Total Eclipse...anyone taking it in August 21, 2017?

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AStravelers said:
We have been set up for about 11 days boondocking in the NF near John Day, OR. We are about 2-3 miles from the center of totality.  Weather is predicted to be clear for tomorrow. 

We downloaded the Global Observer app, associated with NASA, to take observations of temperature and cloud cover starting today and during the time around the eclipse. 

We should be one of many thousands taking observations for NASA so they will have detailed data associated with the eclipse.
This is going to be the most well observed, reported and appreciated eclipse in all of history. Historical day tomorrow. :))
 
With the notable exception of that zoo in Prineville, traffic in Oregon has so far been lighter than expected.
 
In case you are wondering about the weather tomorrow here is the cloud cover for the whole country.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/capital-weather-gang/wp/2017/08/20/total-solar-eclipse-weather-forecast-as-of-aug-20/?utm_term=.8d81c5fe336f
 
SeilerBird said:
In case you are wondering about the weather tomorrow here is the cloud cover for the whole country.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/capital-weather-gang/wp/2017/08/20/total-solar-eclipse-weather-forecast-as-of-aug-20/?utm_term=.8d81c5fe336f

Subscription required...

The Weather Channel has it with no subscription needed:

https://weather.com/forecast/national/news/solar-eclipse-weather-forecast-august-2017
 
I'm at the Goldeneye Reservoir Overflow BLM area on Hwy 26 about 20 miles west of Casper, WY.  Almost smack dab on the centerline of totality.  Google Maps calls this Burlington Lake and will find it using either name.

I think they may have overestimated the crowds, I didn't have any problem driving up from Ouray.  But when I stopped at the Walmart in Craig, I overheard a local say he's never seen so much traffic on Hwy 13 going north - he saw groups of 8-10 cars in a row.  I guess it's a matter of perspective.

The town of Lander, WY had speed traps out in force with radar guns at both ends of town, 3 police cruisers standing by to pounce on speeders and a couple of sheriff's cars cruising up and down Main Street.

AT&T has a great signal on tbe Mobley.  Not bad for a free site.

There are scattered clouds that are supposed to dissipate overnight, and tomorrow is supposed to be clear skies.  We'll see.
 
We're beginning to see signs of "over-hype"?  http://www.kezi.com/story/36175939/lincoln-city-eerily-quiet-as-eclipse-travelers-trickle-in  Lincoln City is the first point of entry for the eclipse on the Oregon Coast.
 
We made it from Asheville to Pigeon Forge this afternoon without a problem and nominal traffic on I-40. We have no idea what to expect tomorrow morning or afternoon trying to drive 15 miles to the path of totality, but we will be taking a car on mountain roads to get there, so there may be accidents on the switchbacks.

I think there is a strong possibility that the news of impending historical traffic jams may scare enough people into staying home that the traffic may not be that bad. Same thing happened in St. Louis a few years ago when the Pope visited the town. The news talked about massive traffic problems to the point that most people decided to stay home and there were no traffic issues at all.
 
John Stephens said:
...
I think there is a strong possibility that the news of impending historical traffic jams may scare enough people into staying home that the traffic may not be that bad. Same thing happened in St. Louis a few years ago when the Pope visited the town. The news talked about massive traffic problems to the point that most people decided to stay home and there were no traffic issues at all.

Well,..., Good luck with that.

Here, A lot of people headed up to Wyoming today because of that kind of talk in the news.
We'll see what I-25 looks like in the morning.
More interesting will be the return traffic in the evening.

 
Its kind of like when they are predicting the snow storm that is going to dump quadzillion inches of snow and people swarm the gas stations and grocery stores, you can't find snow boots or gloves at any store, schools and business close, the generators are primed and the snow plows are at the ready and start when there is a trace of snow on the highway, and it turns out to be a few inches of snow. The media has so much influence.
 
NY_Dutch said:
We're going to miss this one except for the 66% of it we'll see here in upstate NY. If we're here for the next one in 2024 though, we'll be in the 98.8% region.

I don't know what the big deal is. I could care less if I see it or not. To me it's just another day. People are driving 100's of miles to see this. One person interviewed on TV drove 1300 miles to see the daylight turn dark for a short time. If I watch it at all, it will be on TV unless I've got something better to do which will be most anything. Now that I think of it, that will be just about my nap time.  ;D :D ;) Have to set my priorities you know.  Anyone agree with me? 
 
Rene T said:
I don't know what the big deal is. I could care less if I see it or not. To me it's just another day. People are driving 100's of miles to see this. One person interviewed on TV drove 1300 miles to see the daylight turn dark for a short time. If I watch it at all, it will be on TV unless I've got something better to do which will be most anything. Now that I think of it, that will be just about my nap time.  ;D :D ;) Have to set my priorities you know.  Anyone agree with me? 

I agree, Rene. Unless it blocks more than 90% of the sun, we likely won't even notice any difference here anyway. Maybe a slight dimming like a cloud passing by. We're more than willing to wait for the next one to come to us, and see no reason to go out of our way to see it. The basic definition of an eclipse is "A celestial body passing between the sun and the observer." and that happens every night.  ;D
 
SeilerBird said:
The cool thing is that this is a national event of great magnitude, unlike the last one, Y2K, this one will really happen.

You apparently weren't in IT back then, Tom. Those of us that were put in many long hours trying to make sure that Y2K was pretty much a non-event. I spent that New Year's Eve and morning monitoring corporate servers in three countries to catch any last minute unforeseen glitches that could impact production or payroll. I know of one company in France that had to scrap nearly a million dollars in aircraft parts that were produced with incorrect date codes laser etched on them before QA caught it. In the US, one of the largest payroll processing companies had to rerun thousands of checks that were printed with "1900" when the date didn't increment properly. It wasn't anywhere near as bad as the predictions, but that was in large part because we did our best to prepare for it.
 
Rene T said:
I don't know what the big deal is. I could care less if I see it or not. To me it's just another day. People are driving 100's of miles to see this. One person interviewed on TV drove 1300 miles to see the daylight turn dark for a short time. If I watch it at all, it will be on TV unless I've got something better to do which will be most anything. Now that I think of it, that will be just about my nap time.  ;D :D ;) Have to set my priorities you know.  Anyone agree with me?

I disagree with you, as it's a once in a lifetime event for me.  Having said that, of course it's easier for me to say as I don't have to travel other than from the kitchen out onto the deck on the back of the house.  We are in the 100% zone or totality zone and only about 20 miles or so from dead center.  Of course there will be others in my lifetime, if I live long enough, but the no travel on this one makes it Epic for me.......even if it's only a couple of minutes long!
 
Rene T said:
I don't know what the big deal is. I could care less if I see it or not. To me it's just another day. People are driving 100's of miles to see this. One person interviewed on TV drove 1300 miles to see the daylight turn dark for a short time. If I watch it at all, it will be on TV unless I've got something better to do which will be most anything. Now that I think of it, that will be just about my nap time.  ;D :D ;) Have to set my priorities you know.  Anyone agree with me?

Well, if you've never seen on, you're missing a pretty rare, and quite fascinating event.
I am not sure it can possibly live up to all the hype, this time, though.
 
NY_Dutch said:
You apparently weren't in IT back then, Tom. Those of us that were put in many long hours trying to make sure that Y2K was pretty much a non-event. I spent that New Year's Eve and morning monitoring corporate servers in three countries to catch any last minute unforeseen glitches that could impact production or payroll. I know of one company in France that had to scrap nearly a million dollars in aircraft parts that were produced with incorrect date codes laser etched on them before QA caught it. In the US, one of the largest payroll processing companies had to rerun thousands of checks that were printed with "1900" when the date didn't increment properly. It wasn't anywhere near as bad as the predictions, but that was in large part because we did our best to prepare for it.

Well said. I was on the Y2K team for our company, and we also put in a lot of time and work to make sure that it was a non-event.
We done good.
 
LarsMac said:
Well, if you've never seen on, you're missing a pretty rare, and quite fascinating event.
I am not sure it can possibly live up to all the hype, this time, though.

I have seen both total solar and lunar eclipses, and frankly, while it was interesting to see them, it really wasn't that big a deal. If I were a scientist studying the sun, it would be different I suppose, but I'm not, so I see little difference in the few minutes of darkness in the small totality band and the total eclipse that occurs here daily, other than the timing difference.
 
NY_Dutch said:
I have seen both total solar and lunar eclipses, and frankly, while it was interesting to see them, it really wasn't that big a deal. If I were a scientist studying the sun, it would be different I suppose, but I'm not, so I see little difference in the few minutes of darkness in the small totality band and the total eclipse that occurs here daily, other than the timing difference.

X2.  It's not going to make me any richer. Now winning the Powerball this week will.
 
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