Good Behavior on Eclipse Day

[JuanSeiszFitzHall]

Just a reminder that if you travel to the viewing zone for the solar eclipse, this coming Monday, try to respect the people who live there, and the infrastructure on which they depend. In particular, if you take lots of photos, please don't upload them immediately. Do that the following day, and/or after you return home. The cell networks in the big cities (Dallas, Cleveland, Indianapolis, etc.) might be able to carry the extra traffic, but in smaller towns this could cause a problem for emergency responders.

This is one of the less obvious aspects of an event like this. The obvious ones can also be problems for both locals and visitors: Access to drinking water, gasoline, food, and flush toilets. Everyone please plan accordingly.

 

[MrPixel]

We're in the totality path in a rural area. As commented elsewhere, we have been told by authorities to not depend on cell service proximate to the event.

As to flush toilets - there is already news out there about a porta-potty shortage. In general, southern Illinois is not equipped to handle the expected crowds. I'll be stocking supplies tomorrow (Thursday) figuring on digging-in since I expect infrastructure burden starting Friday evening with crowds staying the weekend.

While here I'll hawk my LitE 750-word story about the 2017 eclipse. True, names changed to protect the guilty.

 

[oneagainst]

I was smack in the middle of the path of totality in the last one, Exmouth peninsula in Western Australia. There were probably two hundred of us at the end of a dirt road on the Ningaloo Reef and no-one else for kms all around. And it was awesome. And there's no real phone coverage up there anyway to break

The only thing that was broken was the *entire sky*

 

[THBGato]

I remember going to see one in 1999. We camped out for a week. On the day of it there was total cloud cover.

Kind of summed up my sex life in 1999 - lots of build up and then always getting blocked at the crunch moment! ;-)

 

[Trionyx]

Weather forecast for much of the eclipse area is looking less than promising, if you can believe it this far in advance. Glad I got to see the last one.

 

[MrPixel]

Weather forecast for much of the eclipse area is looking less than promising...

Good news here, however. This morning's NWS forecast has declared "Sunny" for us, wedged so conveniently between rain events. Fingers crossed!

 

[MrPixel]

This will be my third eclipse, the first in May 1984 which was an annular event. The young lady I was dating at the time insisted on going to a large park in the middle of the city and spreading a blanket to watch and experience the darkness together, if you know what I mean. What she didn't realize was that an annular eclipse is technically a partial, so it got dark... ish. We laid-out the blanket, but I demurred as it was a bit too public.

This recollection gives me pause in the realization of how primal an eclipse must be. In all three eclipses, there was strong desire on my partners' part to observe while in intercourse. One foiled, one realized (story above), and this next event, not possible due to a visiting friend and crowds in general due to the publicity.

 

[SimonDoom]

I've never seen a total eclipse, and it looks like I'll miss this one unless I want to take a few days off work and drive over a thousand miles to see it. With the weather forecast it appears the clouds may obscure it in much of the USA. I've been through a few partial exclipses and it looks like that's what I'll settle for this year.

 

[samhasstories]

A total solar eclipse is a pretty incredible sight. Hopefully the weather cooperates, not to mention the gawkers.

 

[Kumquatqueen]

I remember the 1999 UK one. It wasn't total up where I was, but it got nearly dark, and as no streetlights or other lights were around, it was strikingly impressive despite cloud. All the birds were very confused, half re-doing their dawn chorus with the other half squawking bird for "shut the fuck up, I don't know what's going on but that wasn't a night's sleep we just had". Furious flocks of blackbirds.

It was total but cloudier down in Cornwall, so apparently less apparent. Any excuse for drinking lots on an excursion train laid on from London...

 

[12oclocktales]

And make sure you wear those funny glasses. Come Tuesday we don’t want to read about people standing on street corners holding tin cups with a sign around their necks, “Victim of the Solar Eclipse.” Be smart.

 

[Trionyx]

The difference between partial and totality is unbelievable. Those few minutes when the sun is completely obscured, the stars come out, the animals go crazy...it is something truly amazing. Good luck to all who wish to see it.

 

[MillieDynamite]

Originally, my folks were going to sojourn to an area of total eclipse, but with their health issues, they aren't doing so now.

 

[oneagainst]

The difference between partial and totality is unbelievable. Those few minutes when the sun is completely obscured, the stars come out, the animals go crazy...it is something truly amazing. Good luck to all who wish to see it.

Yes, that's the big tip. Even at 99% coverage, it still looks like the sun is shining. At 100% the sun gets smaller and smaller and then just turns off and you're left with this black hole in the sky with an event horizon of corona. I drove 1200km for 70 seconds and it was worth every moment.

I know how these things work, I get orbital mechanics, but for just a few seconds you get to see these titanic objects moving through space, the sheer scale of the local universe, and Yeah, I was with the aforementioned blackbirds. Science be damned: there is an intrinsic primal part of you that believes the sky is just broken.

 

[alohadave]

I've never seen a total eclipse, and it looks like I'll miss this one unless I want to take a few days off work and drive over a thousand miles to see it. With the weather forecast it appears the clouds may obscure it in much of the USA. I've been through a few partial exclipses and it looks like that's what I'll settle for this year.

If you didn't make plans 6 months ago, don't bother. Everything is booked solid in the path of totality and traffic will be a nightmare.

I nearly setup a trip back in Oct, but it fell through, and there's no way I could even get there now. Luckily I'm in the 90% area, so I'll still much of the effect.

 

[MillieDynamite]

Mum and Dad had set up their getaway back in August last year. But Mum went into the hospital right after that, Dad's issue started, and by October, they'd already reluctantly canceled.

If you didn't make plans 6 months ago, don't bother. Everything is booked solid in the path of totality and traffic will be a nightmare.

I nearly setup a trip back in Oct, but it fell through, and there's no way I could even get there now. Luckily I'm in the 90% area, so I'll still much of the effect.

 

[MajorRewrite]

 

[MrPixel]

"Don't quit your night job." Hilarious.

 

[Candy_Kane54]

99.4% totality in my driveway so I didn't really have to travel. It got nearly dark at the maximum coverage, like twilight just as the sun sets.

 

[RejectReality]

I was barely at the edge of 99%. I could have drove about 15 minutes and hit a 100% zone, but nah. Front porch works.

I heard at least 4 different lawn mowers running the whole time I was out there. Huge excitement hereabouts LOL

 

[samhasstories]

The percentages are misleading. A 99.99% eclipse is a partial eclipse. The difference between that and totality is the difference between the lightning bug and lightning.

 

[AloneTooLong]

I am 50 miles west of Houston, so places around Austin were in the path, as was Waco. Relatives in both areas. Stayed here, was at a Garden Club meeting starting at 1:00 PM. It was cloudy, didn't even see a bit of the sun; however, it got dark, really, really dark, like the middle of the night dark. And I was not at all in the 100% path.

 

[JuanSeiszFitzHall]

(Backup singers

I shot the ee-clipse...

(Solo voice, sounding vaguely like Eric Clapton

And I even shot to-tal-i-tee...

Sorry, but the easy scanning of ‘the deputy’ with ‘totality’ has been in my head for a long time.

The family’s excursion to witness the eclipse went as I’d hoped, and better than expected. Our rigorous planning, including my choice of location and route, got us there and back home without any of the angst that many people stumbled into (and caused) in 2017. I also maximized our options, and once weather data showed strong likelihoods, we traveled accordingly.

Not only did we follow my noodge at the top of this thread, to maintain a light footprint for the sake of local residents, but we inferred that everyone else in our location did the same. There were no indications of strained public services or cell network overloads.

I won’t provide a link to my recording of the event, which may not count as competently done anyway. I’m sure a vast amount of eclipse imagery is available for free viewing. Recording is really no substitute for the in-person experience, with the whole-horizon ‘sunset,’ the temperature drop, and the bollixed-up effect on birds and other animals. I almost certainly won’t be around for 2045, but after having experienced 2017, the opportunity for this year’s total eclipse seemed like I was playing with the house’s money.

 

[JuanSeiszFitzHall]

Arrgh! Those smiley emojis were supposed to stay as a colon followed by a closed parenthesis.

 

[KeithD]

I was on the road on the East Coast during the eclipse. Other than some weird tree shadows on the road for a while, I didn't notice any effect of the event.