Total Solar Eclipse April 8, 2024

[braumeister]

This is the path of totality in 2026, so that should be quite doable for those who like to travel.

 

[GenXguy]

Beautiful sunny sky here through the whole thing here in Illinois but only about 95% max coverage. I was wearing shorts and noticed it started feeling cooler out in the sun with temp near 70 at the time.

It was a pretty thin slice of sun left showing. I couldn't get a good photo. My video looks like it might have some decent frames, but nothing spectacular. lol

This is the path of totality in 2026, so that should be quite doable for those who like to travel.

Many people are probably already booked for that.

 

[cyber888]

I took a Photo of the Solar Eclipse with the moon trying to partially cover the sun. In our area, only 70% - 80% is covered by the partial eclipse.

 

[Gumby]

Well, that was spectacular but occurred far too quickly. We had 3.5 minutes of totality but it seemed way shorter. I saw Venus and Jupiter (I think) and may have seen a solar flare about halfway through totality. I'll have to check. Since we're on the shore of a large lake, I was able to see where the shadow ended. It was like sunset in every direction. I also watched the shadow move east as totality progressed. I'll try to attach a picture . I couldn't get my phone to take a picture of the eclipse itself.

 

[EastWest Gal]

Did anyone see the comet during the eclipse? We were in Niagara Falls and the clouds thinned out enough to see the partial eclipse in glimpses without the special glasses. During totality, we had about 10 seconds to see the sun, and I caught the corona moving on my phone camera. I think I caught a flare on my camera. Will try to post later when I download it at home. About 30 seconds later there was whooping and hollering from the USA side of the falls when they got the same view. It was cool. A very mellow crowd. People were posing for pictures with the police patrol as there was nothing for the police to do except close a couple of roads.

 

[ERD50]

We're back from totality. Better than we ever could have imagined. No problem with traffic at all. Clear skies, 100x better than predicted, a little haze. Asked around about viewing areas, ended up in a local preserve that was not crowded. Set up near a couple, turn out to be Father and daughter.

Get this. The daughter is an... astrophysicist !!! What are the odds. She was at the 2017 total. We had a great time, kidded about all meeting up in Iceland.

Like others have said, totality is a whole nother level. We are in the club, and if you haven't been, you can't really understand. So glad we did it.

 

[Gumby]

We also had a band here in Plattsburgh. They also played Dark Side of the Moon as totality approached. If they had really been squared away, they would have played Here Comes the Sun when it ended. A tribute to Sol Invictus.

 

[aja8888]

I must have a dark cloud over my head at all times since the eclipse was totally shielded from here by a big thunderstorm and heavy rain and clouds. It did get dark though. Never once during the period of the eclipse were the skies open.

 

[Gumby]

Well, that was spectacular but occurred far too quickly. We had 3.5 minutes of totality but it seemed way shorter. I saw Venus and Jupiter (I think) and may have seen a solar flare about halfway through totality. I'll have to check. Since we're on the shore of a large lake, I was able to see where the shadow ended. It was like sunset in every direction. I also watched the shadow move east as totality progressed. I'll try to attach a picture . I couldn't get my phone to take a picture of the eclipse itself.

I checked and it was indeed Venus and Jupiter, and there was a solar flare.

 

[tutan]

My attempt to take a photo of totality. It was still too bright to overwhelm the phone camera sensor.

 

[jldavid47]

This was my third total solar eclipse. The first was an annular eclipse which I saw from my mother's back yard just south of Chicago in March, 1991. The second was the 2017 total eclipse which traveled to western Kentucky to see. This one we went out our back door in Indianapolis and just took it in. It was spectacular. We had about 3.75 minutes of totality. The daughter in law of a friend who lives about 20 miles west of us took this shot which is what we saw as well. Pretty darn awesome.

 

[W2R]

I must have a dark cloud over my head at all times since the eclipse was totally shielded from here by a big thunderstorm and heavy rain and clouds. It did get dark though. Never once during the period of the eclipse were the skies open.

Same here. We had heavy cloud cover, and then between 2-3 PM we had unusually loud thunder as well, and some rain.

Despite no direct observations of the eclipse, we saw some beautiful footage of it from the internet. It was nice and large since we hooked up my computer to my 62" TV.

 

[aja8888]

This was my third total solar eclipse. The first was an annular eclipse which I saw from my mother's back yard just south of Chicago in March, 1991. The second was the 2017 total eclipse which traveled to western Kentucky to see. This one we went out our back door in Indianapolis and just took it in. It was spectacular. We had about 3.75 minutes of totality. The daughter in law of a friend who lives about 20 miles west of us took this shot which is what we saw as well. Pretty darn awesome.

Beautiful!

 

[Car-Guy]

I must have a dark cloud over my head at all times since the eclipse was totally shielded from here by a big thunderstorm and heavy rain and clouds. It did get dark though. Never once during the period of the eclipse were the skies open.

And the storms that hit your area earlier have just arrived here. Oh well, at least I got to see most of the eclipse through the patchy cloud cover earlier.

 

[FI_RElater]

comparing 2024 to 2017's

As I mentioned upthread, in 2017 we were basically at the centerline for totality at our place, whereas where we are now we were in the zone of totality but nowhere near the actual center.

Comparison:
being at the centerline (2017) was more impressive as we remembered it getting darker, obviously had longer total darkness than now, and it seemed to get cooler in 2017, but that might be because we were in a much less humid area so that the air could cool quicker. The animals didn't quite react as strongly this time, although they did get quiet at full eclipse. We did have clear skiess, with only a couple wispy clouds that fortunately didn't interfere with totality.
The "ring of fire" was the same, although it was darker in 2017 and we saw stars, although not any planets that we saw this time. (I also thought I saw a flare in totality this time, so interesting that others seemed to confirm.)

 

[Fermion]

It was pretty close to perfect in Cape Girardeau, MO. We had a tad over 4 min of totality and clear sunny sky. This was my first total eclipse and WOW. I did not expect the sunset in every direction either, that was very cool. We are already back in our hotel in TN, took about 2 hours to drive the 84 miles. I avoided the interstates and took back roads...very little traffic.

From Texas to Missouri, reverse storm chasing.

 

[Jerry1]

Made a day trip of it. Got about 2 minutes of totality. Drove into OH from MI. A trip that would normally take 1 hour 15 min. took closer to three hours. Getting back home wasn’t as bad. Total trip was 7 hours.

My selected spot was a mall parking lot in a semi rural area. It was right off the expressway and worked out well. Got there and still had just enough time to eat and bathroom before the eclipse. Perfect. Left right after totality.

Couldn’t get any good pictures. I think there was just enough cloud cover to mess with the camera’s ability to focus. Thankfully, the high clouds didn’t spoil the show. The pick below was taken by DD with her cell phone. It looked way better in person.

Now I’ve seen two (2017 & 2024). That’s probably the last total eclipse I’ll ever see. I’m glad I got the chance and, better yet, I shared the trip with my daughters. DD2 went with us to 2017 - she is in Indy today at their zoo. DD1 and the grandkids went with us today. All good!

 

[street]

Nephew sent this one from Terre Haute Ind. I was at the ranch and got dark but was cloudy but could tell the change with about a 60% cover. It did seem like things got quite. The birds and turkeys were very vocal not sure if it was just coincidental or not.

 

[FLSUnFIRE]

Got lucky! Clouds broke enough as the eclipse was occurring and about 10-15 minutes before totality it cleared up. Photos just can capture what the eye does. So happy I was lucky with the weather and got to experience it. Looking forward to 2044... Really is pretty amazing.

 

[jollystomper]

From central Ohio the viewing was great. A friend selected a small town near the center of the totality zone, and I found a park in the town that never got crowded. The place had a food truck and real bathrooms so we were set .The sky cleared by 1pm so we had a great view. We had never seen a total eclipse in person, so so almost 4 minutes of the full total eclipse was fantastic. Definitely far superseded the partial eclipses of our past.

Traffic back to our hotel was slower, but not the double or worse times predicted. It was a 90 minute drive in the early morning and about 110 minutes on the return.

 

[Ronstar]

A few pics. I didn't have a solar filter, so I only shot at totality.

 

[sdtech]

We flew near the New York/Vermont border to see the eclipse at 7500'. While we were in the line of totality, we were high enough that while it was dark at our location, we were surrounded by a 360 degree sunset - like the kind you see with a lot of color just when the sun goes below the horizon. Probably about a dozen planes within 10 miles of our location, but everyone was keeping good separation.

 

[DrRoy]

From Greenville, OH. Loved the experience. The traffic back to MI was unbelievable.

 

[MarieIG]

Some amazing pictures posted here. Thanks All!

 

[wmc1000]

We live near Bloomington IN so we were in the middle of the totality line. Got the yard mowed, (2.5 acres), with about 15 minutes to go before totality.

What a view and only had to recline and watch as the temps were 75 degrees and no clouds to obscure anything. It got really dark for the few minutes we were in totality.

We thought the 2017 eclipse was a cool sight and this one was even better!