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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

#141

Post by briffle »

overdunk wrote: post #128
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…

90% of the US lives within an 8hr drive of totality, so traffic will be horrible Oh, come on. Less than 5% of America actually cares enough about astronomical events to drive 30 minutes to see something. Much less book a hotel stay. August 21st is a Monday afternoon, so how many employed Americans are going to ask for the day off, to drive 8 hours, with a 200mm telephoto lens or telescope? If totality is the size of…

The Willamette valley South of Portland is expecting over 1 million people. The hospital in Lincoln City (where it starts) had been stockpiling and planning for 3 years now. A friend in the event planning business said all portable toilets in the state have been rented, and they are bringing them in from out of state, at 6 times the normal rate. This is going to be a huge event, and gridlock on the freeway that Monday.

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

#142

Post by dotancohen »

cydonian_monk wrote: post #56
baursak wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

I was five when I saw my first; only thing traumatic about it was the smell inside the welder's helmet we were passing around to watch it.

Welders helmets are _not_ effective enough to make viewing the sun safe. Don't do that.

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

#144

Post by ralfd »

barcoder wrote: post #105
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…

My coolest memory of a total eclipse was standing high on a cliff edge over looking the sea. As the sun went totally dark I the moon's shadow move quickly along the beach covering everything in darkness. Really good points that you made, but I personally think it's good to find a high location with a view so you can take in more than just the sun/moon.

Interesting. The internet says the shadow of the moon during an eclipse has a speed between 500m - 1500m per second. So from a high point you really can see the shadow racing across earth.

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

#146

Post by ralfd »

digitalsushi wrote: post #47
wyldfire wrote: post #2

I heard from a co-worker who plans to travel to Oregon that some of the hotel rooms in the path of the umbra are sometimes > 2-3k USD for the night(s) prior to the eclipse.

We're some New Hampshire tech bumpkins who got a hotel in Charleston SC for 15% of that. We're going to leave our phones and cameras inside, and just hang out by the pool with some cold beverages and experience the eclipse as it unfurls. Granted, it's not quite in the center, but I think it should be close enough to make the trip worth making. I suppose in a panic, we could drive about 40 miles north. Should we?

At the pool? Go to the beach!

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

#148

Post by computator »

bigiain wrote: post #124
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…

I'll strongly second point 5. I saw the 2002 Eclipse from central Australia and it was kinda primal, I regret the time I spent getting a few crappy photos and wish I'd just soaked in the experience without doing that. Other people took and shared _way_ better photos than mine. I won't make that error again. (I don't think I'll make it to the US for this one, but if I do I wont waste time with a camera...)

> Other people took and shared _way_ better photos than mine.

Since the dawn of photo sites on the web, I've completely stopped taking photos of anything except family and friends. What's the point when a thousand photos exist of everything, from every conceivable angle, within 5 seconds of googling.

Even if you manage to get an incredibly cool picture, then what? Nobody pays for photos anymore. Your closest friends will give you a "like" and move on to a million other cool photos. Chances are that even you will never look at your photos again having amassed tens of thousands of them.

It's going to get much worse within a few years. With continuous surveillance cameras everywhere and "life recorders" capturing in high resolution and 360 degrees there won't be an event witnessed by human eyes that hasn't already been photographed or videoed.

Photography as a creative endeavor is dead but people don't know it yet.

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

#149

Post by throwanem »

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…

If you're going to photograph an eclipse, do so with extreme care in your choice of methods and equipment. Don't just aim a camera at the sun and hope for the best! Focusing solar radiation onto a light sensor, be it the one at the back of your camera or the one at the back of your eyeball, is a good way to destroy it.

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

#150

Post by throwanem »

geerlingguy wrote: post #93
abruzzi wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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 anyt…

You could do something with multiple exposures and a filter swap, but you'd need to use care in making the exposure without the solar filter - maybe a handheld card to keep the sun out of the lens. If you've got a drop-in filter holder that can take a solar filter, it'd be a lot easier than using thread-mounted ones.
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