2024 Solar Eclipse - never too early to get ready

[crash_davis 23100]

 

[Hagbard Celine 10850]

so i'm finally getting in to some modeling of possible scenarios

i'm going to post some stuff in the tree rat forum....  a couple of specific items i'm going to send to those that have requested it

my biggest concern is what i'm calling the YOLOgoldilocks scenario......

RV ownership is at a record high with 11.2 million households owning an RV in 2021
Approximately 1 million Americans live in recreational vehicles full-time
Over 40 million Americans regularly go RVing, with over 25 million RVing a year
38% of the 40 million Americans who own an RV are Millennials
Approximately 9% of households in the United States own an RV for recreational purposes

[Hagbard Celine 10850]

oregon

wyoming

[Hagbard Celine 10850]

wyoming had it's highest ever population during the eclipse in 17

[Hagbard Celine 10850]

drill down to see the clusterfuck from st. louis to charleston

https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?mid=1lf1zQElZCKW8f0gTbY_b06wIfA4&hl=en_US&ll=34.61062095450695%2C-82.16725056061048&z=9

[Hagbard Celine 10850]

2017 was in august

2024 is in april

the instability in cloud coverage is going to be the biggest variable

everyone that wanted to see 2017 but didn't will be going YOLO for this one

i am concerned that the core infrastructure and supply chain have not begun pre-positioning for a worst-case influx of millions of unprepared, un-housed and un-fed interlopers from the east, southeast and midwest looking for cloud-free skies

[Hagbard Celine 10850]

better link to the gootraffic nationwide

https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?mid=1lf1zQElZCKW8f0gTbY_b06wIfA4&hl=en_US&ll=38.4142379177235%2C-100.9832660443961&z=5

 

[InkaUtexas 25862]

I went to Illinois for the last one. Traffic was a mess and the state park was overrun. We camped about 1 mile away and then hiked up.

[joe dirt 285]

going to the vampire weekend show at moody amphitheater that day. it’s at noon. should i plan to go sunday night and just sleep on a park bench? you fuckers are starting to get me worried about the logistics of this whole thing. 

[Hagbard Celine 10850]

240317.1701z 12:01 PM Texas Time

At Noon it looked like 98% of Texas Totality (TEXTOT) was fucked today with the exception of the swath near Waco that started opening up about 1130am....

[Hagbard Celine 10850]

here we are, 10 minutes ago, 1801z, 1:01 PM TT, with the skies miraculously parting between Waco and I-20; TEXTOT up to 8% visible:

[Hagbard Celine 10850]

burying this every so often for the consideration of centexians based on historical cloud cover probabilities

Spoiler

https://maps.app.goo.gl/janjaS3CKMdYrXLm8

this is the 3AM range of operations for those with at least 500 miles of range without refueling/recharging

obviously, today, sunday 17th, it would not have helped and there would be no way to recover without crossing the border

[Hagbard Celine 10850]

showtime

eagle pass totality begins at 1327, clarksville totality ends at 1349

22 minutes that will determine your once-in-a-lifetime lotto result

240317.1826z T-1 minute

haze continues to dog the metroplex

millions will miss out on the full show, no planets or galaxy for the metroplex

if you picked West, Hillsboro, Italy or Ennis, jackpot

south of waco?

100% fucked

guesstimate on number of people in path that witness it: 10%, tops

[Hagbard Celine 10850]

planet locations in totality:

hold out your fist at arms length....

Venus: 1 first from the Sun/Moon, down and to the right

Jupiter: 3 fists up and to the left of the Sun/Moon

Mars & Saturn: 10 degrees above the southwest horizon, they will be difficult to see

the "devil comet" MAY be visible WITH BINOCULARS (and only try during totality) to the right of Jupiter

search results for Uranus were scarce, and it's barely visible to the eye; Neptune is not visible without optics

[Hagbard Celine 10850]

Mercury is also visible RIGHT NOW at sunset and is currently brighter than Sirius, 2 fists below Jupiter in the west:

https://www.space.com/mercury-at-its-best-march-2024

[Homercles 10205]

[Hagbard Celine 10850]

[Captain Ron 12868]

20 hours ago, Hagbard Celine said:

oregon

wyoming

 

20 hours ago, Hagbard Celine said:

wyoming had it's highest ever population during the eclipse in 17

So we have a place that is just off totality in Waterford, Vermont (99.99% from the maps). We’re going to have to drive somewhere to see it (assuming good cloud coverage). This is what worries me. Some friends want to go into Burlington, vt (centerline) - I say no F-ing way for this reason. I can go north a bit and be ok. We will see.

I also don’t need to be centerline. I just want to see totality for a good bit. 

[YGIFS 19449]

2 hours ago, joe dirt said:

going to the vampire weekend show at moody amphitheater that day. it’s at noon. should i plan to go sunday night and just sleep on a park bench? you fuckers are starting to get me worried about the logistics of this whole thing. 

I think our current plan is to do this.  Waterloo Greenway will be crowded, but not insane.  We were gonna head out into the Hill Country but the fucking drive will just be a fucking beating.  So pull the girls outta school before lunch and pack a picnic and eat either at the Waterloo Greenway show or the Long Center deal.  If we don't end up going to Waterloo, PM me and I'll give you my parking pass which you can use to park at the Medical School two blocks away (they're picky about license plate numbers this year so no guarantees).  Somewhere they can at least by be other kids and listen to some fun music.  I wanted to take them camping but all reservation sites indicate it's gonna be a fucking shitshow.  Had some friends invite us to lakehouses and ranches 'n shit, but I'm not gonna drag them out there at 6am and skip a whole day of school.  They'll have other eclipses.  

csb/ Our local ISD dad's club talked and I presented a cool idea.  It's about lunchtime/recess time anyway, so we were gonna have the whole elementary school out onto the soccer field for the totality.  And the booster and Dad's club were gonna buy glasses and a free food truck out there and then just hang back and let the science teachers do their thing with the music teacher playing some jams.  And we'd just clean up afterwards.  After apparently looking into the legality of it all, although we do dropoff duty and weekend cleanups, the SRO Mike had to tell us, "Sorry, but in the middle of the school day to just have the risk of some random guy blending in pretending he's a dad on site is just too great for us given the landscape."  So in the interest of safety, gonna do blow backstage with Vampire Weekend   

Edited March 17 by YGIFS

[Hagbard Celine 10850]

58 minutes ago, YGIFS said:

They'll have other eclipses.

Not in Texas.

 

[Hagbard Celine 10850]

17 timelapse, somewhere out west

[Hagbard Celine 10850]

240318.1826z T-1 minute

a better day today.....

the metroplex continues to hold on to high-altitude cirrus which will impair the full show

huge swaths of totality east of dallas would get the full show today

guessing 50% overall would get to see it today, 30% overall (within the 50%) get the full show

[elfenix 34223]

On 3/2/2024 at 7:41 PM, Updawg said:

Never knew purple paint meant no trespassing

and this is the problem with purple paint being a mark of no trespassing.

Edited March 19 by elfenix

[Wally Fairway 5541]

two things 

 

https://xkcd.com/1880/

[CleverNickname 1308]

On 3/17/2024 at 12:41 PM, joe dirt said:

going to the vampire weekend show at moody amphitheater that day. it’s at noon. should i plan to go sunday night and just sleep on a park bench? you fuckers are starting to get me worried about the logistics of this whole thing. 

Are you crazy?!? Vampires turn to dust in the daylight. They are demons of the Night. What do you think they will do during the 2:30 of totality? They gonna rip your neck amd feast on your blood. BEWARE OF VAMPIRES DURING THE ECLIPSE! Why do you think the counties are declaring states of emergency? Because we are going to run out of tortilla chips? Fuck no. This is Texas. Devils Sinkhole. Congress Bridge. That stupid tunnel by Fredericksburg. Do I have to spell it out for you? Bat country. Most of em mexican bats, out here laying shingles amd eating skeeters. But some em... some of em are El Diablo. The Black Court. Nosferatu. Jesus, Mary, and Joseph. We are all fucked. Vampire Weekend, at noon, on April 8. Fucking A.

[YGIFS 19449]

What were they?  Like, psychos?

NO!  Psychos do not explode when exposed to sunlight! 

[Captain Ron 12868]

So the panic is starting to grip Vermont for the traffic. Actually they are getting triggered by past events.

I didn't hear about (or really know or care) the 2004 Phish farewell concerts at some farm in rural Vermont (Coventry). But it tied up traffic massively.

https://www.vermontpublic.org/local-news/2024-03-20/phish-crowds-overwhelmed-vermont-highways-in-2004-how-is-the-state-preparing-for-eclipse-traffic

I will note that it's a little different for a large group of people to get to a small place (a farm in a rural town) vs the same number of people in a larger place (the whole northern part of the state). So will it be the same? We'll see.

[Trey3216 15345]

1 hour ago, Captain Ron said:

So the panic is starting to grip Vermont for the traffic. Actually they are getting triggered by past events.

I didn't hear about (or really know or care) the 2004 Phish farewell concerts at some farm in rural Vermont (Coventry). But it tied up traffic massively.

https://www.vermontpublic.org/local-news/2024-03-20/phish-crowds-overwhelmed-vermont-highways-in-2004-how-is-the-state-preparing-for-eclipse-traffic

I will note that it's a little different for a large group of people to get to a small place (a farm in a rural town) vs the same number of people in a larger place (the whole northern part of the state). So will it be the same? We'll see.

It would be pretty badass to be at Niagra Falls during a Total Solar Eclipse.  Wish I had thought of that a few years ago.  

[Brisketexan 105066]

5 minutes ago, Trey3216 said:

It would be pretty badass to be at Niagra Falls during a Total Solar Eclipse.  Wish I had thought of that a few years ago.  

If you go, just stay away from my girlfriend who lives there.  She's totally hot.  You wouldn't know her.

[MAUFRAIS 6619]

I bet those people are glad they made that last phish show though. They’ve only had 11,242 chances to see them since then.

[Brisketexan 105066]

Just now, MAUFRAIS said:

I bet those people are glad they made that last phish show though. They’ve only had 11,242 chances to see them since then.

Fuck you!

Signed, a dude who went to see Elton John's farewell tour.....in 1987.

[texasdago 7567]

Still leaning on 1) walking to a nearby park and just watching it go dark for 2 minutes (I think we get two minutes or something) OR convincing someone to take the boat out on Lake Austin which I think would be bad ass.

Need AISD to cooperate, though

[utee94 15805]

14 minutes ago, texasdago said:

Still leaning on 1) walking to a nearby park and just watching it go dark for 2 minutes (I think we get two minutes or something) OR convincing someone to take the boat out on Lake Austin which I think would be bad ass.

Need AISD to cooperate, though

I'm just pulling my kids out of school all day on Monday.  I think it's a worthwhile tradeoff.

 

[InkaUtexas 25862]

We had a solid plan to head out to Brady to a buddies ranch. Wife was told she has to work, no days off, and seeing the clusterfuck that is developing I decided to stay here in town. Might go to the river and watch from there. Plus there will be a lot of eye candy.

[texasdago 7567]

38 minutes ago, utee94 said:

I'm just pulling my kids out of school all day on Monday.  I think it's a worthwhile tradeoff.

 

I have a feeling there will be a lot of people doing this if they still stay open.  

As of early March...

Here are the districts that have called cancelled classes so far: 

• Manor Independent School District 
• Burnet Independent School District 
• Liberty Hill School Independent School District 
• Wimberley Independent School District
• Blanco Independent School District
• Dripping Springs Independent School District
• Boerne Independent School District
• Fredericksburg Independent School District
• Marble Falls Independent School District
• Harper Independent School District
• Johnson City Independent School District
• Lago Vista Independent School District
• Lake Travis Independent School District
• Hays Consolidated Independent School District

 

[Js1 85275]

I really want to go see it, but it sounds like traffic is going to be a nightmare anywhere you go and the smaller towns can't handle the traffic coming.  Don't really want to be stuck in CenTex or DFW for a day trip to see it for a couple of minutes.

[InkaUtexas 25862]

Working on an alternative plan. I know the back roads from San Marcos to Wimberley so might head into that area and just find a place to park.

[Kel Varnsen 8458]

My house is about 1.5 miles from the line of totality on RR12. Might just walk it.

[InkaUtexas 25862]

2 minutes ago, Kel Varnsen said:

My house is about 1.5 miles from the line of totality on RR12. Might just walk it.

Yep, rechecked the map and my idea of Sewell for Eclipse and Sloots just does not work right. So talking to a buddy about setting up the two telescopes in the back of his truck, go out early and take lunch with us. If we see a dude in a Surly shirt we will stop and give you a ride!

[Kel Varnsen 8458]

[InkaUtexas 25862]

Stupid question. Best lens filters for telescopes? Was thinking replacement welders lenses but seeing mixed reviews.

 

[Your Mom 4805]

9 minutes ago, InkaUtexas said:

Stupid question. Best lens filters for telescopes? Was thinking replacement welders lenses but seeing mixed reviews.

 

That’s some thing I’m looking into as well. If you don’t find a good answer here I’m about to go post the same question on the photography thread if it’s not there already.

[Deej 76755]

3 hours ago, texasdago said:

convincing someone to take the boat out on Lake Austin which I think would be bad ass.

My plan is to be fishing, hoping the fish get fooled into an extra dusk and dawn feeding. 

[MAUFRAIS 6619]

Stupid fish

[YGIFS 19449]

Why are we still talking about Phish?  

So Dripping Springs council/manager/mayor/whichever just announced a State of Emergency/Disaster for the Eclipse Date.  I guess between all the traffic and people freaking out and Trey Anastasio passing out LSD or something?  Dunno.  

But file this under more shit I did not see coming in 2024:  https://www.statesman.com/story/news/local/2024/03/21/dripping-springs-disaster-declaration-april-8-total-solar-eclipse-2024-texas/73055706007/

[BillyGoatHill 4312]

2 hours ago, YGIFS said:

Why are we still talking about Phish?  

So Dripping Springs council/manager/mayor/whichever just announced a State of Emergency/Disaster for the Eclipse Date.  I guess between all the traffic and people freaking out and Trey Anastasio passing out LSD or something?  Dunno.  

But file this under more shit I did not see coming in 2024:  https://www.statesman.com/story/news/local/2024/03/21/dripping-springs-disaster-declaration-april-8-total-solar-eclipse-2024-texas/73055706007/

Shoot, if you have FB, go to the DS Neighbors page and look at ALL the dumbassery on there. You would think JC was coming into town to bless Mercer St or walk across the pool at Founders Park.

I'm gonna buy groceries on Thursday or Friday just so I can avoid trying to get into town that weekend and of course Monday. As long as there is no cloud cover, I'll have a unobstructed view from my backyard or even better from one of my windmills.

[boknowstecmo 216]

I was just thinking about driving out to Alamo Springs Cafe or Luckenbach. Wonder if that'll be too close to the Fredericksburg clusterfuck though. 

 

[Deej 76755]

It will be. 

[deft 6837]

Stupid question. Best lens filters for telescopes? Was thinking replacement welders lenses but seeing mixed reviews.
 

Here’s my solution from the fall annular using a ~$25 12x12” sheet from eBay and some cereal boxes

[Homesickhorn 2202]

My sister has a horse barn on 32 acres on Hwy 27 just outside of Comfort (12 miles from Kerrville). I’m probably gonna have some folks out there if anyone is interested. It’s far enough away from Kerrville to not get cluster-fucked by traffic, and close enough to I-10 to make your getaway when it’s over.