who is getting ready for the upcoming solar eclipse?

Got my glasses ordered and will be visiting friends at Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR. that week. There will be 12 of us invading my poor college buddy's home.

 

I'm not an expert but I think welding glasses are okay and there are cheap disposable glasses made specifically for viewing solar eclipses. Make sure the lenses aren't scratched so you are getting fully protected. Be safe.

 

I live about an hour south of the eclipse path -- west of Eugene, Oregon. All hotels/motels anywhere near the path are booked. I have to work on that Monday, and not that excited about it anyway, so will not be traveling north to see the eclipse.

 

I ordered my glasses from Carolina Biological Supply. They are a buck each. They supposedly met the required standards.

I know in the Corvallis, Oregon area, that all hotel/motel/rental housing have been reserved for months.

There are camp sites being set up in public parks and rodeo grounds, etc. I think a fair number of those sites might still be available. I assume the same stuff is taking place across the country.

If you go, you had better make arrangements ASAP. Oh, and my glasses were on backorder for two months. They just shipped last week. If you want to order any of those, do it quickly. The cheapies should be fine. If not, a lot of blind people will emerge on Monday

NASA - Eye Safety During Solar Eclipses

 

We will be driving, in our Prius of course, from Colorado to Grand Island, Nebraska. We made a reservation last fall. I just looked at Grand Island on hotels.com. Fully booked. This will be our third total solar eclipse, so we have glasses.

cyberpriusII, sorry you will miss it. If you saw one, you would know how special it is. Our daughter and grandson, who live in Portland, booked a place on the coast. In Oregon there is always a chance of clouds but less so in the summer.

 

We are going to try.
Right now our plans are in Illinois near St Louis, where we can head to various locations weather/traffic permitting.

Long ago saw that hotels were booked everywhere Oregon etc so we ran out of time to plan ahead given the difficulty finding a spot.

We are more interested in the totality period which we have never seen.

 

This has been true pretty much coast to coast. I haven't yet checked for any remaining backcountry permits, but other schedule issues likely preclude me from experiencing totality.

For any latecomers who are just now learning of this event, here is a map:

http://www.eclipse2017.org/2017/maps/whole-us.jpg

 

not that excited@4. If I can make the trip this will only be my second one. Much regret about missing others since. Experience in person is far superior to just seeing videos. Arm-twisting ends.

 

Oh US postal has now released stamps that are supposed to be pretty neat.

 

Welding glasses need to be at least level 14. Be sure to check as most are less than this. If you are using camera or telescope filters, they need to be ND5 or more. There are lots of inexpensive viewing options on eBay and from Amazon...do NOT use regular sun glasses or homemade alternatives.

 

Pin-hole shoe box?

It is easy commuting distance from Huntsville so we'll just drive up; park on the side of the road, and; enjoy.

Bob Wilson

 

Pinhole camera obscura. Make cardboard hole larger, tape over aluminum foil and make pinhole in that. Don't wait until 'the day' for handicrafts.

Under no circumstances put foil over your binoculars' objective lenses and pinhole those. Too risky.

 

I have my Thousand Oaks Optical 77mm Solar filter and have tested it a few weeks back on my 400 L lens, and handheld no less (the real shooting will be with a tripod). I have a week off for the drive out, shooting it, and the drive back. The hotel room is booked for my short drive to a remote Nebraska town. I am 77% certain I will do this, and 50% certain the sky might have good seeing. These things are always a crapshoot, and expensive if you want to do it right. But given the next one will be 2024, and over a much cloudier part of the country, the benefits outweigh the chance of failure, which is always an option. BTW, hotels rooms are 100% booked within 150 miles of that centerline, everywhere in the country. Mine is 124 miles away from where I'm shooting it.

The plan is to leave at about 2am from the hotel to join the big traffic jam queue line for the parking area. Expecting a mass panic situation as I get near the target location, and bathroom plans might have to be, um, very inventive.

testing, testing...

 

Expecting a mass panic situation@15. Yes, this, exactly. Eclipsers ought to presume slow travel to site. Ideally you'd arrive too early, so bring a comfy chair you already have. Or buy one. Comfy chair is part of life planning.

DavidA also gives us his great solar image. So few 'spots'. I completely assume you are set to increase aperture (or whatever) to capture much fewer photons from corona during totality.

2024 April 8: North-central Mexico. I can only hope that 2017 will addict you enough to go way down there. Probably will be my last shot.

 

About halfway between Delicias and Torreon. But getting 7 years ahead of ourselves...

 

That is a good image. It is just your camera? What lens did you use.

 

Comfy chair has not yet been located, but has been planned since the beginning.

During the corona phase, the filter comes off, and the exposure is not too different, actually. It is naked eye viewing for the 2.4 minute coronal phase. In fact, it is impossible to see the corona if you don't view with the naked eye. Note: Only that coronal phase. For everything else, you need a proper solar filter to view whether it is in front of your eyes, binoculars, telescope, video camera or still camera.

Canon 5D3 with 400 L 5.6 (a 20+ year old lens that is still perfect). I will experiment with a 1.4x TC also. The actual shots will be live view manual focus, manual exposures and an electronic shutter release. The plan is to get the entire 5-hour long sequence. I want a companion image to this.

If everything comes together, it will also be the first extended trip for my Prime!