Eclipse Poll

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What are you doing about the eclipse on August 21?

I am going to observe it somewhere in the path of totality
32
29%
I am going to observe it, but won't be in the path of totality
52
47%
Nothing
27
24%
 
Total votes: 111

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pinkfreud
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Re: Eclipse Poll

Post by pinkfreud »

My husband and I plan to drive from our home in Tulsa to St. Joseph, Missouri to see the moon eating the sun. I just got out of the hospital, so I may be a bit feeble, but I've been looking forward to seeing a total eclipse for a very long time, and I am not gonna miss this chance,

If you should see on the news that an old gal with a smile on her face has dropped dead in St. Joseph after the eclipse, that will probably be me.
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mikebdoss
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Re: Eclipse Poll

Post by mikebdoss »

Volante wrote: Fri Aug 11, 2017 1:51 pm
Except clouds don't make the sun do this
I've seen a 75% eclipse, and I agree that it was interesting and strange to see just a crescent sun. But if you were indoors, it wouldn't look that much different from a day that's getting progressively foggier. Totality, however, is apparently so much more.
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Re: Eclipse Poll

Post by opusthepenguin »

dhkendall wrote: Thu Aug 10, 2017 7:20 pm Looks like it'll be around 70% here in Winnipeg? (Hard to tell as most of the sites I've seen showing what one will see are just for the continental US.
Yeah, this is a US-only eclipse. If you want one up in Winnipeg, get your own.
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Re: Eclipse Poll

Post by opusthepenguin »

Anachronism wrote: Thu Aug 10, 2017 9:28 pm What clinches it is that we are planning on moving as soon as we can sell this damned house and the area we're moving to is in the totality path for 2024.
Now THAT'S planning ahead!
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opusthepenguin
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Re: Eclipse Poll

Post by opusthepenguin »

pinkfreud wrote: Fri Aug 11, 2017 2:14 pm If you should see on the news that an old gal with a smile on her face has dropped dead in St. Joseph after the eclipse, that will probably be me.
I'm worried my family will give me strange looks if I yell, "Woohoo! I know her!"
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Mathew5000
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Re: Eclipse Poll

Post by Mathew5000 »

opusthepenguin wrote: Fri Aug 11, 2017 2:49 pm
dhkendall wrote: Thu Aug 10, 2017 7:20 pm Looks like it'll be around 70% here in Winnipeg? (Hard to tell as most of the sites I've seen showing what one will see are just for the continental US.
Yeah, this is a US-only eclipse. If you want one up in Winnipeg, get your own.
For the record, this web page gives some good information for places around the world, with an animated diagram:
https://www.timeanddate.com/eclipse/

Winnipeg will max at 76% magnitude (71% obscuration) at 12:57 pm MDT.
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dhkendall
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Re: Eclipse Poll

Post by dhkendall »

opusthepenguin wrote: Fri Aug 11, 2017 2:49 pm
dhkendall wrote: Thu Aug 10, 2017 7:20 pm Looks like it'll be around 70% here in Winnipeg? (Hard to tell as most of the sites I've seen showing what one will see are just for the continental US.
Yeah, this is a US-only eclipse. If you want one up in Winnipeg, get your own.
No need, I downloaded a VPN program so I can watch the eclipse as if I was in the US.

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BobF
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Re: Eclipse Poll

Post by BobF »

opusthepenguin wrote: Fri Aug 11, 2017 2:49 pm
dhkendall wrote: Thu Aug 10, 2017 7:20 pm Looks like it'll be around 70% here in Winnipeg? (Hard to tell as most of the sites I've seen showing what one will see are just for the continental US.
Yeah, this is a US-only eclipse. If you want one up in Winnipeg, get your own.
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Re: Eclipse Poll

Post by opusthepenguin »

BobF wrote: Fri Aug 11, 2017 4:15 pm
opusthepenguin wrote: Fri Aug 11, 2017 2:49 pm
dhkendall wrote: Thu Aug 10, 2017 7:20 pm Looks like it'll be around 70% here in Winnipeg? (Hard to tell as most of the sites I've seen showing what one will see are just for the continental US.
Yeah, this is a US-only eclipse. If you want one up in Winnipeg, get your own.
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Re: Eclipse Poll

Post by Foretopman »

As I understand it, the darkness is not the compelling part, it's the opportunity to see the corona, which you don't get with a partial eclipse.
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Re: Eclipse Poll

Post by Ursa Minor »

As I wrote after seeing a 99% and then, in 1979 a total eclipse, "A 99% eclipse is like closing your door 99% of the way when the maniac is coming up your path with an axe."
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Vintsanity
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Re: Eclipse Poll

Post by Vintsanity »

mikebdoss wrote: Fri Aug 11, 2017 12:52 pm
This Is Kirk! wrote: Thu Aug 10, 2017 10:18 pm I'm absolutely astonished that some people don't care about this. In the general populous sure, but I wouldn't have expected that here. There hasn't been a total solar eclipse over the U.S. mainland since 1979!
Shocked as well - people don't understand that a 80% partial eclipse just looks like a cloudy day, while totality is day turning into night.
But I get to experience this once every 24 hours, what's the big deal if it happens twice in 24 hours once in a while?
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Mathew5000
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Re: Eclipse Poll

Post by Mathew5000 »

Vintsanity wrote: Sat Aug 12, 2017 12:23 am
mikebdoss wrote: Fri Aug 11, 2017 12:52 pm Shocked as well - people don't understand that a 80% partial eclipse just looks like a cloudy day, while totality is day turning into night.
But I get to experience this once every 24 hours, what's the big deal if it happens twice in 24 hours once in a while?
Not sure whether the question is facetious or just half-facetious, but if you want a serious answer, here are some excerpts from Annie Dillard's essay “Total Eclipse”:
Seeing a partial eclipse bears the same relation to seeing a total eclipse as kissing a man does to marrying him, or as flying in an airplane does to falling out of an airplane.
...
I saw, early in the morning, the sun diminish against a backdrop of sky. I saw a circular piece of that sky appear, suddenly detached, blackened, and backlighted; from nowhere it came and overlapped the sun. It did not look like the moon. It was enormous and black. ... It did not look like a dragon, although it looked more like a dragon than the moon.
...
Seeing this black body was like seeing a mushroom cloud. The heart screeched. The meaning of the sight overwhelmed its fascination. It obliterated meaning itself.
...
You have seen photographs of the sun taken during a total eclipse. The corona fills the print. All of those photographs were taken through telescopes. The lenses of telescopes and cameras can no more cover the breadth and scale of the visual array than language can cover the breadth and simultaneity of internal experience.
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Vintsanity
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Re: Eclipse Poll

Post by Vintsanity »

Mathew5000 wrote: Sat Aug 12, 2017 4:26 am
Vintsanity wrote: Sat Aug 12, 2017 12:23 am
mikebdoss wrote: Fri Aug 11, 2017 12:52 pm Shocked as well - people don't understand that a 80% partial eclipse just looks like a cloudy day, while totality is day turning into night.
But I get to experience this once every 24 hours, what's the big deal if it happens twice in 24 hours once in a while?
Not sure whether the question is facetious or just half-facetious
I'll go with the latter.

I live within the path of totality, and I fully expect the human spectacle around here to eclipse (hah) anything the sun and moon will do that day. For some reason I just don't understand the near religious significance that a lot of people ascribe to 2:36 of darkness. I mean, I get to experience an average of 12 hours of darkness every night.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not going to sit inside and shut the blinds. I think it will be an interesting event, but if I couldn't see it from my backyard I don't think I'd go that far out of my way to see it. I'll report back if I'm wrong and I indeed have a profound experience.
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This Is Kirk!
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Re: Eclipse Poll

Post by This Is Kirk! »

Vintsanity wrote: Sat Aug 12, 2017 9:43 am
I live within the path of totality, and I fully expect the human spectacle around here to eclipse (hah) anything the sun and moon will do that day. For some reason I just don't understand the near religious significance that a lot of people ascribe to 2:36 of darkness. I mean, I get to experience an average of 12 hours of darkness every night.
And how often do you get to see the moon completely block out the sun? That's sort of the point, not the darkness.

A good sunrise or sunset is still spectacular to me, but an astronomical event that was last seen in the U.S. in 1979 is transcendent.
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Cat Hammarskjold
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Re: Eclipse Poll

Post by Cat Hammarskjold »

I think that a lot of us have seen enough full eclipse pictures and videos online that seeing one in real life isn't that big of a deal. I don't understand why Google Earth didn't kill the travel industry entirely.
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Rackme32
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Re: Eclipse Poll

Post by Rackme32 »

Cat Hammarskjold wrote: Sat Aug 12, 2017 6:03 pm I think that a lot of us have seen enough full eclipse pictures and videos online that seeing one in real life isn't that big of a deal. I don't understand why Google Earth didn't kill the travel industry entirely.
People travel to events of all kinds, experiences, friends and relatives, too. Besides, pictures aren't the same experience as seeing a place or thing in-person.

That being said, it's very unlikely I'll bother to look at the eclipse.
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Re: Eclipse Poll

Post by britt408 »

My house is in 99.8% totality near Kansas City so I'll probably be driving the 10 miles north for 100%! Everyone around here is acting like the world is going to end or there's going to be a blizzard to end all blizzards...fill your gas tank, get groceries, pack water in your car, have alternate methods of communication for clogged cell towers, etc etc etc.
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This Is Kirk!
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Re: Eclipse Poll

Post by This Is Kirk! »

Cat Hammarskjold wrote: Sat Aug 12, 2017 6:03 pm I think that a lot of us have seen enough full eclipse pictures and videos online that seeing one in real life isn't that big of a deal. I don't understand why Google Earth didn't kill the travel industry entirely.
I'm speechless.
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Re: Eclipse Poll

Post by alietr »

This Is Kirk! wrote: Sun Aug 13, 2017 12:47 am
Cat Hammarskjold wrote: Sat Aug 12, 2017 6:03 pm I think that a lot of us have seen enough full eclipse pictures and videos online that seeing one in real life isn't that big of a deal. I don't understand why Google Earth didn't kill the travel industry entirely.
I'm speechless.
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