Eclipse Stories?

[leehljp]

My experience with the Total Eclipse:

I felt like I had driven 1000 miles to watch a 2 minute horse race . . . and Secretariat Won! It was that awesome! ( I only drove about 500 mile from home to get there.)

On Sunday afternoon, LOML and I drove to the Springfield MO area to stay with our daughter. We got up at 5:30 this morning (Monday), took care of her 2 dogs and our small dog, left about 6:45 and drove to Sullivan, MO, a town about 80 miles southeast of St. Louis. Since we left so early, got close to our destination early, and not quite as much traffic as we thought it would be, so we took a detour, viewed a couple of places to watch and then happened to see a recreation park in Sullivan with scattered trees, a few pavilions and about 200 - 300 people. This was about 10:15, so we decided to join them. There were several hundred by the time the eclipse started.

We found a space under one of the large trees and put our three folding chairs, ice chest and our bag of chips, sandwiches, and fruit. (If you don’t have any folding chairs and decide to get one or two or three, don’t get the cheap ones. They make life miserable. I had one once and then learned how much better it is when the chairs do more than just hold you 18 inches the ground.) Anyway, we were there about 3 hours total, and sitting in the chairs 2 hours and 45 minutes of the 3 hours. The chairs were very comfortable and made the viewing enjoyable.

NICE SURPRISE:
Around 11 AM and again around 11:15/20, a Sullivan city police car drove through the areas on the grassy fields near where people were and handed out solar eclipse glasses to who ever needed them. That sure was nice of them. Several people took the free glasses.

IN our area the start was supposed to be 11:14 or 15. We had been sitting in the shade, but I got up, moved about 10 feet into the sun, and watched through my extra dark glasses until the first detectable sliver of the moon could be seen edging onto the sun. At this time, numerous people came out of their shade and started viewing the progression. After about 10 minutes, people started with their picnic lunches, and we did the same.

About 12:45, sun brightness reduction was noticeable. Cicadas chirping became noticeable also. About 1 pm, many people, including myself, daughter and LOML moved our chairs into the sun and leaned back, watching off and on and talking. About 1:10 or 1:12, everyone was out of the “shade” and into viewing position. 1:15.30 the eclipse went into the diamond glare. At this time most people took off their eclipse glasses and we did too. It was BEAUTIFULLY AWESOME! Then the Aura or corona was awesome for 2 minutes. Then the Diamond again! Awesome, just AWESOME! I was mesmerized looking at the corona. It was somewhat rectangular rather than radial as I was kinda expecting.

Glasses back on to see the progression for a few minutes, and then we left.

There was quite a large traffic jam AFTER the eclipse. We had several starts and stops on the expressway but mostly it kept moving.

I saw a total eclipse that came over Thibodaux, LA on May 30, 1984, so this was my second total eclipse and it was much more enjoyable doing with family and a crowd than it was in my back yard alone back then.

MISCONCEPTIONS: I have been constantly arguing with different family members and relatives that this is NOT the first TOTAL eclipse in the USA in 99 years as news media makes it "sound like". IT is the first one fully from coast to coast in 99 years but absolutely not the only total eclipse in 99 years in the USA. Even yesterday, LOML, who did not remember the May 30 1984 eclipse told her sister - “ Hank said that we had a total eclipse in 1984 but the news says otherwise. “ If the news says it, if it is in print, if its on the internet . . . Sheesh!



ANOTHER AWSOME MOMENT that sent goosebumps over me - years ago: I had one more nature encounter that was very moving similar to witnessing a total eclipse, but this happened about 15 years ago, when I lived in the Osaka, Japan area. I lived in Ikoma-shi, a small city of about 150,000 in a valley one mountain over from Osaka. The valley was about 15 kilometers long and about 3 kilometers wide. There was a 6 kilometer (4 miles) long tunnel through the mountain into Osaka. I got up early one morning, drove to the tunnel in the dark and with lights on, and as I turned to the entrance of the expressway through the tunnel, the sun rose just enough from the mountain on the east side and reflected in the mirror into my face. AS I exited the tunnel on the other side and about 200 meters lower, I exited into darkness with night lights around the portion of city next to the mountain. Then about 4 minutes and 4 miles later, suddenly the sun came up again. Two sunrises in the span of about 10 - 12 minutes. That was a weird experience.

[LCHIEN]

Thanks for the thorough account.

You are correct. There was a total eclipse over parts of the US in 1984 that I saw. a partial of.
This one is notable in that it spanned the US coast to coast,a thing that some reporters failed to note. Also that it was a full eclipse where the moon appeared larger than the sun to totally block it.
We expect a annular eclipse in 2023 where the moon is further away and leaves a bright annular ring and then a complete eclipse in 2024 again. Keep your glasses!
I think both will be visible from Texas.

[tfischer]

It was incredible. I'll do a full write up when I get a chance.

We watched it from Columbia, MO, and the clouds scared us for several days prior but held off enough for it to be amazing.

Comparing a partial eclipse to a total is like comparing seeing a shadow to being transported to an alien world for 2 and a half minutes. Truly phenomenal.


Glad the weather held out for you Lee. We were very concerned, and almost switched plans to head closer to where you viewed it, but ended up sticking with the original plans and weren't disappointed.

[atgcpaul]

Comparing a partial eclipse to a total is like comparing seeing a shadow to being transported to an alien world for 2 and a half minutes. Truly phenomenal.

I agree with that being in an 81% eclipse area. There was a slight dimming at peak, but without a total blackout, I think it was mostly a "meh" moment for me and a lot of my coworkers.

It is quite a testament to just how dang bright the sun is, though. With only 19% showing, the darkness was only slightly noticeable.

[capncarl]

We were 2 1/2 miles from the center of the blackout zone, floating in Lake Keowe on a noodle having a cold one. I kept observing the shadows nearby as the moon covered the sun. I figured, shoot, this isn't going to get much darker...... I was wrong...... it was about as dark as it is about 10 minutes after the sun sets. Dock lights and street lights started coming on and boats on the lake turned their navigational lights on, really cool. I did notice a temperature drop, the news said it was from 4-6 degrees. I wore my paper eclipse glasses rather than risk loosing my welding goggles in the lake, you never know, a wave might have tipped me over and I would have to choose whether to save my beer or my goggles. A great way to start off our tour of the north western states!
capncarl

[gerti]

My wife and I enjoyed it on a gravel road about 30 mi west of Lincoln, NE. Horses behind us, corn field in front. Horses were not impressed, but we sure were! We were VERY lucky with the weather, catching a hole in the clouds. Well worth the two days in the car. Met many interesting folks along the way. As an extra bonus on the way back the weather finally caught up with us but eventually led to the most intense double rainbow I have ever seen. Lasted for more than half an hour.

[tfischer]

OK here's my full report.

Back in February or March, I kept reading more about the eclipse, and how special it would be, and started seriously pondering whether we should make the trip. Originally I was thinking going to the Lincoln, NE area as that was probably the closest place to the Twin Cities. But my sister moved to Branson, MO last fall, and got a new place. She's been wanting to get us down there to visit. So I thought I could combine the two trips into one. I reached out to my brother, who's into astronomy. He was interested as well. We eventually settled on the Columbia, MO area.

I drove down to Branson with my family on Friday, and we took in a show that evening and another on Saturday afternoon. By Saturday evening, the forecast for most of the totality track in MO was looking pretty grim. My brother and I were scouring the internet for the latest cloud model data. We floated scrapping our plans for Columbia, as the models south of St. Louis (near Perryville) were looking slightly better. We decided to wait until Monday morning and see what the weather models looked like.

Well with all the predictions of "millions" of people potentially crowding into the totality zone, we were a little worried about the normally 3+ hour drive from Branson. So we got up ridiculously early at 3AM. Checked the models, and Columbia, our original plans, seemed like the best bet. Since we would be heading straight back to Minneapolis after the eclipse, we had to load up the van and such, but were on the road by 4am. Traffic was a non-issue, and we got to Cosmo Park in Columbia by about 7:40. The weather at that point was partially cloudy but promising.

We found a spot right next to some athletic fields to park, and set up camp. Now we had a nearly 4 hour wait until the partial eclipse started... passed the time by chatting, playing some games, etc. As the morning wore one, more clouds rolled in, and we became aware of some major thunderstorms to the west in KC. Uh oh.

Well, long story short, while it was slightly cloudy, we saw the eclipse just fine, and right before totality hit, it became quite clear. In short, totality was one of the coolest things I've ever seen. I've had a hard time convincing people that when you see even a 98% partial eclipse, you're seeing nothing close to totality, but it's true. In those final seconds before totality hit, it was shadowy out but still quite bright. Then it was like someone pressed a button and a power window shade closed. The sky dimmed down, and the sun was covered up. This was all less than 60 seconds from "bright daylight" to "OMG it's dark suddenly". In that period, the evening insects started chirping loudly... at 1:12 in the afternoon. I expected it to be "like midnight" but it wasn't. The sky was just... otherworldly. First you have this sun... a dim ring that you can now look at with your bare eyes. Most of the sky was kind of a slate grey color... and all around the horizon, 360 degrees, what looked like a "sunrise"... a faint reddish glow.

It was as if we were transported to another planet.

We watched the disc of the moon shift slowly from left to right. The whole totality was 2 minutes, 36 seconds. During this period, the crowd was largely quiet, taking it all in, other than the occasional gasp, "oh my god", or cheer. As it got to the end of that period, we saw the final "diamond ring", and then it was time to put our eclipse glasses back on. Totality was over. Within a minute, it was bright as day once again, even though looking up with the eclipse glasses, only a tiny fraction of the sun was actually showing.

A few minutes later, a large cloud rolled over the sun and obscured it. If things had been a few minutes different, we would have missed totality completely. But we saw it with amazing clarity.

That cloud eventually passed about 10 minutes later, and we ended up staying until the "bitter end", another hour and a half or so until the sun was back whole again. My brother's family and my sister headed back to Branson about halfway through that period... we were heading straight back to Minnesota and stayed for the whole thing.

Traffic on the way out was fine... until we got toward the Iowa border, where there was a ridiculous backup that we sat in for 20+ minutes before diverting to a gravel road for 5+ miles to get around the clog. We were then OK until we got to Des Moines on back roads, and hopped onto I-35 toward Minneapolis. I grew up in North Iowa right off of I-35, and have driven that stretch of road hundreds or thousands of times, including several times this summer. It's rarely more than a few cars per mile. But here we were, from about 10pm through 1am... and the road was completely clogged northbound. There were four additional places were traffic slowed down to less than 5mph for a long stretch. All in all, the trip ended up taking us 2 more hours than we expected, and we didn't get back until 1:30am.

But... it was completely worth it. And we're already planning on being there for 2024... where totality will last up to 4 and a half minutes in some places!