Here's the detailed report from the last total solar eclipe in August 2017.
https://www.marketforum.com/forum/topic/37388/
https://www.marketforum.com/forum/topic/37388/#37433
By metmike - Aug. 22, 2019, 4:48 p.m.
"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
The kids will be in school in much of the country.
It will be interesting to "see" what they decide to do.
During the last total solar eclipse, in 2017 many schools closed and many stayed open. It was also during Summer vacation for many schools.
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This next time ALL schools will be in session(unless they cancel):
See the times at the link below. Here in Evansville, totality is from 2:02p-2:04pm.
https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/eclipses/2024/apr-8-total/where-when/
http://www.astropixels.com/blog/2017/07/stages-of-a-total-eclipse/
Solar eclipse maps for the next 50 years.
Next one in the Southwest US will be in 2045!
https://time.com/4897581/total-solar-eclipse-years-next/
https://www.businessinsider.com/what-happens-when-you-stare-at-sun-2018-5
WHAT A THRILL IT MUST'VE BEEN WITH YOUR SON! GOOD FOR YOU!!
AS KIDS, WE ALWAYS WATCHED THROUGH A CARDBOARD BOX. I STILL DO! ☀ ✔
ONE EXCEPTION... IN THE '70'S, LIVING IN FL. I HAD FORGOTTEN ABOUT THE PARTIAL! ON MY WAY INTO WORK, WALKING ACROSS THE PARKING LOT ~ I NOTICED A RAPID CHANGE IN THE SUNLIGHT & LOOKED UP AT IT! DUH!! THEM, I REMEMBERED! I IMMEDIATELY STOPPED IN MY TRACKS ~ SHUT MY EYES & BOWED MY HEAD. I STOOD STILL FOR A FEW SECONDS, WONDERING IF I WAS GONNA EVER SEE, AGAIN.
WHEN I OPENED MY EYES, ALL I COULD SEE WAS THE SUN, EVEN THOUGH I WAS LOOKING AT BLACKTOP! I KNEW I COULDN'T SEE WELL ENOUGH TO WORK!
I MADE MY WAY ACROSS THE PARKING LOT & IN THE DOOR. LONG STORY MADE SHORT ~ I GOT A RIDE HOME & LOST 3 DAYS OF WORK.
THEN, WHEN THE"SAFETY" GLASSES CAME OUT... GUESS WHERE THEY WERE MADE ~ CHINA!! THAT WAS THE 1ST THING I LOOKED FOR... COO. I WILL NEVER HAVE A PAIR ~ I'LL STICK WITH MY CARDBOARD BOX & BE A KID FOR AWHILE, AGAIN.
Wow, Jean that had to be a scary experience. Glad that your eyesight came back.
The Florida sun is extremely powerful too.
I'm pretty sure that you can look at the sun for several seconds or so and not have any permanent damage most of the time(not suggesting anybody do that-and short term impacts like you described can happen). As a young person and sun tanner, I did it thousands of times in my life on partly cloudy days when the sun was about to be blocked by the next cloud and I wanted to spot check on how much longer it would be.
I wouldn't want to test this but 30+ seconds would likely cause damage to your retina.
As a kid that did multiple idiotic things, when I was in grade school, I used to see how long I could stare at the sun from our upstairs bathroom window. I think the thing that saved my eyes is that it was early in the day with a low sun angle (which is why it was shining thru the window) and the sun wasn't that powerful yet and we lived in Detroit(pretty far north).
There were several astronomers from centuries ago that had damage to their eyes from not understanding the risk.
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I can't help but go on with additional educational solar science facts! The places below in the dark shades are optimal for utilizing solar energy for generating electricity.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_irradiance
Solar irradiance is the power per unit area (surface power density) received from the Sun in the form of electromagnetic radiation in the wavelength range of the measuring instrument. Solar irradiance is measured in watts per square metre (W/m2) in SI units.
Solar irradiance is often integrated over a given time period in order to report the radiant energy emitted into the surrounding environment (joule per square metre, J/m2) during that time period. This integrated solar irradiance is called solar irradiation, solar exposure, solar insolation, or insolation
The graph below is for New Jersey
https://pressofatlanticcity.com/sun-angle-by-month/pdf_53e867d2-e197-590d-9d23-c7a827d0ca87.html
Wonderful educational discussion below!
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https://www.shsu.edu/~dl_www/bkonline/131online/f02latitude/02index.htm
Back to the eclipse.
This is the best video I could find out there:
Solar Eclipse 101 | National Geographic
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cxrLRbkOwKs
Talking points:
The Sun is 400 times bigger than the moon but it's also 400 times farther away, so the apparent size in the sky of both is the same. The odds of this cosmic oddity occurring is microscopically minuscule.
There are numerous types of solar eclipses. Any 1 point on earth experiences a total solar eclipse once every 400 years.
Partial solar eclipse 10-14-23
Started by metmike - Oct. 14, 2023, 10:22 a.m.
Exactly 4 weeks from today, we will be experiencing The Great TOTAL Solar Eclipse!!!!!!!
Next one in Indiana?
Just 129 years from now, October 2153!!!!
Updated March 15, 2024 138.8K views
https://www.ranker.com/list/songs-about-the-sun/ranker-music
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They're all awesome but this one is my favorite!
There really are some great songs in the top 40!
A penumbral eclipse will happen march 25
partial lunar eclipse on September 18
more events here
5 Incredibly Rare Things That Will Appear in The Sky in 2024 - YouTube
Thanks very much, cutworm!
8 days to go!!!
Schools are closed that day.
7 days to go.
This pattern is not the best for clear skies but it still has potential for an unblocked sun early that afternoon.
The upper level vorticity in yellow creates rising air, which is more favorable for clouds/precipitation. Several other factors need to be considered but this one is marginal because we are also on the edge of cyclonic flow aloft and having strong surface moisture returning with southerly winds.
This is the 6 hour rain forecast for that afternoon from 25 of the different European model ensembles. Most are dry.........that's a good thing.
Surface Weather maps for days 3-7 below:
https://www.wpc.ncep.noaa.gov/medr/medr.shtml
Southerly winds and moisture return on Monday with a warm front passing north of us and approaching storm/cold front to the west.
Looks likely that we will be BETWEEN those systems at eclipse time with a slightly better than 50% chance of sunshine then!
Local NWS forecasting sites:
https://www.nws.noaa.gov/organization.php
This is ours in southwest Indiana:
This is the rest of Indiana:
Indiana
Indianapolis
Nrn. Indiana
We ve been without power for 10 hours from the 6am severe storms so Im unable to show this graphically but it’s still awesome to verbally share the change in the model forecast for next Monday.
we are now hundreds of miles away from significant vorticity and in more ANTI cyclonic flow Aloft with a warm front going thru very early in the morning.
I will up the sunshine to 75% likely vs more like 55% yesterday.
This is one of the most important weather forecast of our lives.
Outside of life threatening severe weather…….this IS THE biggest one ever!!
There has never been one more important for cloud cover.
many people will be traveling thousands of miles and have planned this for a very long time. We need for good viewing for everybody!!!
The computer model numerical forecast has sunshine at 29% during the eclipse.
I'll stick with 75% because of the pattern!
my apology for misinterpreting. That 29% is for cloud cover which is 71% sun. We agree!!
