The Great American Shitshow

8/20/2017 8:56:24 PM

I'm leaving at 7:00 am. That way even if its slow going I have lots of time. I took off the whole week of work so I'm in no big hurry.

8/20/2017 9:13:44 PM

^I think I saw you selling eclipse glasses on Reddit

8/20/2017 9:59:17 PM

^^^ The Great American Hater

8/20/2017 10:40:22 PM

^^Yea I have one extra pair that I really wasn't planning on getting rid of. Dude needed two and found somebody who had two so I still have mine. Not actively trying to sell them though.

8/21/2017 5:17:11 AM

I bought over 200 at .49 each,

I'm out here at the park selling for 5 each,
pissing off all these people at 10-15 each

And the traffic carmageddon didn't happen, 75 was almost empty this morning

8/21/2017 8:51:28 AM

any where still selling the glasses ?

8/21/2017 11:17:15 AM

Posted at up at a rest area on i40 on the max duration line. Lots of people here, but there was zero traffic coming here. Maybe that part happens after it's over.

8/21/2017 12:02:31 PM

8/21/2017 2:11:05 PM

How fast does the moons shadow move across the Earth's surface??

Need some quick napkin math folks

8/21/2017 2:30:08 PM

Whole event is about 3 hours total i think

8/21/2017 2:32:25 PM

No I mean if you are standing on the edge of a cliff, looking down on an endless plain on a clear day, and you you see the shadw of the Moon traveling over the plain toward you, how fast would it be moving??

8/21/2017 2:46:15 PM

http://eclipse2017.org/blog/2016/11/27/how-fast-is-the-shadow-moving-across-the-us-during-the-eclipse/

tl;dr;

It depends.

Quote :

"Because of the geometry of the Earth’s shape, the shadow will travel faster across its surface and the ends of the eclipse path, and slowest right in the middle. By using one of the best eclipse calculators out there (thanks to Xavier Jubier!), we can see that the Moon’s shadow (also called the “Umbra”) is moving: 2410mph in Western Oregon 1747mph in central Nebraska 1462mph in Western Kentucky 1502mph near Charleston SC "

[Edited on August 21, 2017 at 3:16 PM. Reason : -]

8/21/2017 3:15:57 PM

that was pretty cool, the first time i put on my glasses was definitely a "wow" moment

[was in Raleigh]

8/21/2017 3:22:23 PM

Live footage from a cruise ship in the Caribbean

https://www.facebook.com/thefutureisnowbymic/videos/1291052967671399

GORGEOUS!!! Watch now!

8/21/2017 3:44:31 PM

That was definitely awesome

8/21/2017 3:53:33 PM

The traffic carmageddon is now

I'm grilling burgers, if anyone is in Athens regional park, come on over, we aren't going anywhere for awhile

8/21/2017 4:16:38 PM

was totality awesome

8/21/2017 4:21:01 PM

worth dipping out of work for a couple hours.

8/21/2017 4:28:23 PM

Was incredible. Clouds were being assholes but parted right before totality. 360 sunset was crazy. Saw a fucking bat start flying around. Saw the shadow snake things too. Was crazy.

8/21/2017 5:30:45 PM

so how long till i know if my glasses were fake and i'm blind?

8/21/2017 5:34:28 PM

What an incredible sight. I'm grateful to whoever said to get to totality. I was in the 99.99% zone but drove 20 minutes to a soccer field to enjoy totality. It is hard to describe. The cicadas chirping loudly as if night was near, the twilight, the 360 sunset, the fucking corona. Definitely worth packing two little kids up! Now to make plans for 2024.

8/21/2017 6:25:06 PM

easy to understand why early civilizations would worship celestial bodies after witnessing something like that and having no scientific explanation

8/21/2017 6:50:15 PM

This photographer has ridiculously amazing pictures of nature around the US.

Found this:
https://www.facebook.com/shainblumphoto/photos/a.644739522305752.1073741825.282800301833011/1352950011484696

8/21/2017 11:30:21 PM

The eclipse surpassed all expectations or assumptions I had. We went to a tiny town called Gaston, SC and spent the day playing golf. 11:30 tee time, lunch, then started on the back 9 around 2:15. With no one behind us playing, we spent probably 30 minutes lying on the 10th green, taking it all in.

I've seen a lot of people say they were underwhelmed or thought the hype was stupid, but they also did not see totality. 99% would not have been worth it.

I took many pictures, but totality moving to 'diamond' was my best.

8/22/2017 7:52:25 AM

i ended up just staying here and thought it was really cool to watch and see it get a little dark and feel the temp drop and the birds act weird, it was definitely still worth it

i was actually surprised at how interesting it was- i plan on travelling to the totality for the next eclipse

8/22/2017 8:14:51 AM

So driving down yesterday morning there was zero traffic whatsoever. I left at about 7:30 got out of Raleigh around 8 due to normal morning traffic. Drove to Camden at the edge of totality as my staging point at about 11:30. After looking at forecasts decided to head west of Columbia rather than east. Drove another hour to Lexington, SC. Got there around 12:30 found myself a golf course and played 9 holes finishing up around 2pm.

After watching the whole thing I can 100% say if you stayed in Raleigh you cant even begin to appreciate the difference between 90 and 100%. 90% was equivalent to a cloud passing over the sun but when it went total it was like someone turned off the light switch. It was absolutely amazing to see between how it looked, how dark it immediately got, how the animals and bugs flipped out, how the temperature dropped, etc. As soon as it came back out on the other side it was like the light switch flipped back on and it was just a cloudy day again. There was just zero comparison to being in totality it was definitely worth the drive and headache.

Coming back the traffic was fucked as expected. I left at 3:30 and didnt get back home till close to 11:30 but again after seeing the difference in that last 10% it was still worth it.

So in conclusion in 7 years if you have the chance to get into totality I would suggest doing that.

[Edited on August 22, 2017 at 8:43 AM. Reason : .]

8/22/2017 8:41:19 AM

Quote :

" 90% was equivalent to a cloud passing over the sun "

Disagree

Quote :

"Coming back the traffic was fucked as expected. I left at 3:30 and didnt get back home till close to 11:30 "

Wow. I was SE of Columbia outside north of Eastover, SC and it took me about 3.5 hours to get back via 15 and 1, but I should have taken 95 back as it seemed ok, judging by the traffic maps.

8/22/2017 9:58:48 AM

My problems were I20 was fucked all the way until I got off onto US1 and then US1 was fucked until I got out of SC. Each small town with only one light took forever to get through. Once I got into NC and it opened up then it was pretty much fine.

Also that was my opinion but at 90% when it was still just a sliver it was an eerie dark but it still wasnt as dark as it gets as when say a thunderstorm is passing. It was about equivalent to me as maybe when there is a large cumulus cloud passing by but I agree that it was a different kinda dark like maybe more like when there is thick fog overhead or something.

[Edited on August 22, 2017 at 10:10 AM. Reason : .]

8/22/2017 10:06:12 AM

Quote :

"Also that was my opinion but at 90% when it was still just a sliver it was an eerie dark but it still wasnt as dark as it gets as when say a thunderstorm is passing. It was about equivalent to me as maybe when there is a large cumulus cloud passing by but I agree that it was a different kinda dark like maybe more like when there is thick fog overhead or something."

Yeah for me when it was 90% it didn't feel like anything I had experienced before. I don't know at what exact point the temperature dropped noticeably and everything got quiet but I feel like both happened before we even got to 90%...plus the loss of light was pretty freaky at that stage too.

Quote :

"My problems were I20 was fucked all the way until I got off onto US1"

Thankfully I didn't have to travel on I20...just over it headed North.

8/22/2017 10:35:46 AM

My original target was Eastover but after looking at forecasts for cloud cover it seemed going west gave me higher odds to avoid clouds and since traffic hadnt been bad I gave it a go. You can find satellites where you can see all the clouds go poof as the shadow began to move over so seems like a lot of people had the clouds vanish as it was happening which is pretty cool.

8/22/2017 10:56:43 AM

I got to my spot about an hour prior to totality and had near constant cloud coverage until about 10-15 prior when the clouds cleared.

8/22/2017 11:10:08 AM

That drive home from Hayesville sucked. 64 was fine up until we got to Franklin. Mostly stayed bumper to bumper from there until we got just outside of Waynesville. Took a cut through Clyde/Canton to pass wrecks on 40 west of Asheville. Got back on 40 and it was smooth until another wreck backed up traffic near Swannanoa. Took 70 from there through Black Mountain, but downtown Black Mountain got so backed up, Google Maps took us through parts of the surrounding neighborhood. Finally got back on 40, but it was a slow go until we passed the last exit before coming down the mountain before Old Fort (tractor trailer turned over on the shoulder). It was smooth sailing from there fortunately. Left at 3pm and didnt get back until 11:30pm (normally a 3.5-4 hr drive).

Still worth it to see totality though!

8/22/2017 12:30:44 PM

That corona was worth seeing though. It's hard to describe looking through those glasses for a tiny orange sliver to disappear. When it does, you go from pitch black glasses to this giant block spot with white flames reaching away from the center. Your brain can't compute how "wrong" it all feels. I had goosebumps the entire time. How incredible that the moon can be the perfect distance from the sun and earth to create a visual like that. Getting to totality in 2024 for sure.

8/22/2017 1:11:51 PM

Quote :

"That corona was worth seeing though."

+1

8/22/2017 1:30:35 PM

I can echo pretty much everything said by everyone else from my Tennessee viewing experience:

No traffic whatsoever getting to the max line.
Huge difference between 99% and 100%.
Thought I was fine traffic wise until I got to Knoxville, then what should have been a 7 hour tripped turned into 10.
Was absolutely worth it, and I'll do it again in 2024.

8/22/2017 1:35:45 PM

I took the boys with me and we drove southwest into SC. I had originally planned to go near Columbia, but with the weather forecasts I headed more to the west. I went down to Rock Hill via I-85 and just caught the usual Charlotte traffic. Where it got bad was when I left I-77 in Rock Hill and headed down Hwy 72 towards the Lake Greenwood State Park. Traffic was pretty solid headed west. I drove through Whitmire and a LOT of people had pulled off there. A few folks were trying to sell parking in their yards for $10. I kept travelling as roads cleared, and I didn't think I had made it to maximum totality (Lake Greenwood was actually past it just a bit). Eventually I drove through Joanna on the other side of I-26 and found a square in the middle of town with about 20 people on it from out of town. Ended up having a nice time and met a family who had come down from Raleigh and had a poodle named Raleigh (our last dog was a Sheltie name Raleigh).

The ride home was a nightmare. We went up I-26 to Spartanburg and then took I-85 back home. I-26 was stop and roll about half way to Spartanburg and then pretty slow most of the way to the NC line. Cleared out between Gastonia and then got pretty bad again. Didn't thin out permanently until the construction on 85 between Charlotte and Spencer. At that point it was smooth sailing. We left around 8:00 am and got to Joanna around 1:30. We left at 3:15 and got home at 9:00.

All in all was definitely worth it. Partial eclipses are cool, I had seen them before, but totality was just insane. I am so glad I did that and took the kids. Just hate that it was partly cloudy, so I only got to see the sun for about 30 seconds of totality. Barely got time to even try and photograph it, although I did.

8/22/2017 1:51:50 PM

Quote :

"How incredible that the moon can be the perfect distance from the sun and earth to create a visual like that."

According to astronomers this is actually a huge rarity. Most observable planets either have moons that are either too small or too far away from their planet to make a noticeable difference when they traverse the sun. I even read that if we ever make contact with extra terrestrials, Earth could be considered an "intergalactic tourist hotspot" for the sole purpose of having a moon that has the same basic size as the sun from the point of view of someone standing on the surface.

8/22/2017 2:18:23 PM

Just got back home, and it was, indeed, epic. It almost seemed as if there was a force field around Lake Murray that kept all of the clouds away, and it was as close to a perfect day as any that I can recall.

8/22/2017 5:34:18 PM

The best ones I have seen so far.

https://twitter.com/aperezjones/status/899837853965930500

8/22/2017 8:15:27 PM

Viewing the totality blew me away. I watched the eclipse in Robbinsville and the conditions were perfect. Clear blue sky, no clouds anywhere around the sun. Without a doubt 100% worth it. I didn't head back to Raleigh immediately after the eclipse but did briefly get stuck on Hwy 74 (was stop and go for 17 miles according to Google - I turned around and back tracked 10 miles). And later on that night I-40 east of Asheville by Black Mtn was a complete shit show. Some wreck closed all (or most) of the lanes until midnight.

I had never intended to head east from Asheville but was forced to (long story) and after leaving at 8:40 I didn't get back to Raleigh until 2am

8/23/2017 8:57:33 AM

Quote :

"And later on that night I-40 east of Asheville by Black Mtn was a complete shit show."

That explains why Waze routed me WAY the fuck around Asheville (I-26/US-74/US-64) on the way back to Raleigh.

8/23/2017 9:23:30 AM

I made it a road trip within a road trip (I live in VT but came down to visit NC before going to the totality zone in SC). Myself, my girlfriend, and another friend drove to Williamston, SC (3 miles from the absolute center line) with an expected 2:36 of totality. It was absolutely worth it. I can't embed photos on FB but here is a couple I took (I focused on witnessing the event rather than taking pics):

Super wide angle with the cell during totality (note the Umbra and twilight at the horizon as part of the 360 degree sunset):
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10104669261379679&set=a.687517776819.2292476.11832585&type=3&theater

This is of the disc and corona with my dlsr (The corona came out bright in this shot which limited the detail you can see):
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10104669091574969&set=a.687517776819.2292476.11832585&type=3&theater


It was truly surreal and before totality the dimming light was not the same as a normal sunset. It had a very strange feel to it and it almost made you think something went wrong with your vision. Just before the diamond ring phase it is like one of those scenes from an old movie where they filmed in daylight but simulated nighttime. It is at this point you see the shadow approaching from the west. When the diamond ring hits you see the darkness take hold in seconds. In totality, just how dark it got really surprised me. It exceeded my expectations. Seeing the corona in person is mind blowing and no picture can re-create that experience. Finally before you know it that 2:36 is over and the diamond ring appears again. At this moment it is like someone is bringing the lights up in a room with the fader except that you are outside! I thought people who have seen one before this were hyping it up but boy was I wrong! The only downside was the 9 hour drive to get back to Raleigh from the Greenville area with everyone from Charlotte and the Triad at once on I-85 lol. We tried to take backroads and even had trouble there. It seemed like an exit from Columbia was much easier. I'm hooked and want to do it again!

8/23/2017 3:59:55 PM

what town in the path for 2024 is the most worth visiting?

8/23/2017 4:33:36 PM

I love that everyone who saw totality is saying they're going to be sure to see it again in 2024. If that tells you anything it should be that your ass needs to seen one before you die.

8/23/2017 5:03:28 PM

Well you could always travel to other countries and see one like every 18 months on average.

8/23/2017 5:30:52 PM

okay Neil deGrasse Tyson

8/23/2017 7:56:43 PM

Quote :

"The only downside was the 9 hour drive to get back to Raleigh from the Greenville area with everyone from Charlotte and the Triad at once on I-85 lol. We tried to take backroads and even had trouble there. It seemed like an exit from Columbia was much easier. I'm hooked and want to do it again!"

Had several friends go to Eastover, just south of Columbia and it took them longer to get back to Carrboro via US-1 than it did for me to drive up I-26 from Joanna, and then back up I-85 to Carrboro. We traveled an extra 60 miles than them, but they frequently got caught in traffic jams at intersections. Additionally there was no passing slower traffic.

8/23/2017 8:22:58 PM

Quote :

"no picture can recreate that experience"

QFT. Seriously, I was worried totality wouldn’t meet the hype, I’d seen photos and watched videos and good grief was it a million times better than expected.

8/23/2017 10:07:05 PM

Saw it in Lexington S.C. LUckily no clouds blocking the eclipse but during totality, the clouds in the distance being illuminated while nearby things were dark made the clouds look painted in the sky.

Very amazing and surreal experience. Highly recommend.

8/23/2017 11:17:30 PM