Edgar Allen Ho posted:

I tried to photograph the 2017 eclipse with my phone, from the wastelands outside North Platte, Nebraska, USA at the centre of its path. It didn't work out but the event was still amazing

I highly rec seeing the solar eclipse if at all you can

toggle posted:

I recently watched the total eclipse in Western Australia, just a surreal experience. Highly recommended.

tarlibone posted:

I'm an astronomy nut, and even though I don't bust out the telescopes as much as I used to, there is no way I'm missing this. I'm in southern Illinois, not far from St. Louis, so I didn't have to drive far to catch the total eclipse last time. I kept all the stuff I bought, too, so I don't have to do that again.

I'll be somewhere in the southern part of the state, filter on my telescope, on the big day.

ProperCoochie posted:

Literally the greatest show on earth. I traveled so long and hard to reach the path of totality in 2017 and it was soooo worth it!!

honkwins posted:

my partner and I got married on Borah Peak in Idaho during the last one (which was in the path of totality) and it was 10000% worth it

XYZAB posted:

I drove to the middle of nowhere Idaho for totality in 2017 and it was the coolest thing I’ve ever seen in my entire life. Would highly recommend anyone on the fence to just loving do it.

PokeJoe posted:

I saw the last one in the middle of oregon with a very clear sky. i thought it would be cool but it was even cooler than i expected. go check it out if you didn't do the totality thing. its worth it

Haschel Cedricson posted:

It's one thing to be told how cool a total eclipse is, and another to see it actually happen. Every single person in this thread who is hyping it up is still managing to undersell it, and I absolutely understand why in the days before astronomy an eclipse would cause people to freak the gently caress out.

quote:

6:37 AM

Things happen quickly. The photos capture what it looks like to see the sun turn into a crescent and then wink out. What they don't capture is that feeling of the world fading out just as if someone were turning a dimmer switch. It's darker and cooler than sunset, even though the relative colors are those of a bright, sunny day. The effect hits a big red button in the reptile brain, saying 'something is not right'. The closest I can remember to it is those summer storms in Illinois where it would get really dark in a matter of seconds, and you knew you had best go hide under something sturdy.

6:38 AM

Totality! And we can see it! The beach goes completely dark, except for hundreds of flashbulbs from fools who have forgotten to set their camera correctly. I fumble to get a picture, and my flash goes off. The sun has tricked us all! It was behind a very thin cloud at the end, but so dim that it looked like it was blocked out. Now it's clearly visible, a dark hole punched in the sky, surrounded by the corona. I don't have the equipment for a precise reading, but I estimate the metalness of the eclipse at 2.4 megaslayers. I am getting good value for my eclipse-viewing dollar.

The beach is whooping and hollering, looking at the apparition in the sky. The cruise ship is lit up like a chandelier again, and all around the horizon you can see the red and orange sunset colors, where the sunlight from a hundred kilometers away is filtering through to us. Up in the sky the planets and brightest stars are visible, but no one can look at that since we're all riveted by the sight of the ridiculous, over the top, airbrushed-on-the-side-of-a-van thing hanging in the sky where the sun used to be. I am thankful I have not taken any drugs.

6:40 AM

A single dot of sunlight emerges through some lunar crevice, and for an instant it's reflected in the ocean, like a distant lighthouse at night. An instant later it's too bright to look at, and then daylight starts coming slowly back again. I notice that high tide has snuck up on all of us in the past hour and is menacing our feet. The mood on the beach is as jolly as I've ever seen people before seven in the morning. My guess is that half the crowd is from the region, and half are visitors, but everybody is glad they came out, and that the clouds didn't steal the eclipse from us. I am happy that the timing of the eclipse gave everyone in Port Douglas the chance to come see it, not just us tourists.


[...]

On the drive-time radio show in Port Douglas, Australia, the host promises to bring on an astrologer to talk about “what the eclipse means for your life”. But for me that's the opposite of what makes it wonderful. The eclipse doesn't even know you exist. Nature provides a brief alignment of the Moon and Sun that is completely foreordained, immutable, and will happen with Swiss precision for another billion or so years, whether or not anyone is looking. It is on us to aggregate into litttle bubbles of protoplasm, develop eyes, emerge onto land, discover fire, evolve language, ask the brainier among us where the thing will happen, and make the appropriate travel arrangements.

A good way to feel small is to look at the Wikipedia list of future solar eclipses, and think about that fact that between one and another of them you are going to disappear, but the eclipses will keep happening, about one a year, until the moon finally drifts too far away from the earth to perform the magic trick anymore.

It's the greatest thing that happens in the sky. Find one on the list you can go see, and see it!

Fred Espenak Mr Eclipse.com posted:

Certainly the most spectacular and awe-inspiring phase of the eclipse is totality. For a few brief minutes or seconds, the Sun’s pearly white corona, red prominences, and chromosphere are visible ( The Experience of Totality). The great challenge is to obtain a set of photographs that captures these fleeting phenomena. The most important point to remember is that during the total phase, all solar filters must be removed. The corona has a surface brightness a million times fainter than the photosphere, so photographs of the corona are made without a filter. Furthermore, it is completely safe to view the totally eclipsed Sun directly with the naked eye. No filters are needed, and in fact, they would only hinder the view. The average brightness of the corona varies inversely with the distance from the Sun’s limb. The inner corona is far brighter than the outer corona; thus, no single exposure can capture its full dynamic range. The best strategy is to choose one aperture or f/number and bracket the exposures over a range of shutter speeds (i.e., 1/1000s to 1s). Rehearsing this sequence is highly recommended because great excitement accompanies totality and there is little time to think.




It should be pointed out that the exposure table above is only a guideline for planning purposes. The brightness of the corona may vary from one eclipse to the next based on the relative point in the sunspot cycle as well as the current activity on the Sun during the eclipse. Because of the high dynamic range in the brightness encompassed by the corona, there is no one single exposure that is "correct." The best strategy is to bracket widely during totality to shoot a large range of exposures. I typically shoot at ISO 200, f/9 and will use shutter speeds ranging from 1/1000 down to 1 or more seconds.


Point and Shoot Cameras
Point-and-shoot cameras with wide angle lenses are excellent for capturing the quickly changing light in the seconds before and during totality. Use a tripod or brace the camera on a wall or fence since slow shutter speeds will be needed. You should also disable or turn off your camera's electronic flash so that it does not interfere with anyone else's view of the eclipse.

Another eclipse effect that is easily captured with point-and-shoot cameras should not be overlooked. Use a straw hat or a kitchen sieve and allow its shadow to fall on a piece of white cardboard placed several feet away. The small holes act like pinhole cameras and each one projects its own image of the eclipsed Sun. The effect can also be duplicated by forming a small aperture with the fingers of one’s hands and watching the ground below. The pinhole camera effect becomes more prominent with increasing eclipse magnitude. Virtually any camera can be used to photograph the phenomenon, but automatic cameras must have their flashes turned off because this would otherwise obliterate the pinhole images.

bawfuls posted:

if you missed it this will be your last chance to see one on this continent until 2044.

bawfuls posted:

Judgy Fucker posted:

So with it being a given that it'd be better to be inside the red lines, how cool or not would the eclipse be in Oklahoma City? It's so close to the red lines, relatively speaking. I could probably convince my wife to rent a cabin in SE Oklahoma for it, but that's

bawfuls posted:

The entire show is between those red lines. Being outside them is like being a mile away from the venue where your favorite band is playing. Being inside them is like standing in the front row at the show.

You either make the effort to get to totality, or you are effectively ignoring the eclipse. There’s really no in between.

You live SO close, you’re incredibly lucky to be within a day’s drive of a total eclipse at all. Absolutely make the effort to get there. As I mentioned upthread, the next total solar eclipse in North America isn’t until 2044!

Judgy Fucker posted:

Fair enough, I'll pitch it to her tonight. Been too long since we've visited the big city lights of McCurtain County, Oklahoma anyway.