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The most accurate map for August 21’s total solar eclipse

nasaviz.gsfc.nasa.gov

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Re: The most accurate map for August 21’s total solar eclipse

#91

Post by ddoran »

gmiller123456 wrote: post #74

Best advice I've accumulated so far: 1. Don't plan to drive anywhere on eclipse day (90% of the US lives within an 8hr drive of totality, so traffic will be horrible) 2. A 600-800mm lens is optimal for photography. Anything short of 200mm is useless. 3. Don't make any solid plans until 3-4 days before. Most places only have about 40% chance of it being clear. 4. If you're photographing the partial phases. Stop and ch…

> Don't plan to drive anywhere on eclipse day

This.

I watched a total eclipse in England in 1999 parked up on the side of the road with other cars doing likewise as far as the eye could see in both directions. Traffic was at a standstill all morning.

Get to where you want to be the day before, and stay there.

Re: The most accurate map for August 21’s total solar eclipse

#92

Post by idlewords »

hellbanner wrote: post #63
idlewords wrote: post #24

If you've never seen a total eclipse before and you live in the US, make every effort to see this one! It's not something that you can get the feel of by viewing photos or video. Watching the sun get eaten by a black void activates something deep inside the animal brain. Don't settle for a partial eclipse, do what it takes to get in the path of totality. If you have seen a total eclipse before, then you don't need an…

Is that the "Black circle"? Or is that the line of the path?

The black circle. The closer you get to the line of the path, the longer the total eclipse lasts.

Re: The most accurate map for August 21’s total solar eclipse

#93

Post by geerlingguy »

abruzzi wrote: post #88
gmiller123456 wrote: post #74

Best advice I've accumulated so far: 1. Don't plan to drive anywhere on eclipse day (90% of the US lives within an 8hr drive of totality, so traffic will be horrible) 2. A 600-800mm lens is optimal for photography. Anything short of 200mm is useless. 3. Don't make any solid plans until 3-4 days before. Most places only have about 40% chance of it being clear. 4. If you're photographing the partial phases. Stop and ch…

> 2. A 600-800mm lens is optimal for photography. Anything short of 200mm is useless. Only if your goal is a closeup shot. I'd be much more interested in a shot with significant context. How easy that is to pull off I don't know, but I'd love to a nature landscape shot @28-35mm (FF) with the eclipse in the sky instead of the sun or moon.

The sun is like 1000x brighter than any object you'd be able to get in the foreground. If you just want a shot during the totality with the corona, it would be possible to get it and expose some other things a little bit (though you will probably need to increase exposure quite a bit...).

But if you want any of the partial phases, you need a solar filter (not just ND filters), and that thing basically blacks out anything that's not the sun.

Re: The most accurate map for August 21’s total solar eclipse

#94

Post by shas3 »

gmiller123456 wrote: post #74

Best advice I've accumulated so far: 1. Don't plan to drive anywhere on eclipse day (90% of the US lives within an 8hr drive of totality, so traffic will be horrible) 2. A 600-800mm lens is optimal for photography. Anything short of 200mm is useless. 3. Don't make any solid plans until 3-4 days before. Most places only have about 40% chance of it being clear. 4. If you're photographing the partial phases. Stop and ch…

#3 is very hard if you are living more than 8 hrs drive from the totality zone. Population-wise way more than 10% of the US lives more than 8 hrs from the totality zone.

Re: The most accurate map for August 21’s total solar eclipse

#95

Post by geerlingguy »

hellbanner wrote: post #59
rbritton wrote: post #4

Some tips for photographing it: http://www.nikonusa.com/en/learn-and-explore/a/tips-and-tech... Solar filters: https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/buy/solar-photography-filters...

Won't it just be.. black?

It will if you don't pop off the solar filter during the totality! I'm planning on practicing with the solar timer app mentioned by Smarter Every Day; I'm not moving anywhere since I'm in the path of totality (for 1:16!), so I want to make sure I have all the timing down for the little transitional bits, so I can gun off a dozen or so pictures at any of those moments.

I'll also have a timelapse camera set up on a wider angle (incorporating my yard, some trees, the sky, etc.) using pi-timelapse[1]

[1] https://github.com/geerlingguy/pi-timelapse

Re: The most accurate map for August 21’s total solar eclipse

#96

Post by mnm1 »

baursak wrote: post #51
idlewords wrote: post #24

If you've never seen a total eclipse before and you live in the US, make every effort to see this one! It's not something that you can get the feel of by viewing photos or video. Watching the sun get eaten by a black void activates something deep inside the animal brain. Don't settle for a partial eclipse, do what it takes to get in the path of totality. If you have seen a total eclipse before, then you don't need an…

> Watching the sun get eaten by a black void activates something deep inside the animal brain. I was planning to have my 5 year old son see it. But now I wonder whether it will have any traumatic effect on him.

You would seriously let your son miss this because of some hypothetical traumatic event that might happen? I feel really bad for him if that's the case.

Re: The most accurate map for August 21’s total solar eclipse

#97

Post by geerlingguy »

hellbanner wrote: post #60

Are these safe to view? I thought these would be black. Another link talks about "getting eye protection"?

Before and after the totality, same rules apply as always—if you don't have solar filter glasses (and lens filters on any cameras), don't look at the sun.

But once the totality starts in your location, you can pop off the filters/shades and look with the naked eye. Just be sure to put them back on once totality is just about over!

Re: The most accurate map for August 21’s total solar eclipse

#98

Post by ars »

Florin_Andrei wrote: post #26
learc83 wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't see the point of booking something without knowing the weather unless you don't care about throwing it away and going somewhere else. My initial plan was to book several hotels in different areas, but it seems like every hotel inside the path of totality requires a 2 week notice to cancel (and this was months ago). Since I'm about 1.5 hours from the path of totality in Georgia, my current plan is to drive out…

Book it months in advance, and then the price is normal. That's what I did. I'll be in Salem.

I thought of that, but the chances of the hotel canceling at the last minute after someone else throws money at them was just to high.

Re: The most accurate map for August 21’s total solar eclipse

#99

Post by pcl »

gmiller123456 wrote: post #74

Best advice I've accumulated so far: 1. Don't plan to drive anywhere on eclipse day (90% of the US lives within an 8hr drive of totality, so traffic will be horrible) 2. A 600-800mm lens is optimal for photography. Anything short of 200mm is useless. 3. Don't make any solid plans until 3-4 days before. Most places only have about 40% chance of it being clear. 4. If you're photographing the partial phases. Stop and ch…

The annular eclipse in California in 2012 really didn't draw much in the way of crowds. Some friends and I drove up to near Mt Lassen and found a field with no real traffic or crowds to contend with. There were others in the field we ended up in, but it was really pretty straightforward.

It seems like there's a lot more hype around this one; I'm not sure why. Maybe 'total' vs 'annular'? Personally, I think they're both pretty spectacular, and annular eclipses have the added benefit of having the awesome ring-of-fire effect.

Re: The most accurate map for August 21’s total solar eclipse

#100

Post by Stratoscope »

Here are my viewing tips, based on my experience in the 1979 eclipse in Oregon.

You can photograph the eclipse, but you will have a much grander experience if you don't try. Photography is just a distraction from the awesome spectacle of the eclipse, including the phenomena that happen on the ground.

There will be plenty of other people taking great photos, so enjoy those after the eclipse. A total eclipse, viewed directly with your own eyes, is truly an experience of a lifetime. No photograph comes close.

Contrary to one or two other comments, eye protection is not necessary during totality and will prevent you from seeing the full beauty of the corona. It is perfectly safe to view the total eclipse with the naked eye, or even with binoculars. Only the partial phases need eye protection (and they definitely do). [1] [2] [3]

In fact, on the hillside we ended up at, something interesting happened. Most of the people wore dark sunglasses and faced away from the sun during the first partial phase, in order to get their eyes a bit acclimated to the dark. The partial eclipse isn't very interesting compared to totality, and the fun stuff at that point is happening on the ground: there are ripples of light dancing on the ground like you see on the bottom of a shallow stream. And you may get to see the shadow rushing toward you at 10,000 miles an hour!

The moment it reached totality, there were shouts of "it's total!" up and down the hill. Everyone took off their sunglasses and looked directly at the total eclipse. Many of us brought binoculars and viewed the corona with them.

The danger is that it is tempting to keep looking at the end of totality, when the string of beads starts to appear at the edge of the moon (where the sun is starting to peek through the moon's valleys), and finally the "diamond ring" where a larger part of the sun appears through the deepest valley. If you bring proper eye protection, switch to it the moment the string of beads appear, and definitely before the diamond ring appears! I recommend doing this after totality and not before, so you don't interfere with your eyes' dark adaptation before totality.

[1] https://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/SEhelp/safety.html

[2] https://eclipse.aas.org/resources/telescopes-binoculars

[3] http://www.eclipse2017.org/2017/what_you_see.htm

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