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Eclipse Plans

Started by trdsf, August 10, 2017, 12:50:05 PM

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trdsf

Okay, happy campers, where are you viewing from, will you have totality, and all?

We just got moved from a park along the Cumberland River to the Nashville Science Museum because the astronomer leading our tour got tapped to be The Weather Channel's local interviewee to explain what's going on (which is pretty easy to explain, really: the moon is getting directly between us and the sun and casting its shadow) for their live coverage.  One hopes we might get on screen too as part of his entourage.  :)

One hopes the Weather Channel's presence is a measure of their confidence of having clear skies.
"My faith in the Constitution is whole, it is complete, it is total, and I am not going to sit here and be an idle spectator to the diminution, the subversion, the destruction of the Constitution." -- Barbara Jordan

Hydra009

#1
Quote from: trdsf on August 10, 2017, 12:50:05 PMOkay, happy campers, where are you viewing from, will you have totality, and all?
Central NC.  Partial eclipse.

I'm excited for the eclipse coming up in May 2078, which will be a total eclipse in central/eastern NC.

Mike Cl

Central Valley, CA.  But I'll be viewing it from the TV and computer.
Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able?<br />Then he is not omnipotent,<br />Is he able but not willing?<br />Then whence cometh evil?<br />Is he neither able or willing?<br />Then why call him god?

Gawdzilla Sama

Carbondale, ILL., where NASA is going to party.
We 'new atheists' have a reputation for being militant, but make no mistake  we didn't start this war. If you want to place blame put it on the the religious zealots who have been poisoning the minds of the  young for a long long time."
PZ Myers

Atheon

I'll be reading news reports, since I'm in Taiwan.
"Religion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false, and by the rulers as useful." - Seneca

Gawdzilla Sama

Quote from: Atheon on August 11, 2017, 01:20:30 AM
I'll be reading news reports, since I'm in Taiwan.
There will be live feeds.
We 'new atheists' have a reputation for being militant, but make no mistake  we didn't start this war. If you want to place blame put it on the the religious zealots who have been poisoning the minds of the  young for a long long time."
PZ Myers

PopeyesPappy

Quote from: Gawdzilla Sama on August 11, 2017, 07:14:59 AM
There will be live feeds.

Which is how I'll hopefully be watching since I'll be in Kwajalein.  :sob:
Save a life. Adopt a Greyhound.

trdsf

Quote from: Gawdzilla Sama on August 10, 2017, 07:44:14 PM
Carbondale, ILL., where NASA is going to party.
That's also where The Weather Channel is sending Jim Cantore, so keep an eye out for tornado outbreaks, hurricanes, and/or goat-sized hail.  :D
"My faith in the Constitution is whole, it is complete, it is total, and I am not going to sit here and be an idle spectator to the diminution, the subversion, the destruction of the Constitution." -- Barbara Jordan

Gawdzilla Sama

I'm going to video the shadow from the south side of a lake. Shadow in the trees, light on the water, and then reverse. But I need a voice-over, a "bring back the Sun, slay the sky monster" kind of thing. So far all I've found is Islamic. :-(
We 'new atheists' have a reputation for being militant, but make no mistake  we didn't start this war. If you want to place blame put it on the the religious zealots who have been poisoning the minds of the  young for a long long time."
PZ Myers

trdsf

Quote from: Gawdzilla Sama on August 11, 2017, 09:29:29 AM
I'm going to video the shadow from the south side of a lake. Shadow in the trees, light on the water, and then reverse. But I need a voice-over, a "bring back the Sun, slay the sky monster" kind of thing. So far all I've found is Islamic. :-(

How about some Milton from Paradise Lost, then:

Quote from: John MiltonAs when the Sun, new risen,
Looks through the horizontal misty air,
Shorn of his beams,or from behind the Moon,
In dim eclipse, disastrous twilight sheds
On half the nations, and with fear of change
Perplexes monarchs.

Alternately, some Wordsworth on the 1820 eclipse:

Quote from: William Wordsworth
High on her speculative tower
Stood Science waiting for the hour
When Sol was destined to endure
That darkening of his radiant face
Which Superstition strove to chase,
Erewhile, with rites impure.
"My faith in the Constitution is whole, it is complete, it is total, and I am not going to sit here and be an idle spectator to the diminution, the subversion, the destruction of the Constitution." -- Barbara Jordan

Gawdzilla Sama

We 'new atheists' have a reputation for being militant, but make no mistake  we didn't start this war. If you want to place blame put it on the the religious zealots who have been poisoning the minds of the  young for a long long time."
PZ Myers

SGOS

Quote from: Gawdzilla Sama on August 10, 2017, 07:44:14 PM
Carbondale, ILL., where NASA is going to party.
An avid rail fan friend in Chicago said Amtrak, or maybe it was one of the private rail lines of which there are many in Chicago, offered a $150 round trip special eclipse run to Carbondale leaving before daylight and returning late the same night.  He first discussed it with his son and would be travel partner, who was also interested in going, and by the time he went to buy tickets the entire train had sold out.  This was less than 24 hours after they put the tickets on sale.  Carbondale, with a population of 26,000, is expecting 200,000 visitors.

I've got motel reservations in the path of totality, but I'm considering bagging it.  I will get 90% totality in my back yard, without having to deal with interstate traffic jams, and those are predicted also, but 90% totality doesn't come close to full totality when the lights go out and the stars start to shine. 

I could go either way on this.  From what they are predicting, it sounds the bulk of the US population will temporarily shift to the path of totality and create enough pressure on the surface of the Earth to cause seismic anomalies, sink holes, and reroute the Missouri River basin causing a global shift in the direction of the tectonic plates.

SGOS

Quote from: Gawdzilla Sama on August 11, 2017, 09:29:29 AM
I'm going to video the shadow from the south side of a lake. Shadow in the trees, light on the water, and then reverse. But I need a voice-over, a "bring back the Sun, slay the sky monster" kind of thing. So far all I've found is Islamic. :-(
I think a lot of people will get naked and fornicate.  This thing is just getting out of hand.  NPR had a little blurb about people purchasing eclipse supplies and the resultant increase in the sale of pot.

trdsf

Quote from: SGOS on August 11, 2017, 01:20:54 PM
I've got motel reservations in the path of totality, but I'm considering bagging it.  I will get 90% totality in my back yard, without having to deal with interstate traffic jams, and those are predicted also, but 90% totality doesn't come close to full totality when the lights go out and the stars start to shine.

Let me just take a moment to urge you to go ahead and go.  Opportunities like this don't come very often, and I would suggest it's better an annoyance in going than a regret for not -- the annoyance will fade, the regret won't.  We're getting 98% totality in 2024, and I'm already making plans to go somewhere where I have a better guarantee of clear skies and in the core of the path (it'll be nearly twice as long as this one).  I could take a city bus to totality in 2024, but that's not good enough.
"My faith in the Constitution is whole, it is complete, it is total, and I am not going to sit here and be an idle spectator to the diminution, the subversion, the destruction of the Constitution." -- Barbara Jordan

Unbeliever

I went to an eclipse in 1979, up in Washington state. Got clouded out - but it did get dark, at least. This one I'll just get the partial, and be happy with it.
God Not Found
"There is a sucker born-again every minute." - C. Spellman