April 8th total eclipse of the sun

[TimC]

I'm curious if any of you have plans to witness the eclipse. After witnessing the 2017 total eclipse at Panther's Den Wilderness in the Shawnee National Forest (south of Carbondale, IL) I was committed to do it all again when the 2024 eclipse happens. We talked about returning to Panther's Den but decided to make a long weekend of it and invited my siblings to join us. Panther's Den would have been a no-go for my siblings as it was hiking in and tenting in a small clearing. We have reservations at Spring Mill SP in southern Indiana for a long weekend. Staying through Tuesday morning. The eclipse starts at about 2pm with totality from 3:04p to 3:08p and partial extending to about 4:20p.

A DNR website with info for Indiana.
https://www.in.gov/dnr/places-to-go/events/2024-solar-eclipse/eclipse-viewing-times/

In 2017 we made the mistake of trying to travel from southern Illinois immediately after totality in 2017 and paid dearly; along with a large number of other folks which turned out to add about four hours to our 7ish hour drive back to Milwaukee. My son and daughter-in-law had to work the next morning.

If you haven't made reservations yet I hope you can find a spot. Spring Mill is booked solid.

[Tom&Shelly]

We are thinking about it Tim. We have relatives who live East of Austin. Unfortunately, totality is West of Austin, and your story about adding 4 hours to the drive home makes us think it wouldn't necessarily be that much fun. To top it off, Shelly has an important medical appointment two days later and we're really about three days comfortable drive from Austin, so I suspect it's a no-go for us.

On the bright side, hoping to live long enough to see the next one is a nice goal. (August 23, 2044 in Alberta. I'll be 82.)

Tom

[QueticoBill]

If we stay home, pretty near ground 0. Drive 10 miles to inlaws, and ground 0. I think it's like 3 min and 15 seconds here, 3:30 at there house. Have been thinking of going someplace I can hike and get to a higher elevation.

[Onajourney]

I am a pretty serious landscape photographer. So when the total eclipse was coming back in 2017 just 4 hours away, I went off the deep end buying gear, learning, practicing, and preparing to shoot the TE. Totality was an incredible and unbelievable experience. If you can go, GO! I rented an RV and camped in McClellanville, SC at ground zero of the eclipse. Next time I will not bring all the gear to shoot and just enjoy the experience. This is the hardest most complicated image I have ever done and probably will ever do again.

[TimC]

+1 on GO!

Leading up to the 2017 eclipse I was listening to a radio broadcast where the guest was a NASA expert of some kind. The interview had me on the edge of my seat. I was going to get to the path of totality no matter what it took.

One of the most interesting things I remember is the guest talked about looking down at the forest floor before and after totality and you will see thousands of crescents of the sun. She went on about how that phenomenon happens. So don't just look up with your eclipse glasses. Take a look down if you are among the trees.

[rjgimp]

We've been planning on viewing this one since we returned home from viewing the 2017 event. If you've never witnessed one, IT IS MAGNIFICENT and well worth whatever effort it takes to make it happen!!! In 2017 we were in Alliance NE, about a mile from the centerline and had just shy of 2.5 minutes of darkness. We rented a 30' travel trailer for the 4 of us plus our dog and brought about 20 extra gallons of water on top of the onboard tank and a generator because we were going to need to do some boondocking. I grew up camping but I was quite new to dragging a house behind me and my wife considers Motel 6 to be roughing it. I did secure a parking spot at a church in Alliance. They had some acreage where they planned to build a new church across the street from the existing one and partitioned it off into 20' x 60' parcels for $25 a night. We discovered that the city had a convenient and free rv dump at the water plant. Oddly, the morning of the eclipse there was rather thick fog and I spent several hours wringing my hands and constantly refreshing my weather app. I was about ready to head to Casper when the fog miraculously cleared just a couple hours before showtime. Whew! I am so glad we stayed put because all I heard on the radio afterwards is what an enormous traffic jam there was in... Casper! We just stayed put and spent the rest of that afternoon relaxing then headed for home the next morning.

I am building a 16' camper but life has gotten in the way and I don't think it will be ready by April. There is a (~26') rental available nearby that we used for a trip in 2022 which we will likely use for this trip. Unfortunately I dropped the ball a bit and our exact site is still somewhat in the air. We are planning on being south of Dallas where totality will be nearly 4.5 minutes. My son is grown so he wont be with us this time. My now 15 year old daughter and 15 year old cocker spaniel will enjoy a second total eclipse together. I'm sure my daughter will plan on attending the one in 2044 and we likely will as well but the dog will most certainly have crossed the rainbow bridge by then.

[tomhawk]

We went to view the 2017 eclipse in Nebraska. We drove out to Lincoln the night before. The path of totality was a bit south of town. We woke on the day of the eclipse to some clouds. It seemed clearer to the west so we headed off on I-80 to a rest stop near York NE. It was a party atmosphere at the rest stop with all the parking spots taken. We got out the lawn chairs and waited for the eclipse. As it began, the clouds moved in from the east. We packed up and headed west again. Fortunately we reached clear skies outside of Grand Island and we pulled off to a parking lot across the highway from a truck stop. It turned out this was almost the exact spot where the path of totality intersected with I-80. There were only twenty or so other cars at this spot. We all got a very good view of the surrounding country side when the eclipse took place. I was not disappointed. We also experienced a traffic jam on I-80 afterwards that lasted into Iowa over 100 miles away. I heard from my son that he had a bad traffic jam returning to Utah from viewing in souther Idaho.

If you live in the upper midwest, the April 2024 eclipse is something not to miss. My fear is that the weather may not be favorable. I saw a web site that showed only about 30% of April days are sunny. If you plan to travel to see it, be prepared for disappointment.

If one is willing drive an hour or so the morning of the eclipse I don't think finding a place to spend the night should be a problem. The eclipse is in the afternoon. There is plenty of time to travel beforehand. Maybe you can drive to better viewing weather conditions as we did in 2017.

The tree pin hole camera effect is real. I saw that years ago during a partial eclipse. In Nebraska in 2017 we had no trees. They don't have a lot of trees.

[TimC]

Just a warning for folks thinking of traveling immediately after the eclipse. If you don't have to travel before early evening then stay put where you are. Give the traffic as much time as you can to clear out of the path of totality.

2017's eclipse was awesome, the trip home, not so much. In 2017 we did not get back to Milwaukee until 3am (a 6 1/2 hour trip took almost 12 hours). This time we are returning home from south central Indiana the next day, Tuesday, but my son and his wife have to work Tuesday morning. Totality in Indiana is just after 2pm Monday. I think their plan is to stick around for dinner and head back to Milwaukee in the evening. I hope that works for them. The almost six hour trip from Indiana should go much better if they allow the traffic to clear out of the path of totality before they leave. Of course we might all be surprised.

Another suggestion... on our way home stores were jammed with people, restrooms had lines that took forever to navigate, some convenience stores ran out of food quickly and at least one gas station only had premium left in the tank. Plan on those things and your trip will be much better. Tear droppers, bring your Luggable Loo or other contraption to take care of business. My daughter-in-law had to shed her modesty at one point and do her business behind a tree behind a gas station... with onlookers waiting for their turn.

[TimC]

In the morning I will be leaving on a 1300 mile round trip to S Indiana to hopefully see a total eclipse of the sun. Even if the weather forecasts are accurate I will still experience the effect of darkness, birds stop chirping, crickets start chirping, and being in a large state park we'll probably experience a lot of human type "whoop-whoop" sounds! And, I will be with all my siblings for most of a five day weekend.

Safe travels everyone!

[TimC]

Our group really had a great eclipse experience. It was touch and go with clouds over the weekend but in the end there were clear skies for the entire time the moon was moving in front of the sun. One odd thing compared to 2017, the birds did not stop singing, no crickets cricketing and it did not get as dark as I remember in 2017. The lack of leaves on the trees and a visible horizon in most directions this year might have reduced the darkness. 2017 was in August. We were in the forest with just a small opening in the canopy. Really happy we didn't travel all the way to Texas to improve our chances of clear skies. My son is in San Antonio handling an adoption of their new baby and early during the eclipse there were light clouds but then the thick cloud cover moved in and they missed totality.

I didn't pay any attention to reports from other areas in the path of totality. The week prior I saw predictions of storms along the path. I hope most of those folks experienced clear skies. I'm anxious to see Slim Potatoehead's video of his experience. He mention he was traveling to the southwest US to witness it. He mentioned that New Brunswick was supposed.to be a low chance of clear skies in early April.

[Tom&Shelly]

Glad you had good luck with clouds and sorry to hear about your son, Tim. We were in the San Antonio area a few weeks ago and have relatives near Austin. Not sure what weather they had or if they drove west to see totality. Did hear there was a lot of cloud predicted for then. We decided we couldn't go as Shelly has a neurology appointment tomorrow, and it would have been too much to drive back in time.

But there is another eclipse coming to Greenland, Iceland, and Spain in 2026. I think I remember hearing about a ferry operating from Labrador to Greenland ... (Just kidding.) Of course, there is one coming to Barrow Alaska in 2033, and it is possible to drive there!

Next ones in North America are in 2044 and 2045, and living that long with full faculties is a worthy goal for me: I'll be 82/83.

Tom

[TimC]

Glad you had good luck with clouds and sorry to hear about your son, Tim...

I doubt the kid was too disappointed to miss out on our trip to Southern Indiana. After about five years of IVF efforts and then a couple years trying to adopt they rec'd a call a couple weeks ago to go to SA for their new baby son. He and his wife's heads have been spinning ever since. So happy for them after years of struggle.

[Tom&Shelly]

Glad you had good luck with clouds and sorry to hear about your son, Tim...

I doubt the kid was too disappointed to miss out on our trip to Southern Indiana. After about five years of IVF efforts and then a couple years trying to adopt they rec'd a call a couple weeks ago to go to SA for their new baby son. He and his wife's heads have been spinning ever since. So happy for them after years of struggle.

Congratulations for that! In the scheme of things, family events are what are important to us as humans. May their baby grow up healthy and strong, and may he fill all your lives with joy!

Tom

[RJ Howell]

No clouds in NH!


My nephew was in Quebec for it and facetimed me for his viewing. Clear there as well.

At my daughter's in western NY as the night lights came on.

[RJ Howell]

No clouds in NH! My backyard


My nephew was in Quebec for it and facetimed me for his viewing. Clear there as well.

At my daughter's in western NY as the street/house lights came on. She had totality.