Total Solar Eclipse 2024

After that eclipse I know what my wife means when she say “3 min isn’t that long! “
😳
🤣
🤣
now that is funny
 
That was the most surprising to me. Before totality, even with just a tiny sliver of the sun still visible, it was still pretty light outside. That, and how noticeably cooler it became.
and the birds quit chirpingfor the total darkness, and when the sliver of the sun showed again.. they started chirping again.....
 
Very cool.

We easily saw more deer than cars on the ride home.

Where was all the predicted traffic?
Route 2 was a mess. Where did you watch? I was on Catawba. We encountered people who traveled in from all over. Surprised me a bit.
A couple of observations that were not mentioned.
The wind died down just before and during totality, much like it often does at sunset.
Approaching totality looked like a dark storm coming in.
When in the center of totality it looked like a sunrise/ sunset in every direction.
99% totality is 100% differant than full totality.
This was very cool IMO. It got cooler and dark to the West and afterward dark to the East (obviously). I took video on the phone but that does not do it justice. Stars came out and Venus was visible to the SW of the Sun. Everyone near me noticed a bright dot at the bottom of the moon. Turns out we saw "Baily's Beads."


I went in with little expectations but was blown away with how cool it was.
 
Some random thoughts:

The so-called "Diamond Ring" was really cool.

I am amazed at how science can predict these things dozens and even hundreds of years in advance, down to minutes and seconds; the exact path; and the exact percent of totality. The accuracy of the elliptical orbital calculations are amazing: the Earth is speeding through the Solar System at 67,000 mph, while spinning on its axis at 1000 mph, as the moon orbits around Earth at 2300 mph. Factor in Earth's tilt; wobbles in orbit; apparent sizes of the Sun and moon; etc. Simply amazing science/math.

Last, I am pleasantly surprised that nobody has posted Bonnie Tyler's "Total Eclipse of the Heart"!
 
Route 2 was a mess. Where did you watch?
Our son owns 11 acres near Clyde. We figured his place to be just under 10 miles from the exact center line of the path. My son put NY strip steaks from Bubba Rock's on the grill later and we didn't head back west until 7:00 pm. By then any traffic that existed was long gone.
I was on Catawba. We encountered people who traveled in from all over. Surprised me a bit.
My wife had family up from Marietta. I had family from Virginia and Georgia. We visited with those folks on Saturday and Sunday and avoided people on Monday.

This was very cool IMO. It got cooler and dark to the West and afterward dark to the East (obviously). I took video on the phone but that does not do it justice. Stars came out and Venus was visible to the SW of the Sun. Everyone near me noticed a bright dot at the bottom of the moon. Turns out we saw "Baily's Beads."
We too saw the red spot on the bottom. I grabbed my always handy bird-watching binoculars and saw several red and yellow "beads."

The whole experience was very cool.
 
Didn't think I'd ever see even one in my life, but I did notch my second total solar eclipse.

The fates were trying to stop me, though. Had to work a night shift thru 6 AM yesterday, then go to a 10 AM board meeting church. Mrs. Z pulled me out there at 12:30 PM.

Had considered heading up 33 to Marysville, but our son who lives in Kalamazoo wisely suggested we meet him in Bluffton OH in their local park. My girlfriend Siri must still love me, she kept us on wide-open rural routes and got us there at 2:30 with no traffic. Maybe 30 people total in the park, mostly families with little kids. Perfect viewing spot.

We were on US 33 NW a short time, passed a rest stop near Bellefontaine around 1:30. Place was filling up fast with cars and people camped out in their chairs - wow. Not sure what kind of traffic they dealt with afterward.

Impressed with the number of local police and state troopers parked along the way, both major routes and rural, most of them with those big e-signs on trailers saying "DO NOT STOP FOR ECLIPSE".

Conditions weren't perfect. A very thin layer of cirrus covered the sky, but still allowed a decent view. My wife, my son, and his gf were pretty stoked seeing their first one. Interestingly, their mountain cur was unimpressed and just sat calmly. And that beautiful corona popped out and made the whole thing worthwhile. I didn't time it - maybe 3.5 minutes of totality?

Siri put in some overtime getting us home, re-routed us 5 or 6 times on the way. Even with rush hour and eclipse traffic, we still made it home in 2 hrs 20 mins. Not bad. Not bad at all.
 
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Could you imagine prehistoric man experiencing this?
Some modern people have trouble understanding what is happening.

We set the lawn chairs and refreshments in our son's yard and started watching around 2:30. His only neighbor lives about 100 yards away across the meadow. At 3:00 the woman yelled over,

Her: Are you looking for the eclipse?

Us: Yes.

Her, pointing: It's over here.

Us: Yes, we can see it.

Her: You can see it over there?

Us: Yes.

Her: You can?

Us: Yes, thanks.
 
Some modern people have trouble understanding what is happening.

We set the lawn chairs and refreshments in our son's yard and started watching around 2:30. His only neighbor lives about 100 yards away across the meadow. At 3:00 the woman yelled over,

Her: Are you looking for the eclipse?

Us: Yes.

Her, pointing: It's over here.

Us: Yes, we can see it.

Her: You can see it over there?

Us: Yes.

Her: You can?

Us: Yes, thanks.
That is hilarious and sad at the same time. Could she have been joking (he asked hopefully)?
 
Didn't think I'd ever see even one in my life, but I did notch my second total solar eclipse.

The fates were trying to stop me, though. Had to work a night shift thru 6 AM yesterday, then go to a 10 AM board meeting church. Mrs. Z pulled me out there at 12:30 PM.

Had considered heading up 33 to Marysville, but our son who lives in Kalamazoo wisely suggested we meet him in Bluffton OH in their local park. My girlfriend Siri must still love me, she kept us on wide-open rural routes and got us there at 2:30 with no traffic. Maybe 30 people total in the park, mostly families with little kids. Perfect viewing spot.

We were on US 33 NW a short time, passed a rest stop near Bellefontaine around 1:30. Place was filling up fast with cars and people camped out in their chairs - wow. Not sure what kind of traffic they dealt with afterward.

Impressed with the number of local police and state troopers parked along the way, both major routes and rural, most of them with those big e-signs on trailers saying "DO NOT STOP FOR ECLIPSE".

Conditions weren't perfect. A very thin layer of cirrus covered the sky, but still allowed a decent view. My wife, my son, and his gf were pretty stoked seeing their first one. Interestingly, their mountain cur was unimpressed and just sat calmly. And that beautiful corona popped out and made the whole thing worthwhile. I didn't time it - maybe 3.5 minutes of totality?

Siri put in some overtime getting us home, re-routed us 5 or 6 times on the way. Even with rush hour and eclipse traffic, we still made it home in 2 hrs 20 mins. Not bad. Not bad at all.

that's the same rest area I mentioned earlier. I went by there around 10/10:30 so some of those people had been there for a while. If they were from C-bus or points east, they'd have been ahead of anyone who went to Indian Lake or Wapakoneta.
 
It seems less and less people believe that a timeless all-powerful god created an orderly universe. Why is this not anymore believe than a belief that a quantum vacuum created everything out of nothing using a accidental explosion. People can pick their choice and they both require faith to believe because neither can to proved. Our choices are a God created the universe on purpose or that some thing happened in a random and chaotic manner. If we live in a chaotic universe that just happen, how is it possible for what we call science to predict things will happen years in advance. It was reported that this total eclipse would happen and they even predicted when. How long since the report was published? How about Apr 30, 2000. How can a universe created by chance become predictable? Does not this eclipse prove order?
 
It seems less and less people believe that a timeless all-powerful god created an orderly universe. Why is this not anymore believe than a belief that a quantum vacuum created everything out of nothing using a accidental explosion. People can pick their choice and they both require faith to believe because neither can to proved. Our choices are a God created the universe on purpose or that some thing happened in a random and chaotic manner. If we live in a chaotic universe that just happen, how is it possible for what we call science to predict things will happen years in advance. It was reported that this total eclipse would happen and they even predicted when. How long since the report was published? How about Apr 30, 2000. How can a universe created by chance become predictable? Does not this eclipse prove order?
Observable evidence.
 
It seems less and less people believe that a timeless all-powerful god created an orderly universe. Why is this not anymore believe than a belief that a quantum vacuum created everything out of nothing using a accidental explosion. People can pick their choice and they both require faith to believe because neither can to proved. Our choices are a God created the universe on purpose or that some thing happened in a random and chaotic manner. If we live in a chaotic universe that just happen, how is it possible for what we call science to predict things will happen years in advance. It was reported that this total eclipse would happen and they even predicted when. How long since the report was published? How about Apr 30, 2000. How can a universe created by chance become predictable? Does not this eclipse prove order?
"Our choices are a God created the universe on purpose or ..."

Which god? If a god created the universe, who created that god? More questions than answers, either way you believe.
 
Some modern people have trouble understanding what is happening.

We set the lawn chairs and refreshments in our son's yard and started watching around 2:30. His only neighbor lives about 100 yards away across the meadow. At 3:00 the woman yelled over,

Her: Are you looking for the eclipse?

Us: Yes.

Her, pointing: It's over here.

Us: Yes, we can see it.

Her: You can see it over there?

Us: Yes.

Her: You can?

Us: Yes, thanks.
Maybe she wanted a little sumpin sumpin
 
I know it's a crapshoot trying to predict how many people will show up to your town for these events. And the best thing to do is to get advice from those who went through it previously. But where are all the people? My town is on the line and I haven't really seen much uptick in the number of people around here. Are others seeing more people?
We didn't see the expected big crowds in Delphos either. An Eclipse Facebook page had people posting that many towns did not see the crowds that cities in the 2017 Eclipse saw. I don't know if they went somewhere else or were scared off by the forecast of traffic jams. But I-75 around Toledo had a HUGE traffic jam as people from TSUN went home after the Eclipse. At our Museum in Delphos we had visitors from 19 states and the UK. Some had family here but some came here because of our location and some came here because of our connection to Leslie Peltier. It was a great weekend nonetheless.
 
The Eclipse was far more incredible than I could have imagined. Did anyone see the Ruby ring? Apparently a huge blast of plasma from the sun came out during totality. I did not see it but others did and I've seen pictures. Pretty awesome.
 
I rode my bike down to the coast guard station at the mouth of the Cuyahoga (fwiw I highly recommend a trip down there eclipse or no eclipse, great views of downtown and the lake)

Definitely lived up to the hype. I'd describe it something along the lines of "the coolest sunset I've ever seen x1000." Did anyone see that comet they were talking about? I was blown-away and completely forgot to even look for that in the moment.

There were definitely crowds but nowhere near the amount of people they were talking about. I was easily able to maneuver my bike past walkers on the trail without ever feeling unsafe/overcrowded
 
Last thing I'll add is that the birds definitely knew something was up. A couple minutes before totality as it just started to get darker/colder they started flying around more and chirping. Anyone's dogs or other animals do anything interesting?
 
Last thing I'll add is that the birds definitely knew something was up. A couple minutes before totality as it just started to get darker/colder they started flying around more and chirping. Anyone's dogs or other animals do anything interesting?
1 of my dogs acted quite differently right before totality and jumped up on my lap.

He.never does that outside and even indoors stands there next to me to.lift him up.
 
We didn't see the expected big crowds in Delphos either. An Eclipse Facebook page had people posting that many towns did not see the crowds that cities in the 2017 Eclipse saw. I don't know if they went somewhere else or were scared off by the forecast of traffic jams. But I-75 around Toledo had a HUGE traffic jam as people from TSUN went home after the Eclipse. At our Museum in Delphos we had visitors from 19 states and the UK. Some had family here but some came here because of our location and some came here because of our connection to Leslie Peltier. It was a great weekend nonetheless.
As I stated earlier, it seemed like every area was expecting tens and thousands of visitors and that just was not realistic. The path was very long and those traveling had so many options of places to go.
We saw people from all over the country and even France I talked to today.
I am surrounded by campgrounds that keep their rigs there all yr. Those folk did not show up by and large.

State campgrounds was full. All the FREE public parking was full and it was very busy, sorta what I expected.

I was pleased to see those trying to charge to park were pretty much left holding the bag and some stopped altogether when it was an apparent waste of time.

In 2045 is it....I may travel a bit south to see it again God willing I'm still around as it was cool.

I just hope places didn't get stuck with a lot of extra stuff they won't be able to unload because of the hype.
 
As I stated earlier, it seemed like every area was expecting tens and thousands of visitors and that just was not realistic. The path was very long and those traveling had so many options of places to go.
We saw people from all over the country and even France I talked to today.
I am surrounded by campgrounds that keep their rigs there all yr. Those folk did not show up by and large.

State campgrounds was full. All the FREE public parking was full and it was very busy, sorta what I expected.

I was pleased to see those trying to charge to park were pretty much left holding the bag and some stopped altogether when it was an apparent waste of time.

In 2045 is it....I may travel a bit south to see it again God willing I'm still around as it was cool.

I just hope places didn't get stuck with a lot of extra stuff they won't be able to unload because of the hype.
State and local government and planning committees only had data from 2017 to go by. That data showed virtually every town in the path of totality was packed with visitors. The path in 2017 was as long if not longer than 2024 and the 2024 path was closer to more populations centers than 2017 making it easier for more people to get to totality. We now have another set of data points for the next eclipse. Countdown to 2099 starts. :)
 
The most fascinating place to watch 2045 from would be in Colorado. More specifically Pikes Peak or Mt Blue Sky (nee Evans). The views from 14000 feet are already stunning. Now add totality to to that.
 
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