A total eclipse of the US

[me and my metro]

We went to Madras, Oregon with 100,000 new friends. My sister and her husband drove up from San Diego with the scopes and camera gear. When they get home and massage the pictures with his computer program, I will post the diamond ring and corona shots. Next for us is Waco, TX in April 2024.

[redpoint5]

I heard Madras was impossible to leave post-eclipse. When did you leave, and how long did it take to travel out?

[vskid3]

Traffic on I-15 going to Idaho Sunday morning was heavy, but stayed around the speed limit most of the way. Almost immediately after the eclipse, going from Idaho Falls, ID to the SLC, UT area took about 2-2.5x the normal time and continued for the rest of the day (I went home today, traffic wasn't quite as heavy as going).

The eclipse was amazing. The way the darkness fell was eerie, it wasn't like cloud cover or a sunset, it was more like just turning down the brightness of a screen. Some of us got on the roof right before the totality and had a great view of the 360° twilight at the horizon. The corona peaking from behind the moon was awesome, few pictures capture how it actually looks and I haven't seen any that truly capture its magnificence. It felt like something out of a sci-fi movie; I half expected an alien attack. Totality lasted about 2:13 where I was and not a cloud in the sky. We saw shadow bands before and after. They didn't look like snakes like we'd heard, but they were pretty cool looking.

I didn't think I'd be one who would go crazy over chasing them, but now I think I'll give it a good effort to get to the one in 2024. I'll just stare at the corona next time.

[freebeard]

Originally Posted by Xist

The President stared down the sun until it hid behind the moon.

Oh, just stop. He glanced up for a second, stepped back into the shade of a column and put on the glasses and then stood with his wife and watched for a minute.

I wanted the full eclipse experience and there wasn't any traffic on the way up the day before, so I went through downtown Corvallis instead of retracing my original route. That added 30-45 minutes; but then traffic was backed up as well in Harrisburg. It took longer to get past the cement plant than it did downtown Corvallis. It was all headed South and there was nothing almost all the way to I-5. But here was a steady stream of traffic west from I-5 to North Coburg Road and it grid-locked at the intersection North of town.

The only explanation I heard was the Brownsville Music Festival that saw 15,000 people a day, but that ended on the 18th.

One of my favorite Youtube comentators put on a colander and went all Pastafarian about people getting excited about the eclipse. But I think it brings people face-to-face with primordial reality, and people crave that.

What do you think of this:


Gizmodo: Today's Solar Eclipse Left a Path of Nightmarish Traffic in Its Wake

The image is credited to Google Maps/Gizmodo; but shows the path of the totality stretching from Seattle to Portland. Fake news. Sad.

[me and my metro]

My sister took back roads to Redmond which is 20 miles South of Madras. She left at 6PM and it took about an hour. We left at 8AM on Tuesday and did not have any traffic issues. We drove South on 97 to Redmond and West on 20 to the valley.

My sister drove to K Falls on Tuesday and it took 5 1/2 hours due to traffic headed back to Cali. This is probably about an hour longer than normal for that drive.

[ChopStix]

I got some good pictures.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w5Vqgq-Bk8A

[freebeard]

Do you know why it starts at 5 o'clock travels clockwise to the totality at 2 o'clock and then finishes back at 5 o'clock?

It turns out the Solar System is [declared] 'racist' by The Atlantic. https://duckduckgo.com/html?q=racist%20eclipse

[Xist]

I forgot which news sources had headlines effectively saying "Haha! The President is an idiot! He doesn't know better than to look at the sun!" I just restated what I read.

I have hardly kept up on current events since changing jobs. I do not discuss them with kids K - 2. I killed time one day at work reading Dogo News and tried to share something interesting with my supervisor and she said she did not want to hear about current events.

I really think Dogo is different, but whatever.

Doesn't Aerohead live somewhere near Waco? Ecomodder meetup 2024!

Hopefully by then I will be able to figure out some big pinhole camera or something better.

Does anyone else have a grey text box? It kind of looks cool, but I like contrast!

[freebeard]

I forgot which news sources had headlines effectively saying "Haha! The President is an idiot! He doesn't know better than to look at the sun!" I just restated what I read.

I have hardly kept up on current events since changing jobs.

They all did. They count on people only reading the headlines.I'm fortunate in being able to go a little deeper. I actually watch 16 contiguous minutes on CNN (via Youtube), of all places.

I do not discuss them with kids K - 2. I killed time one day at work reading Dogo News and tried to share something interesting with my supervisor and she said she did not want to hear about current events.

Are you familiar with Timothy Leary's theory of the four terrestrial circuits and four extraterrestrial circuits in the human brain? At K-2 they only have the third circuit turned on. Your supervisor on the other hand has no excuse, but I'm surrounded by people like that too.

I really think Dogo is different, but whatever.

I found out that Monsters Vs. Aliens: Mutant Pumpkins From Outer Space was released in 2009. https://www.dogomovies.com/

[gumby79]

Rexburg, ID near the center of the line of totality . Went down on Friday to get enough space for the clan coming from ,other parts of the less wild west 19 in all. It was amazing ive had 3 partial eclipses in my life this was my first full. Worth the effort,yes.
Trafic was a problem going east on US20 took 6hrs to get to Yellowstone national park less than 100 mi +3hr layover to help a stranded motorist(starter wet the bed , he was using manual start stop ). The problem ,according to a stater that stoped to help, was the 3 1 mi long passing lains and poor etiquette.

+1 on an ecomodder eclipse gathering