2 minutes 41 seconds of totality

8/16/2017 3:43:20 PM

There's been some controversy over whether it's acceptable or not to remove solar eclipse glasses during the total solar eclipse; perhaps the following information may prove useful:

Quote :

"As the sky grows darker and totality nears, you might be tempted to remove your eclipse glasses. Don't! Only during totality is it safe to remove your glasses. When you finally do, you'll see an aura of plasma, known as the corona, surrounding the sun."

Quote :

"... in a nutshell, solar eclipses are dangerous because the sun can come out from behind the moon and 'surprise you' before you have a chance to look away. And this is actually even worse than when you normally look away from the sun because during the total eclipse, it is dark out, and your pupil therefore dilates so that it can let in enough light to get a good picture. Then, when the sun reappears and starts flooding the area with really bright light, not only are you staring straight at it, but your eye is in a state where it is wide open, and actively trying to let in as much light as possible."

Where I'll be, I'll have approximately 2 minutes 34 seconds of totality; therefore, when totality begins, I fully intend to be like:



However, once it hits the 2 minute mark, I'm going to have to be like:



[Edited on August 16, 2017 at 4:12 PM. Reason : ]

8/16/2017 4:11:32 PM

i can just use a welding helmet, right?

8/16/2017 9:12:11 PM

Quote :

"Many people find the Sun too bright even in a Shade 12 filter, and some find the Sun too dim in a Shade 14 filter — but Shade 13 filters are uncommon and can be hard to find."

https://eclipse2017.nasa.gov/safety

8/16/2017 10:17:11 PM

This is great... awesome photo album of kids making their own viewing "glasses" in 1963.

?http://time.com/3737424/solar-eclipse/??

How to Watch the Solar Eclipse Like a 1960s School Kid

Quote :

"If you are one of the lucky few in a position to see Friday’s total solar eclipse—meaning you plan to be in the Faroe Islands or Norway’s Svalbard archipelago—you’d do well to take a tip from 1963’s fifth grade class of the Emerson School in Maywood, Illinois. Wielding cardboard boxes and knives that today would surely get a kid suspended, the kids demonstrated for LIFE’s readers how to safely look at an eclipse. During the solar eclipse of 1960, hundreds of people had suffered permanent eye damage from looking directly at the sun. With help from the Illinois Society for the Prevention of Blindness, Emerson students avoided the same fate by building Sunscopes, pinhole camera-like contraptions that indirectly project an image of the sun. The magazine offered instructions for those desiring to replicate the project at home: To build your own, get a carton and cut a hole in one side, big enough to poke your head through. Paste white paper on the inside surface that you will be facing. Then punch a pinhole into the opposite side, high enough so that the little shaft of light will miss your head. For a sharper image you can make a better pinhole by cutting a one inch square hole in the carton, taping a piece of aluminum foil over this hole and then making the pinhole in the foil. Finally, tape the box shut and cover all light leaks with black tape."

Click to see pics of the kids making them... just a couple of pics with finished products:

8/17/2017 5:31:41 AM

^ ha the teachers is all like "fuck those boxes i'm gonna stare right at the Eclipse"

8/17/2017 8:36:59 AM

^lol at the teacher staring at the sun

8/17/2017 8:38:09 AM

and that's doubly ironic considering this

Quote :

"During the solar eclipse of 1960, hundreds of people had suffered permanent eye damage from looking directly at the sun. With help from the Illinois Society for the Prevention of Blindness, Emerson students avoided the same fate by building Sunscopes"

8/17/2017 8:47:58 AM

my glasses order was cancelled by the seller

motherfuckers

8/17/2017 10:13:10 AM

I read yesterday that a fidget spinner kiosk outside of Macy's at The Streets of Southpoint was selling solar eclipse glasses at a fairly steep price.

8/17/2017 10:17:51 AM

you can use your phone to watch, right? or will that hurt it?

8/17/2017 10:33:03 AM

Headed to Casper, WY on Monday

8/17/2017 11:10:28 AM

leaving for the NC/GA border tonight!

(Don't follow me. I want to get home in a timely manner Monday night!)

8/17/2017 11:21:59 AM

^^Have a friend heading to Wyoming as well...any particular reason why people are picking to go to Wyoming over basically anywhere closer?

8/17/2017 12:49:26 PM

I live in Denver, so Casper is 4 hrs from me and right in the middle of the line.

8/17/2017 1:14:16 PM

My understanding is that you're more likely to have sunny summer skies out west than you are in the east.

8/17/2017 1:16:26 PM

^This, plus the midwest is a lot less crowded in general so less likely to get stuck in traffic the day of and miss it.

Quote :

"you can use your phone to watch, right? or will that hurt it?"

You could stand with your back to the sun and aim your selfie cam over your shoulder at the sun, then just look at your phone's screen. I don't think it would be too effective though -- if you've ever tried taking a picture on your phone of a full moon, you prob noticed that the moon in the picture is tiny compared to what you actually see. This would be similar. Still, I guess it is better than nothing.

8/17/2017 2:16:04 PM

Quote :

"Headed to Casper, WY on Monday"

you probably ought to head tomorrow

I heard an estimated 500,000+ people are driving from Colorado to Casper

8/17/2017 2:16:24 PM

doubling the population of WY

8/17/2017 2:33:50 PM

Quote :

"you probably ought to head tomorrow I heard an estimated 500,000+ people are driving from Colorado to Casper"

going up sunday night. should be a fun drive!

8/17/2017 2:42:56 PM

i was going to drive to the Tetons, but the traffic paranoia scared me off.

my back deck will do just fine

8/17/2017 2:52:37 PM

we have most of the day to drive, so prob going to avoid I-25 and take the scenic route between arapahoe and medicine bow. also have friends driving through casper, otherwise it prob wouldn't be worth it.

[Edited on August 17, 2017 at 3:13 PM. Reason : .]

8/17/2017 3:09:15 PM

A friend of mine works in an eye doctor's office. They just got a shipment in of 500 eclipse glasses. Turned out to be unsafe knockoffs. Make sure you check your glasses, folks.

8/17/2017 4:24:40 PM

So I must be dumb. My regular sun glasses aren't going to work? Should I just stay in Raleigh since it is so fast, or should I drive down to Charleston Monday morning?

8/18/2017 12:29:22 AM

Quote :

"should I drive down to Charleston Monday morning?"

If you drove down to Charleston on Saturday morning it would probably take you 6 hours. So good luck going on the day of, lol.

8/18/2017 1:44:25 AM

^^ sunglasses won't work, the glasses you need are dark enough that you can't see anything in normal daylight except the sun. even a lot of welding shields aren't dark enough.

i'm just going to watch with my phone or camera on live view, i don't trust any of these eclipse glasses

8/18/2017 8:39:51 AM

Quote :

"should I drive down to Charleston Monday morning?"

If you drive anywhere even remotely close to the path of totality on Monday morning, you will have a bad time. I'm planning on heading out on Sunday morning to Nashville and that will probably end up being a shit show.

8/18/2017 9:07:12 AM

Definitely going to be the largest clusterfuck in US history

8/18/2017 9:23:31 AM

If you're in Raleigh, just drive on south on US 1...takes about 2.5-3 hrs to get to the path of totality somewhere NE of Columbia (around Lugoff/Camden is prob the cut off). That way you can avoid all the shitty interstate & urban area traffic.

8/18/2017 10:43:54 AM

Quote :

"Turned out to be unsafe knockoffs."

How can you tell which ones are legit?

8/18/2017 10:58:01 AM

Quote :

" How can you tell which ones are legit?"

https://www.cnet.com/how-to/how-to-tell-if-your-solar-eclipse-glasses-are-safe-or-fake/

8/18/2017 11:23:47 AM

This is a time-honored approach:



citation: Bill Watterson

8/18/2017 1:31:54 PM

Came home from work yesterday and my neighbor's kid was sitting on my driveway testing out his homemade eclipse glasses. He held a pane of glass over a birthday candle and used the soot to darken it. He was staring at the sun through this. And his mother let him do it. I'm surprised he's not blind already.

8/18/2017 1:32:07 PM

that's an old method and has been tested to actually be safe if you get enough soot on the glass

8/18/2017 5:00:35 PM

Quote :

"If you're in Raleigh, just drive on south on US 1...takes about 2.5-3 hrs to get to the path of totality somewhere NE of Columbia (around Lugoff/Camden is prob the cut off). That way you can avoid all the shitty interstate & urban area traffic."

This is my plan but if that turns out to be everyones plan I guess its gonna be fucked haha

8/19/2017 11:41:06 AM

Yah I think the trick is gonna be get where yur going early.

8/19/2017 11:59:43 AM

And away from population centers I spose

8/19/2017 6:00:49 PM

Quote :

" Their has been optometrist all over the news saying that none are really 100percent effective. I don't care to look at it. I'll just stay in the house once I'm home.from work, with the blinds closed til it's over."

From Facebook on eclipse glasses. I really wanted to comment but why even waste the energy

8/19/2017 7:07:29 PM

People are dumb.

8/20/2017 12:10:36 AM

Quote :

"If you're in Raleigh, just drive on south on US 1...takes about 2.5-3 hrs to get to the path of totality somewhere NE of Columbia (around Lugoff/Camden is prob the cut off). That way you can avoid all the shitty interstate & urban area traffic."

That is/was my plan too. But Columbia is calling for 50% cloudy, so I might head down the interstate towards Greenville, SC instead as they are supposed to be totally clear. We will see what the later forecasts show.

8/20/2017 7:28:36 AM

https://www.timeanddate.com/eclipse/in/usa/raleigh

this link ruined it for me, now i know what will happen

8/20/2017 8:09:37 AM

^^ greenville will be packed, traffic to greenville will probably be bad

8/20/2017 10:44:09 AM

Yea as close as Greenville is to Atlanta, I figured it will be a cluster. I think I'm going to roll the dice on Columbia.

8/20/2017 11:01:42 AM

^ ill probably do the same, but not go towards the city...try to stay 20+ mins outside of it. maybe traffic will be 4% less fucked out there.

8/20/2017 11:09:49 AM

if i can get ahead on work today i may drive down to a random farm field off 41 north of francis marion, but i'm worried too many other people will have the same idea and turn the road into a parking lot

8/20/2017 12:12:35 PM

I feel like the whole path (around our parts at least) is going to be a parking lot.

8/20/2017 1:14:25 PM

I might head towards Eastover. Its within 2:20 of totality but not super close to Columbia.

I am going to leave at like 7 am so I think I can make it down there. I am more worried about the weather forecast at this point.

8/20/2017 5:01:00 PM

Made a 5 foot pinhole camera yesterday. I'm going to make some cyanotypes during the eclipse (if the weather cooperates).





[Edited on August 20, 2017 at 5:59 PM. Reason : asdf]

8/20/2017 5:55:59 PM

Currently in Nashville. Encountered zero traffic. I'm surprised. Good luck to everyone tomorrow and be safe.

8/20/2017 6:38:54 PM

What site/tool/app are you all using to track predicted and actual cloud coverage? Looks like the cloud situation in SC is going to be pretty dicey, and assuming the place isn't a parking lot, the cloud coverage stuff could prove helpful.

Also how much time prior to the start are you all trying to arrive to your preferred viewing location?

[Edited on August 20, 2017 at 8:47 PM. Reason : ]

8/20/2017 8:41:18 PM