U.S. Solar Eclipses - Oct. 14, 2023 (Annular) & Apr. 08, 2024 (Total)

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In summary, the 2017 total eclipse was awesome and Americans should start working on their travel plans for the 2024 eclipse which will be even more amazing.
  • #1
Borg
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The 2017 total eclipse was awesome and we're going to get another opportunity at totality in the U.S in just over a year from now on Apr. 08, 2024. There will also be an annular eclipse on Oct. 14 this year. Time to start working on those travel plans before all of the hotels are gone. :smile:

First off, here's a good site with maps by state showing the path of the 2024 total eclipse. Each state map also has links to more detailed information about totality along the path and the cities in the path of totality.

The American Astronomical Society page here shows a map with median cloud that might be helpful in determining where to go. The bottom of that page lists some additional resources including one called eclipse2024.org that also looks interesting.

Tinally, here are some resources from NASA:
2023-2024_eclipse_map_1920.jpg
 
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  • #2
You dirty rat, I was going to start this thread next week, on the T-minus one year mark.

I'm starting my planning (equipment inventory and upgrades) and eyeing Erie, PA for my trip.
 
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  • #3
russ_watters said:
eyeing Erie, PA
Presque Isle State Park, that peninsula out in the lake?

If I do the trip, I'll probably stay in my home town in Ohio, which is near the edge of the totality zone, but only an hour's drive from the lake, someplace like Ashtabula or Conneaut or Geneva-on-the-Lake.
 
  • #4
I have a relative in Ohio who lives right on the edge of the totality line. That will probably be my base. When I drove home after 2017, I got stuck in a multi-hour traffic jam. Don't want to go through that again.
 
  • #5
If you have to travel, and need a place to stay, you already may have waited too late. I know that when we tried to book something for the last eclipse, even though it was over a year away by months, every place that could be booked was full. We did find one place that only booked a year in advance, so we marked it on the calendar, and made our reservation the instant they started taking them.
 
  • #6
Borg said:
The 2017 total eclipse was awesome and we're going to get another opportunity at totality in the U.S in just over a year from now on Apr. 08, 2024. There will also be an annular eclipse on Oct. 14 this year. Time to start working on those travel plans before all of the hotels are gone. :smile:
The centerline of the total eclipse (4/8/24) is going to pass within a few hundred yards of when I am currently sitting (downtown Cleve-town). Hoping there will be a viewing party similar to the partial eclipse a few years ago, in 2017. And, of course, hoping for clear skies :)
 
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  • #9
Nugatory said:
https://xkcd.com/1880/
Interesting. I read an article that suggests if you've never seen one and think a total solar eclipse is much like a partial eclipse, only moreso, you are sadly mistaken. Some say the difference is like ... night and day. Some say it's almost transcendent.

I guess that answers my question as to whether I've actually seen a total (and forgotten, or been too young) or only just partials. It sounds like the kind of thing you never forget.
 
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  • #10
I think that the comic is spot-on based on my own experience for the last one. Even though I knew what to expect from a scientific viewpoint, actually experiencing it was awesome.
 
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  • #11
I have changed my plans for April 8th.

I'm gonna throw an Eclipse Party!

I just found out totality is going to miss all of Toronto, so any of my friends who want to see it can come visit us in Stoney Creek.
 
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  • #12
Now I begin to wonder what it might look like from different viewpoints.

I can see across the lake to Toronto - a 60km sightline - from where I live. I wonder what it would be like to take a picture during totality of the distant sunlit Toronto skyline.

Or a pic of twilight Stoney Creek from Toronto.

If I were at a sufficiently high elevation, say, CN Tower's Observation Deck, I wonder if I could see a light-dark differentiation from East to West.
 
  • #13
DaveC426913 said:
Now I begin to wonder what it might look like from different viewpoints.

I can see across the lake to Toronto - a 60km sightline - from where I live. I wonder what it would be like to take a picture during totality of the distant sunlit Toronto skyline.

Or a pic of twilight Stoney Creek from Toronto.

If I were at a sufficiently high elevation, say, CN Tower's Observation Deck, I wonder if I could see a light-dark differentiation from East to West.

You will be able to see this effect then. It is a sight you don't see everyday. It would only be a little cooler if you had (or maybe you do have) a view in the direction along the path.

Several years ago (2017) I was in Missouri for the total eclipse. Unfortunately for me, last-minute cloud clover obscured the sun/moon from my vantage for the entire totality duration. :frown: But one thing I did have a good view of the horizons. I was on a hill in a mostly rural area. I could see the Moon's shadow move across the land, to and fro, from miles away.

As I recall, even though it did get nighttime-dark at my location, there was always at least some places along the horizon that I could see that were sunshine-lit, in one direction or another, as the shadow passed. [Edit: Even if I couldn't see any directly sun-lit areas, there was always at least a little glow somewhere along the horizons, in one direction or another.] The whole experience was qualitatively different than it just getting dark like nighttime.

[Edit: My phone was the one running the countdown app, informing everyone when it was safe to take off the glasses, and put them on again, so my phone was in use and I didn't take any photographs/videos of the phenomenon. I don't know how well such photos/videos would have turned out anyway, with the camera's auto-exposure and all -- It might be one of those things you just really need to experience in person.]
 
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  • #14
DaveC426913 said:
Interesting. I read an article that suggests if you've never seen one and think a total solar eclipse is much like a partial eclipse, only moreso, you are sadly mistaken. Some say the difference is like ... night and day. Some say it's almost transcendent.

I guess that answers my question as to whether I've actually seen a total (and forgotten, or been too young) or only just partials. It sounds like the kind of thing you never forget.
Below is an image I concocted prior to the 2017 eclipse as many people didn't seem to understand the difference.

2017-07-26-why-go-to-totality-png.png
 
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  • #15
Indeed. I did not realize until recently that (of course!) you take your glasses off for the toltality itself. And, if you want to see the "Diamond Ring", you have to take them off 10-20 seconds before and/or after totality. (That's gonna be fun to coordinate with a 4-year-old in-tow...).
 
  • #16
DaveC426913 said:
And, if you want to see the "Diamond Ring", you have to take them off 10-20 seconds before and/or after totality. (That's gonna be fun to coordinate with a 4-year-old in-tow...).
NASA guidance is not to do that. If you want to see the diamond ring, the 1 second coming out of totality while raising your eclipse glasses back up to your face will be enough. The upper-middle (99%, no filter) image is correct, and I don't have any memory of seeing the diamond ring coming out of totality in 2017. It's too bright. Looks great in photos though.
 
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  • #17
jtbell said:
If I do the trip, I'll probably stay in my home town in Ohio, which is near the edge of the totality zone,
That is in fact what my wife and I will do. My undergraduate alma mater, about an hour's drive further into the totality zone, is having an eclipse event, probably similar to the one at our college here in 2017. We reserved a few nights at the hotel where we always stay when we go up there, back in October or November.
 
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  • #18
jtbell said:
We reserved a few nights at the hotel where we always stay
Be careful. During the last eclipse hotels were throwing out people with confirmed reservations to get new guests willing to pay $1000/night. I believe the Oregon AG got involved, but of course by then it was too late.

Also, while I hate to defend Canada, the eclipse will be visible from parts of Eastern Canada. It's not a strictly US event. Can we change the title?
 
  • #19
Vanadium 50 said:
Also, while I hate to defend Canada, the eclipse will be visible from parts of Eastern Canada.
Come to Stoney Creek. I'm havin' an eclipse party.
 
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  • #20
I have a couple pairs of glasses I used back in '23, but I've heard (on TV news) that they wouldn't be safe now. Why is that?
 
  • #21
dlgoff said:
I have a couple pairs of glasses I used back in '23, but I've heard (on TV news) that they wouldn't be safe now. Why is that?
Last year? No clue, that doesn't make sense. Some of mine are from 2017.
 
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  • #22
russ_watters said:
Last year?
Well, maybe it wasn't last year. Must have been back when there was a partial eclipse here. If your glasses are from 2017, then I'm not going to worry about it.
...Thanks
 
  • #23
These glasses are aluminized mylar. That stuff lasts forever. If you have any incandescent bulbs left, you can also use them to see the filament - giving them a dry run as it were.

(I have to be nice to @dlgoff , my future father-in-law. :smile: )
 
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  • #24
Andy Resnick said:
The centerline of the total eclipse (4/8/24) is going to pass within a few hundred yards of when I am currently sitting (downtown Cleve-town)
It's also Opening Day for the Inndians Guardians.
 
  • #25
dlgoff said:
I have a couple pairs of glasses I used back in '23, but I've heard (on TV news) that they wouldn't be safe now. Why is that?
Expiry dates on eclipse glasses were invented by Big Eclipse to sell more eclipses.
 
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  • #26
Vanadium 50 said:
If you have any incandescent bulbs left, you can also use them to see the filament
I do, but the glasses are too dark to see the filament.
 
  • #27
Vanadium 50 said:
Be careful. During the last eclipse hotels were throwing out people with confirmed reservations to get new guests willing to pay $1000/night.
:eek: This prompted me to fire up that hotel chain's app for the first time since I registered. (I usually use a different chain, but their property in my home town is twice as expensive than most of their others, even in normal times.) The reservation is still there, with confirmation number and the message "See you in 22 days!" Whew. We'll keep checking, maybe even give the local number a call at some point.

This isn't super close to the centerline. As I recall, totality in my home town will last about a minute. At my alma mater, it will be about 3 minutes. Along the Lake Erie shoreline it will be about 4 minutes. The main roads leading up to the lake will be jammed, but we're not going that far, and we'll be using local roads that I know well. So I'm not too worried about potential traffic. We'll leave early and make a day out of it.
 
  • #28
jtbell said:
The main roads leading up to the lake will be jammed, but we're not going that far, and we'll be using local roads that I know well. So I'm not too worried about potential traffic. We'll leave early and make a day out of it.
Dum de dum. Just me 'n my eclipse 'n all this food - juuuust over the border...
 
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  • #29
Vanadium 50 said:
It's also Opening Day for the Inndians Guardians.
Heh... yep. It's also during the Film Festival. Any crowd photos should be impressive.
 
  • #30
I believe totality is before the game, so it won't be called on account of darkness in the second inning.
 
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  • #31
Vanadium 50 said:
If you have any incandescent bulbs left, you can also use them to see the filament - giving them a dry run as it were.
Yesterday I used a pair to show my nephew an LED flashlight chip.
 
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  • #32
We were going to go see it in 2017 but ultimately had to admit that it would have been a crazy amount of effort to hopefully experience that minute or three of transcendence. So we skipped it. Maybe if we'd planned for it a year or two in advance but we didn't. Not going this year either. Maybe we will take acid and listen to Dark Side of the Moon instead.

Hope you guys have a good time.
 
  • #33
So yeah. Canada is a population of 38 million; Ontario is home to 15 million of them, and GTA a third of that.

The eclipse is going to miss (but still be within driving distance of) the single largest commuity in the country - most of them with "Fear Of Missing Out" Disease - and limit itself to the very tippy tippy tip of Ontario - the Niagara Peninsula, which is a dead-end on three sides with only one major route in and out.

Niagara Falls is expecting an influx of visitors the likes of which it has never seen in its history as a world-recognized tourist destination.

This is a time-sensitive event that lasts less than three minutes. There is no arriving late or "waiting till the crowds die down".

And the entire peninsula is serviced by a single six lane skyway bridge. A bridge that is already a known bottleneck during any rush hour.

1710946569079.png
 
  • #34
The more sensible option may be to go northeast, not southeast. Try and get close to Prince Edward County. It's probably too late to sign up for a booze cruise on the lake, but that would be another option.
 
  • #35
It appears that you can still get a hotel on the Canadian side of Niagra Falls. Gee, I wonder why the prices are so high. :oldlaugh:

EclipsePrices.JPG
 

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