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Here's hoping that some of you are in the path of totality. Oh, and give us all of your Eclipse stories and photos please. 
Eclipse
- Thread starter Zenerdiode
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That link is nothing to do with the solar eclipse, it's to a software development project!
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Let me put my opinion about the eclipse hype another way ===> meh.....
The last time I saw one was in 1970; the year I turned 11.
Peter is within the path of totality. Jef is close enough that he should be able to get there. Hence we're "closed" for 2 extra hours at lunch today (which really just means the phones will be off).
Eric and Yanping are on their way to FL for a vacation and are planning to be in the path of totality this afternoon.
Up here at 40.2N, 75.3W we should still get a relatively nice partial; not quite as much coverage as the one in 1970, but still a very rare event.
Peter is within the path of totality. Jef is close enough that he should be able to get there. Hence we're "closed" for 2 extra hours at lunch today (which really just means the phones will be off).
Eric and Yanping are on their way to FL for a vacation and are planning to be in the path of totality this afternoon.
Up here at 40.2N, 75.3W we should still get a relatively nice partial; not quite as much coverage as the one in 1970, but still a very rare event.
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Let me share some pre-fizzle background.
School districts have canceled classes for the day, so they're not on the hook if little Johny looks up at the sun and burns his eyes out.
The news media outlets in the areas along the path of totality make it sound like the National Guard will need to be mobilized to deal with the travel headaches and stranded motorists.
People are renting their lawns for $100/person for out-of-towners to watch. In the mean time, Wal-Mart has a gazillion free parking spaces in every town should 10-20 "normal" people actually want to stop and watch.
Some dweeb who probably lives in Manhattan and took an Uber to "work" has published a click-bait map showing how many millions of people will be traveling to the point nearest them and what it's going to do to the highway system.
Hotels are scalping people for rooms in the path of totality.
The media is telling people to pack water, food, medicines, bread, and other essentials as if it's a blizzard coming to sock them in for days.
Even The Weather (Hype) Channel is telling people that if they didn't leave home by Friday afternoon that they should stay home because the highways will be crawling for hundreds of miles.
Frankly I've heard enough Eclipocalypse crap already! In reality, the entire populations of NYC and the northeast aren't traveling south today. I'd bet that 85% of the masses will be wondering why it's dark outside before Oprah's show starts. Our country would be lucky if even 1% of the residents gave a crap about science enough to actually travel for the experience. You just know that some whack jobs already bought the kool-aid and Nike Decades sneakers to off themselves in the hopes that the space ship following the moon across the sun will pick them up.
Seriously though, I live in an area that will see about 70% coverage. My welding mask is at home, and I have no eye protection to observe it here at work. I was just checking out the traffic on Google maps, and everything is green other than normal Monday morning traffic around the usual bottlenecks. I can have my choice of hotel rooms tonight about an hour north of the totality track for $109/night (regular price). Eclipocalypse my hairy pale bum! I may slap together a pinhole viewer at the last minute and take a stroll outside at around 2:45 PM, but would lose no sleep if I was too busy or forgot.....
School districts have canceled classes for the day, so they're not on the hook if little Johny looks up at the sun and burns his eyes out.
The news media outlets in the areas along the path of totality make it sound like the National Guard will need to be mobilized to deal with the travel headaches and stranded motorists.
People are renting their lawns for $100/person for out-of-towners to watch. In the mean time, Wal-Mart has a gazillion free parking spaces in every town should 10-20 "normal" people actually want to stop and watch.
Some dweeb who probably lives in Manhattan and took an Uber to "work" has published a click-bait map showing how many millions of people will be traveling to the point nearest them and what it's going to do to the highway system.
Hotels are scalping people for rooms in the path of totality.
The media is telling people to pack water, food, medicines, bread, and other essentials as if it's a blizzard coming to sock them in for days.
Even The Weather (Hype) Channel is telling people that if they didn't leave home by Friday afternoon that they should stay home because the highways will be crawling for hundreds of miles.
Frankly I've heard enough Eclipocalypse crap already! In reality, the entire populations of NYC and the northeast aren't traveling south today. I'd bet that 85% of the masses will be wondering why it's dark outside before Oprah's show starts. Our country would be lucky if even 1% of the residents gave a crap about science enough to actually travel for the experience. You just know that some whack jobs already bought the kool-aid and Nike Decades sneakers to off themselves in the hopes that the space ship following the moon across the sun will pick them up.
Seriously though, I live in an area that will see about 70% coverage. My welding mask is at home, and I have no eye protection to observe it here at work. I was just checking out the traffic on Google maps, and everything is green other than normal Monday morning traffic around the usual bottlenecks. I can have my choice of hotel rooms tonight about an hour north of the totality track for $109/night (regular price). Eclipocalypse my hairy pale bum! I may slap together a pinhole viewer at the last minute and take a stroll outside at around 2:45 PM, but would lose no sleep if I was too busy or forgot.....
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Checking in from Santee State Park in SC, where apparently lots of people had the same idea. St Mathews was kinda deserted and so are the hundreds of square miles of countryside around, save for the occasional trailer park. Poverty is alive and well in the US!
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right in the path here in the st louis area, its supposed to be a madhouse, but wasn't too bad this morning.. will see this afternoon though
Prolly 'cause it's right off I95? I'm kinda surprised you took a detour north off 26, but it is closer to the center than the I95/I26 junction...
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Look...eBOXaclipse!!!!! 
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As I predicted all the way back on February 26, 1979:
Glad that I didn't waste the money on eclipse glasses! At the moment, our skies are between 6-7 oktas cloud coverage, and should be a full 8 oktas at about 2:45 PM give or take a few minutes.....
Glad that I didn't waste the money on eclipse glasses! At the moment, our skies are between 6-7 oktas cloud coverage, and should be a full 8 oktas at about 2:45 PM give or take a few minutes.....
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Traffic and weather together here: Google Maps traffic reports that both I-95 and I-81 are moving suspiciously well considering the upcoming eclipocalypse that was going to strand millions. (Yawn.) The eclipse may even *help* traffic, by eliminating sun glare slowdowns!!!!!
You would have no problem seeing it through those clouds using eclipse glasses that would have cost a whopping $1-$2 if you had ordered them back then.
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Perfect blue sky here. Can't imgur due to connection
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here some shared google pics from st louis area.
note these are straight iphone 7 pictures without any type of eclipse filter or glasses, so there is only a couple that are interesting.
https://goo.gl/photos/XikXjYubGVNCASuB8
note these are straight iphone 7 pictures without any type of eclipse filter or glasses, so there is only a couple that are interesting.
https://goo.gl/photos/XikXjYubGVNCASuB8
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You would have no problem seeing it through those clouds using eclipse glasses that would have cost a whopping $1-$2 if you had ordered them back then.
...and I would have had much clearer pictures if somebody had replaced the telescope's broken camera mount!
About 10 minutes after our ~70% maximum, there were a pair of sunspots clearly visible as the moon moved away from the sun's crescent. Couldn't get a clear picture of them through the human eye piece, though.....
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