Solar eclipse of August 21, 2017

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_eclipse_of_August_21,_2017

The solar eclipse of August 21, 2017, dubbed the "Great American Eclipse" by the media,^[1] was a total solar eclipse visible within a band that spanned the entire contiguous United States, passing from the Pacific to the Atlantic coasts.

Animation of the eclipse shadow: The dot in the center represents the path of totality.

The path of totality across the United States

Meteorologist Grant,

This eclipse went right thru your area in Missouri. What was your experience that day?

My oldest son, Quinn and I drove south from Evansville IN to be in the ideal location to view it............and we found it. The parking lot of a McDonalds in Princeton KY!

This is my report from that day, just over 2 years ago:

Quinn and I left Evansville IN around 9:15am, headed south into Kentucky with an objective of stopping somewhere close to where the solar eclipse would last for over 2 minutes long.

After traveling due south for an hour on the Pennyrile Parkway, we were already in the total eclipse zone of over 90 seconds but headed west on the Western Kentucky Parkway to increase that closer to the maximum of 2 minutes and 40 seconds,  not knowing exactly where we were stopping. We wanted to avoid designated sites because they might have too much traffic and people.

Quinn decided to get some coffee and we got off at the Princeton KY exit, which turned out to be a genius move. Princeton, it turns out was THE best location anywhere, located 2 miles due north of the spot with the maximum solar eclipse time in the country of 2 minutes 40 secs or 160 seconds.

Quinn found a McDonalds not too far away. We noticed numerous spots in their parking lot that were open and asked if it was ok to park there for the eclipse. The parking lot was surrounded by a large grassy area, where other people had already started to gather from their parked cars. There were also signs up for customers to see, telling customers that McDonalds would be closed for 30 minutes early that afternoon so that all the employees could go outside to watch the eclipse.

I decided to check the license plates of the other cars in the parking lot as additional cars filled in the empty spots.......Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virgina, Virgina, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Georgia, Florida, Texas, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Utah, Arkansas, Louisiana, New York,  Ontario Canada and of course Kentucky-WOW! 18 states and 1 province of Canada.

Spoke with several groups and most of the distant out of towners had spent the night in a Kentucky motel, some had to stay an hour away to get a spot because they were booked by people there for the eclipse.. Many were like us though, not knowing for sure exactly what location they would end up watching the eclipse from but just wanting to be very close to the exact center to maximize the duration.  Funny that so many people drove  many hundreds of miles away and ended up in this Princeton KY, McDonalds parking lot with us that day!

I had a home made sun filter for the camcorder(from cut out material from the extra eclipse glasses) but unfortunately, it did not show the shrinking, crescent sun very well. I discovered by a fluke though, the reflection of the sun off of  my I-pad, using the filter, captured the eclipse better.

Some of the people there had really, really expensive camera equipment, so that was sort of funny. 

Turns out too that Quinn parked the car perfectly so that opening his sun roof, allowed us to watch the progressing eclipse from inside his car, using our eclipse glasses.

At first, there was not much to notice until the sun was around half covered by the moons shadow......other than seeing it clearly using the eclipse glasses. At that point, things started to get a bit weird. The sunlight started getting less bright, the outside body of the car was no longer too hot to touch because the sun was getting weak. The air temperature outside, which had been at 95, started dropping noticeably. 

While we still had a ways to go until totality, Quinn was relaying reports from Mac, my younger son who had driven from his home in Colorado to watch the total eclipse from Wyoming. The eclipse started along the West Coast and moved east, so he saw it much earlier than we did.  As did Patti(my sister) and her family that also drove from ND to WY to see it. Our younger brother Brian, who lives in Portland, also drove south that day with his family and was the first to see the eclipse.

 I called Mac shortly after totality had ended for him and he was on the way home but we had around 30 minutes to go. At his location, they had been celebrating with firecrackers during totality. He was amused about driving thru Evansville Wyoming. There are several Evansville's from other states.

When the sun was close to 90% covered it got very weird. Every thing was getting very dim and the temperature outside dropped even more. At around 95%, Quinn's automatic car lights went on because it was getting so dark.  The changes for the last 5% were greater than the changes for the first 95% as far as light outside. With less than 5% to go, you could actually look at the sun without a filter and not have it be too bright anymore.

When the entire disc of the sun was engulfed by the moons shadow, you could still see the outer atmosphere of the sun, the corona that illuminated the very outside of the dark disc/shadow of the moon but nothing else. The difference between totality and still a fraction of sun peaking out earlier was enormous. Everybody applauded loudly at the exact moment of totality.  It was dark but not pitch dark. We could see some stars. It was probably similar to how it is outside during a full moon, maybe just a tad brighter.

This lasted for 160 seconds. When the tiniest sliver of the sun peaked back out on the other side of the moons shadow, it seemed way brighter than the same amount of sun seemed like heading into the eclipse........because our eyes had adjusted to the 160 seconds of darkness.

A minute after the sun re appeared, the show was completely over as far as the spectators were concerned.  Though the 2nd half of the eclipse was underway and had over an hour to go, after totality ends........everything else is anti climatic.

We got in the car and headed home. It took around 40 minutes for everything to start looking normal again outside(as we drove home) as the shadow of the moon cast upon the sun went away. The temperature also climbed back up into the 90's, after cooling by almost 10 degrees earlier, during the eclipse.

The video below is zoomed in, so it looks better than what we actually saw with the naked eye. However, there is nothing like being there and the experience,  which no video can capture. Well worth the 6+ hours of time invested that included travel. Actually not much travel time compared to most of the folks there today.  After going almost a century since the previous total solar eclipse was this close to home, the next one is in April 2024.

Addition: I'll bet nobody there cared about what anybody else there thought about politics. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0VKrhEi1USU

Less than 5 years until the next total solar eclipse!

Solar eclipse of April 8, 2024(Monday)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_eclipse_of_April_8,_2024

Best regional maps to show the path of totality and center!

https://www.space.com/37878-solar-eclipse-2024-path-of-totality-maps.html

The Next Eclipse

Missouri and Illinois

We did an all day live broadcast. I took this photo while on the air outside the studio. It was an awesome event. Everything gets quiet. The animals outside think it's becoming night. Love how shadows start to look like crescent moons the close you get to the eclipse. The next one in 2024 will be right through our area again. This time over 4 minutes of darkness. we were around 1:50 for the last one. 

For those that are not aware of it, Grant is chief meteorologist for a tv station in Southeast MO and I'm also an operational meteorologist(chief meteorologist for WEHT 1982-1993).

So an event like this is completely off the charts(weather or astronomy) in our world!

Grant Dade

 First Alert Chief Meteorologist, KFVS

 Cape Girardeau, MO

https://www.kfvs12.com/authors/grant-dade/