solar eclipse this august

[Flo]

you still get like a 90% eclipse. still pretty intense

[Mestra]

I'm in totality , about 20 minutes drive from the center of it as well. Woot!!! Been waiting on this.

[Flo]

NICEEEEEEEEEEEEE thats a once in a lifetime experience man

[Arkiania]

Yup I will be right in it.

[Raz]

I may drive up to Wyoming to see it in totality

[Flo]

Honestly, if I didn't work I probably would. We live like 4 hours outside of the totality zone. We still get like 90% coverage though, so we'll still see an awe inspiring event. I'm planning to take toooooooooooons of pictures of the surroundings all dark and shit

[Seperallis]

Remember guys, if you plan on looking at the sun directly at all, you must get your viewing glasses. Make sure you get them from a reputable source, like the one Sal linked earlier; there have been scams in the past where people thought they were buying the legit thing, but were actually sold useless trash, and so damaged their vision when they tried to use them.

Also, if you're within a zone of totality, BE CAREFUL removing your glasses to look directly at the total eclipse; the moon is not a perfect sphere, and it's peaks and valleys mean the sun's corona can still be seen for several seconds after it "should" have eclipsed.

You can read more about eclipse eye safety and find other links at this jank-ass yet totally legit website:
http://www.eclipse2017.org/eclipse2017_eye%20safety.htm

[Flo]

Don't melt ya eyes kiddos

[Sal]

View from the last state to see it!

Approximately 14:00 - 14:43, Monday, August 21, 2017 in Columbia, SC.

(The watermark is yearoftheaxolotl, my blog title. It got posted there first, so yeah. Deal with it!)


Around 2:20pm. This view was achieved by holding my eclipse glasses in front of my camera lens.


Lens flares showed the inverted shape of the eclipse. The moon was moving right to left, but as you can see the flares are pointed the other way. Neat fact - the sun spilling between the leaves also looked like this.


Totality was achieved at 2:41pm and lasted for approximately 2.5 minutes. It wasn't midnight levels of dark, more like dusk just before sunset, but the stars came out and people set off fireworks.

It was great!

[Seperallis]

Also from the last state to see the eclipse. I took the video and photos from our eclipse outing and put them into a single video montage, complete with Sal's narration. The locusts started up around 2:39pm (or about the 6 minute mark in the video); the darkness descended enough that it started to look like twilight, right before night.

The entire experience is so much different being there in person to see the sun become covered by the moon, and then to view the brilliant white solar corona in the sky as it rungs the shadow of the moon. You can see pictures, you can understand the phenomena, but without being there you really can't appreciate the brilliance and majesty. It honestly looks like you can see the eye of God in the sky above you (and the toenail, too).

To fully appreciate some of it, I recommend watching full screen in 1080p. Some of the phenomena (especially the shadow bands) show up better.