Solar eclipse in continental USA August 21, 2017

Mark your calendar! This sort of thing doesn't happen every day!

http://www.eclipse2017.org/2017/maps.htm

In case anyone is interested in driving up to experience the eclipse in that zone of total black out, it appears it is becoming a real circus event. Connie is driving back from Delaware, and she called me this morning from South Carolina. She said there are signs and notices all along route 95 warning of heavy traffic congestion on Monday, August 21. I looked into getting a motel in Santee, SC a few weeks ago, and from what I could see, EVERYTHING was already booked. So I think that unless you already have made arrangements, don't even think about just driving up, down, or over there for the day, parking your car along the road and watching the view.

Of course, I expect there will be vendors lining the roads too, selling T-shirts with a picture of the eclipse on them. Of course, they can't be of THIS eclipse, but heck, when did reality and the truth ever get in the way of someone trying to make a buck?

Originally Posted by WebSlave

it appears it is becoming a real circus event.

Yes sir, a circus around here too. Good ol' Nebraska is right in the path. I see kids out of school, appointment cancellations, work off, etc. from others.

I have my glasses and I'll look, but I'm not getting my dooms day shirt out...yet

My county bought the glasses for all of the kids to use since schools will be letting out and kids will be on buses or travelling right at the peak viewing time.

I'm not planning on watching it but the hubby has some camera filters/equipment that he wants to test out so he'll be taking photos.

Oh yeah, been hearing the doom and gloom stuff too. I think selling tin foil hats would be a pretty brisk business to be in. Of course, there will probably be quite a few people suffering eye damage afterwards from looking at the sun with their naked eyes.

I've got a solar filter for my Nikon P900 that I will be using when I try to get video from here. That is if clouds don't move in, of course. Maybe I need to go outside now and practice. I tried doing shots of the sun before, and had trouble with the auto focus because there was nothing to provide any contrast when the sun filled the entire screen. It will be a long time before I could get another chance if I flub this one.

I'll be driving home from work during most of it. Supposed to get 81% blocked here. Don't know if because I'm older now but I just kind of have a "meh" feeling about it.

It's supposed to be mostly cloudy with a 50 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms here on Monday. So probably not much chance I'm going to see it.

I'm looking forward to it. My workplace has a big meeting room where they are going to stream footage to.

And they were giving away the quality viewing glasses for free earlier this week.

Originally Posted by WebSlave

It's supposed to be mostly cloudy with a 50 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms here on Monday. So probably not much chance I'm going to see it.

When ever one of those fancy moon showings happen, that is what happens here in Ohio. Heavy clouds and rain.

Got the tripod getup ready and mounted the camera on it. I've got two different filters, so I tried both of them. I took video with both, so maybe I will slice and dice them and show the difference. In short, one allows more light in than the other. The actual solar filter reduces the light enough where features like sunspots are plainly visible, whereas the other filter whites out entirely the entire sun. I'm really not sure which one is going to be best for the eclipse (clouds permitting). Have to think on it a bit. But one good thing I did this is that I noticed that the battery charge dropped pretty rapidly, so I'm going to have to use the AC adapter. I wouldn't want to have the battery go dead right in the middle of the eclipse. Actually I still have to worry about the camera going into thermal shut down, because this August sun is pretty darn hot, and the camera sitting out in direct sunlight before the eclipse reduces the light and head is going to get quite hot.