2024 solar eclipse
- Thread starter Isualum13
- Start date
I finally got to my buddies house in Washington iowa for the night before 3 more hours driving tomorrow. It took 5 1/2 hours to get past st Louis from when I left SE missouri. It took 2 1/2 to drive the same stretch on the way down. Some turds got into an accident about 30 miles north of the totality path so instantly bottle necked everybody. Hopefully they are okay. All the cars were gone by the time we got there just some firetrucks were left blocking a lane of traffic.
Still ******* awesome though and well worth it. I tried getting some pictures with my phone and a cheap solar lens but they didn't turn out great and the totality pictures I took look terrible. I'll just show everyone smarter every day's YouTube video when they release it as they have great gear.
this is the best picture I got as the moon was moving in.
And this is what my phone made of totality. Just terrible.
Still ******* awesome though and well worth it. I tried getting some pictures with my phone and a cheap solar lens but they didn't turn out great and the totality pictures I took look terrible. I'll just show everyone smarter every day's YouTube video when they release it as they have great gear.
this is the best picture I got as the moon was moving in.And this is what my phone made of totality. Just terrible.
My iPhone pictures are identical!!! lol.
I gave my info to a couple of guys with professional cameras. To email me.
I was initially going to SE Missouri/NW Ark, as that was supposed to be the best weather area.
But there’s only one real way and that’s I-55.
So I decided last minute to head towards SE Illinois or SW Indiana. Left my house in SE Iowa at 7:30am.
I figured the Chicagoans would head towards Indy.
Most of the out-of-state traffic was Minnesota and Wisconsin Once I got to the area about 12:30pm CST started using cloud maps and blue sky visuals driving back roads. I felt like the opposite of a storm chaser.
Ended up in Palestine, IL at a nice little park with about 10 other cars around 1:15pm.
Worked perfectly.
In 2017 we did the same thing in Missouri. Woke up and told the kids, they weren’t going to school that day. Got in the SUV and just drove. They weren’t thrilled until they started seeing the eclipse. And Totality blew them away. A really cool family memory.
The older ones in college were missing our trip with the youngest one today. But I guess FaceTime works somewhat well for missing out.
13 hour day today, and to each their own…
But I’m glad we went. well well worth it in many ways.
This is where a picture says only one word….Yuck!
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That was one the the most incredible things I have experienced. The difference between mostly eclipsed and total was astonishing. Being able to see solar flares with the naked eye was something else.
It's the same difference between getting to 2nd base, and a 3-way with (insert your 2 favorites here).
I made a similar comment to my wife!
. Well, first base and all the way. I didn't want to sleep on the couch.
Like I said, point out all the political posts in non-political threads and I’ll have your back.
There is a two week iceland/Greenland cruise in 2026. Only $19,000. Two weeks and starts the day of the eclipse
I guessed that’s what it was, since it had already been deleted. It takes a real candy-*** to get bent over that. No wonder some can’t negotiate the cave.
The problem has little to do with one side being snowflakes. It has to do with one or more sides ignoring how their own political biases creep into their posting. The result is more skewed because only one side, generally speaking, actively engages in the place where the political posts are supposed to be occurring. So I can see somewhat their objection to their ideological opponents trying to pass off their own partisan take as somehow mainstream and not political.
Oh was this what all the hubbub was about?? I saw that post and maybe grinned and keep scrolling.
Wow, that was political, I think not.
I saw it! I was at the path of totality in Zeigler, IL (not too far from Carbondale).
Being there helped me understand the difference between totality and everything else. When the sun was 90% covered there wasn't much of a difference. Then all of a sudden it became creepy dark (kind of like the moments just before sunrise), birds started flying around, and it seemed kind of apocolyptic. I can see why people in olden days thought the world was ending.
The sun looked like a gigantic pupil, as if some giant ethereal creature was staring at us. It was very moving, and was the coolest natural phenomenon I have ever witnessed (and likely ever will). The only time I've "sensed" that the sun and the moon are actually giant celestial bodies (vs. just head knowledge).
Driving was very obnoxious. The problem was that every little town with a 4-way stop that usually had 30 cars per hour had 1,000 cars. And every single one of them had to stop. Once you were on the open road, it wasn't bad, but I did see a couple car accidents (one of which was nasty) on the way back. From Alton, IL (where my hotel was) to Zeigler is 2 hours according to Google maps, but it actually took just under 3.5 hours. Very glad I listed to the people who said to allow double time! Same on the way back.
Nothing apocalyptical happened. No gas shortages, no cell phone towers going down, no riots, no food shortages. Just very busy and heavy traffic.
Still, it was worth it for those 4 minutes of totality. I would not do it every single year, but for an every-20-year thing, yeah!
Being there helped me understand the difference between totality and everything else. When the sun was 90% covered there wasn't much of a difference. Then all of a sudden it became creepy dark (kind of like the moments just before sunrise), birds started flying around, and it seemed kind of apocolyptic. I can see why people in olden days thought the world was ending.
The sun looked like a gigantic pupil, as if some giant ethereal creature was staring at us. It was very moving, and was the coolest natural phenomenon I have ever witnessed (and likely ever will). The only time I've "sensed" that the sun and the moon are actually giant celestial bodies (vs. just head knowledge).
Driving was very obnoxious. The problem was that every little town with a 4-way stop that usually had 30 cars per hour had 1,000 cars. And every single one of them had to stop. Once you were on the open road, it wasn't bad, but I did see a couple car accidents (one of which was nasty) on the way back. From Alton, IL (where my hotel was) to Zeigler is 2 hours according to Google maps, but it actually took just under 3.5 hours. Very glad I listed to the people who said to allow double time! Same on the way back.
Nothing apocalyptical happened. No gas shortages, no cell phone towers going down, no riots, no food shortages. Just very busy and heavy traffic.
Still, it was worth it for those 4 minutes of totality. I would not do it every single year, but for an every-20-year thing, yeah!
I'd almost bet we were in one of those cars either behind you or ahead of you
I was in Carbondale. Not sure which way you went home, but I saw a lot of southern Missouri coming back to Des Moines
Planned on taking the kids to Indianapolis IN, but couldn't find a hotel any closer than Peoria Ill. So we drove to Peoria, stayed the night, and in the morning I checked the weather. Cloud cover was supposed to be better at Carbondale Ill. so we headed that way. Traffic got wose the closer to the center of totality and we didn't quite make it to carbondale. We had to settle in a ltiile town called Ashley (Ill.). Got a great view of the total eclipse in totality! My God, it was AMAZING! I highly recomend it to anyone.
You reminded me of part of the experience.
I hadn't mentioned. My cousin has about a dozen hens and a rooster that roam freely around the property, staying close to the house during the day and retreating to a couple of spots at night.
During our picnic lunch they were calmly moving around us. When the eclipse started they became restless and started clucking and flapping their wings more. They got quiet just before totality and my cousin pointed out that they were all huddling in their night roosts. When the sun started coming out from behind the moon again the rooster started crowing, and by the time we had full sun again the girls were back to wandering around, scratching and pecking.
Poor little dears...shortest night ever for them!
Are you referring to the Baileys Bead effect? I was near Olney Il and we had almost 4 minutes of totality. About half way through totality there was a bright orange spot on the bottom of the shadow in the white ring. This is caused by uneven land features on the surface of the moon such as a valley. It was super cool. None of the pics that came up in the Google search come close to the real thing.
Right? I've been trying to find pictures that capture what it was really like and even those from nasa don't compare. It's now my ambition to see as many total eclipses as I can before I die. There is one across Australia in 2029. I've never been and that would be fun.
