Eclipse 2017

[Brooke]

Anyone watching this phenomenon today?

I'm trying, but now the clouds are moving in and you can see the sun, but not when you put on your special eclipse glasses! Bummer!

I could see it when it looked like a bite out of a cookie!

[New Kid In Town]

Brooke - Watching on tv. We only get a 70% eclipse here in the NY/NJ Metro area. I could not find the sunglasses anywhere. However, my nephew lives in Carbondale, Ill. and my sister and BIL left Saturday to visit him so they saw the full eclipse. My other sister and BIL live outside Charleston,SC and should see the full eclipse too. Your right, bummer we can't see the full eclipse. :-(

[Delilah]

I was at a meeting earlier and afterwards there was a viewing but I didn't try to look. I had to leave and at the time it was barely starting from what I was told. My sons are watching it at their school.

I just got a Billboard alert that sales of "Total Eclipse of the Heart" rose by 500%.

[shunlvswx]

Somebody in my building had glasses and I went outside to watch for a few seconds. It was beautiful. When you look into the glasses, everything around you is blocked out and everything is dark except seeing the sun and moon coming together.

I'm in Mississippi and I think we get 83% of the eclipse. It hasn't gotten dark here like other cities are getting dark.

[Brooke]

We were to have 98% totality here, which was good enough for me, but clouds rolled in and couldn't see the sun at all by 1:14 which was 'total' time.

It got pretty dark here, but it was just as dark when a storm went through yesterday morning. The street lights came on.

Delilah, too funny!

[Pippinwhite]

We got about 98% totality here. The light looked very odd, and the light coming through the trees on the sidewalk was crescent-shaped. Very cool.

[Delilah]

Update: my husband brought me some solar sunglasses so I was able to see it after all. It looked like a bite out of cookie like Brooke said. He got to see it when it was more than 50% covered. It's been pretty much the usual sunny day.

[buffyfan145]

We got 87% here but it did get cloudy so it mostly looked like it does when we're about to get a really bad thunderstorm. Did watch CBS' coverage and was awesome to see and learn more about as I've always been interested in astronomy. I do remember back in 1994 we were part of the eclipse that year that hit the east coast and it got so dark like night during that one. The next one in 2024 will follow about the same path as 94's and part of Ohio will be in the totality line so that's going to be awesome again being so close.

[sodascouts]

We had 93% here and it was a very clear day. I made a viewer from a cereal box and it worked pretty well, although I expected the sky to get darker! Still, seeing the sun go down to a little sliver was pretty cool.

[UndertheWire]

In 1999, we travelled to Cornwall for the solar eclipse and went to the place that was supposed to have the longest period of darkness. Unfortunately, there was a complete cloud cover during the eclipse but afterwards there were a few breaks in the cloud and I was able to see the partially-covered sun. I do remember it being quite eerie when it all went dark, especially when looking across the water towards Falmouth. I'll be dead long before the next total eclipse in the UK in 2090, so I guess that was a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

[RudieCantFail]

~75% totality, so I just used a colander and a grater to look for the crescent shape of the sun from the shadow on the ground. It was noticeably darker outside in San Jose though.

[NightMistBlue]

We had 93% here and it was a very clear day. I made a viewer from a cereal box and it worked pretty well, although I expected the sky to get darker! Still, seeing the sun go down to a little sliver was pretty cool.

My cereal box viewer was a bust. I suspect I made the hole in the foil too big, but NASA said it didn't have to be pinhole, that you could experiment.

It was about 80% where I live but nothing much happened. It got slightly overcast, and the birds got frenetic for a few minutes but that was it. :(

[WalshFan88]

Unfortunately I couldn't participate in the watching even with proper glasses. I'm blind in my left eye and my ophthalmologist would have probably yelled at me if she found out I looked at the eclipse even with glasses. She yells at me if I forget to wear my glasses. So yeah, not worth the risk nor the chew out at my next apt.

[RudieCantFail]

Not that this picture is any good, but this is how I viewed the eclipse last week. Yep, I went low tech with a colander/strainer's shadow.

https://68.media.tumblr.com/eef93f0e3c2a9ad97e144c0ec3e36069/tumblr_ovdpgrfH7Z1tg5olgo3_540.jpg

[NightMistBlue]

Oh wow, that's pretty neat. Thanks, Rudie!

I saw beautiful crescent shapes in the shade of a mahogany tree. That redeemed the frustrating experience with the cereal-box viewer. :)

[Brooke]

That's pretty cool, RCF! Thanks for sharing!

[Glennsallnighter]

Well done Rudie!! It was cloudy here. We would only have gotten a partial eclipse anyway. I remember seeing one in Galway about 2 years ago early in the morning and also the one in 1999 at lunchtime