April 8 Solar Eclipse Thread

[Florida Man for Crime]

For any who are unaware, there will be a solar eclipse tomorrow, April 8 over significant parts of the US. The area in which it will be a total solar eclipse is shown on this map, and stretches through or very near major cities like Austin, Dallas, Little Rock, St. Louis, Indianapolis, Cleveland, and Buffalo.




However, across the entirety of the rest of the continental USA you will also be able to see at least a partial eclipse, generally at least 40-60%:




Detailed zoomable map: https://nso.edu/for-public/eclipse-map-2024/


Times: https://www.nbcnews.com/science/space/total-solar-eclipse-time-path-map-2024-rcna146131

    Dallas: Partial eclipse begins at 12:23 p.m. CT and totality at 1:40 p.m. CT.
    Idabel, Oklahoma: Partial eclipse begins at 12:28 p.m. CT and totality at 1:45 p.m. CT.
    Little Rock, Arkansas: Partial eclipse begins at 12:33 p.m. CT and totality at 1:51 p.m. CT.
    Poplar Bluff, Missouri: Partial eclipse begins at 12:39 p.m. CT and totality at 1:56 p.m. CT.
    Paducah, Kentucky: Partial eclipse begins at 12:42 p.m. CT and totality at 2:00 p.m. CT.
    Carbondale, Illinois: Partial eclipse begins at 12:42 p.m. CT and totality at 1:59 p.m. CT.
    Evansville, Indiana: Partial eclipse begins at 12:45 p.m. CT and totality at 2:02 p.m. CT.
    Cleveland: Partial eclipse begins at 1:59 p.m. ET and totality at 3:13 p.m.
    Erie, Pennsylvania: Partial eclipse begins at 2:02 p.m. ET and totality at 3:16 p.m. ET.
    Buffalo, New York: Partial eclipse begins at 2:04 p.m. ET and totality at 3:18 p.m.
    Burlington, Vermont: Partial eclipse begins at 2:14 p.m. ET and totality at 3:26 p.m. ET.
    Lancaster, New Hampshire: Partial eclipse begins at 2:16 p.m. ET and totality at 3:27 p.m.
    Caribou, Maine: Partial eclipse begins at 2:22 p.m. ET and totality at 3:32 p.m. ET.

PBS Nova documentary:

Of course, it should go without saying, but do NOT look directly at the sun without appropriate protective glasses like Donald Trump previously did. Be smart and only do so if you have proper protective glasses, or you can permanently damage your retina:

[Florida Man for Crime]

I found my glasses from the 2017 eclipse, so I'm all set!

Last time, I was in Nashville and saw totality. This time, I'm in DC which will be about 90% totality. I'm actually looking forward to seeing the difference.

WAIT. YOU ARE NOT SUPPOSED TO RE-USE GLASSES, they lose their effectiveness over time.

I am not 100% sure HOW bad it is, but heard on the news saying that you should not re-use old ones.

So try to borrow temporarily some new ones from someone or something if you can get a friend to lend you a peek.

[Florida Man for Crime]

Partial eclipse has begun in Dallas.

Yep, I have seen the partial.

One thing I am paying attention to is behavior of animals such as birds. So far it seems normal, but supposedly that changes over the next half hour or so as the eclipse becomes fuller.

[Florida Man for Crime]

Some observations on totality:

1) Totality IS characteristically different from a 95-99% eclipse. At 95-99% or so, it still pretty much looks like day outside (although dusk or certainly a cloudy day). The transition to totality is pretty sudden, and suddenly it no longer looks like day. So if you have not seen a total eclipse and are near a future total eclipse but not directly in its path, I think it is worth traveling a shortish/reasonable distance to see totality. It is not just a difference of degree, but of type.

2) However, it doesn't get THAT dark. I heard some people saying it gets totally dark, and that was not true. It was not dark like the middle of the night, but more like early part of the night or early in the morning a bit before dawn.

3) As emailking mentioned, crickets started chirping (though I think it may have taken them 30 seconds to a minute or so to start).

4) Birds started chirping as though it were dawn/early morning for a few minutes after the sun came back.

5) However, I think that people who have been saying that it is the greatest thing ever are exaggerating how impressive it is a bit. It was interesting and impressive, but I think somewhat less so than various other things such as seeing the grand canyon, flying in an airplane for the first time, or perhaps seeing the ocean for the first time or something like that. So while you are missing out on something if you never see one, I don't think you are missing out on THAT much.

6) I think the coolest and most interesting thing was actually the shadows during partial (but substantial) phase of the eclipse, which looked like this, with semi-circles as a result of the non-circular shape of the light from the sun:

And you don't need a total eclipse to see that.