as far as I am concerned there is no way anything could have damaged my eyes since the intensity just was not there. It was not even as intense as a 60W lightbulb. However, it was enough to see what I wanted to see.

 

[ERD50]

Anybody who didn't really trust their glasses could have always just put the glasses up to the lens of their smart phone and viewed the eclipse on the screen of the phone instead. If they suffered damage from that it means a toilet seat from the ISS just hit them in the head.

But then I might as well just watch any other televised/streaming display - probably with a better camera and filtering than what I would have. And that's pretty much what I did.

But I did see the 'weird' light, even with the clouds and only 87% here. Kinda cool, not exciting, but better than nothing. It's just weird to think about the apparent size of our moon being almost exactly the apparent size of our sun.

I just might make more of an effort for 2024. We will see,

-ERD50

 

[W2R]

So I'm not the only one who thought the quality of light was weird during the eclipse! At least I know I am not going mad. I can't describe WHY it was weird, but it was. Maybe more intense colors, darker, higher contrast... I'm just not sure but it was indeed weird, for me. And the quiet and wind added to the weirdness here, too.