April 8th

This will be my fourth….

1970, travelled St Louis to Voldosta, Georgie with my planetarium group. Clouded over several hours before totality!

1998. Flew to Aruba. Spectacular!

2017. Drove to southern Illinois. Amazingly spiritual!

2024. Plan to drive to Zalma, Missouri. Southwest area of the State. 2 1/2 hours each way. Several backup locations in play.

If you’ve never seen one, do NOT miss this opportunity… even if you have to travel.

Folks will be flying in from around the world.

There won’t be another in the U.S. until 204x

Get ON or very NEAR the centerline.

Close is NOT close enough!

This site is the best out there for info and planning:

https://eclipse2024.org


Edit: As a total eclipse chaser, I have one thought that I often state:

Do not go to public eclipse gatherings and the like. Find your own spot based on sky properties (as little blockage as possible). Hilltops with commanding views and the like.

Crowds and screaming kids are not my idea of a true spiritual experience that you will remember for a lifetime.

Heck, your location could even be on some remote road out in the boondocks. As long as it has the sky viewing attributes.

The only item really needed is eclipse glasses. They are totally cheap (pun intended!).

Don’t get tied to equipment (cameras, scopes, etc).

You want to experience EVERYTHING going on. Most importantly, the few minutes before, during, and immediately after totality itsrlf.

The “partial” phases are not much to write home about. But they are the stages that you MUST have eclipse glasses!

None needed during totality itself.

And taking pictures is a waste of precious viewing time.

You can just get them off the internet anyway. For the most part, any pics you take will be identical to what is already out there (prior eclipses), or soon to be this one.

Not in line or near. nor am I going anyplace to witness it.

What cracks me up is how much doom and gloom is being written about it. We live in the 21st century not the middle ages.

The plotted centerline I have shows it being a few hundred feet west of my home. They are expecting 300,000 - 500,000 people in this area. $1000/night hotel rooms. Crazy, as it's upstate New York where we stand a better chance of cloudy and rain over sunshine and clear skies.

We live in the path of totality. Our preparation; we have dusted off the car show lawn chairs and plan to bake a cake.

The lawn chairs are to watch the eclipse. The cake is for me; it's my birthday.

Directly in the path. Plan to put on my glasses and look up.

I watched the 2017 Eclipse from Meremac State Park, MO. since I live just across the river from St. Louis.
A truly great event to witness/experience.
I was planning on traveling to southern Illinois to photograph the April 8th event but it looks like I may have to be watching my boy's dog on that day. Still working on a plan for that.
Here's a couple of pictures I took back in 2017 (hopefully they reproduce as the picture quality is horrible on this site).
In the bottom pic, you can see some solar flaring on the right side horizon.

Note the brief temperature dip, it was really apparent in 2017

Was working north of Erin, Tennessee in the totality area during the 2017 eclipse.

Not only was it visually awesome, but one of the coolest things was to hear the crickets start chirping when it got dark!

Great photos!

Solar flares (prominences) just might be more prevalent this year.

The sun is near its eleven year activity cycle.

Theiy’re kind of hard to see but definitely worth the attempt.

Your photos show how close they are to the lunar limb, and helps mentally visualize what to look for.

Geospace group that works in the same place I do is doing and experiment of some sort ... don't really know what it exactly is and I haven't asked .... I've been helping build the antennas for their receivers and may be tasked to take and place one of their experimental setups in northern New Hampshire ...

We had a viewing party at my work in Mass. in 2017 and we were the host for a local school's science class. They viewed the before and after max eclispe thru a hole in a cardboard box , the hole is behind your head and you look at the opposite side of the box , no viewing glasses required.

I might go to the local library as they have a viewing party there. I anticipated a partial eclipse in Florida in the early 1970s, too cloudy to see anything. It might be rainy in North Texas, so I will wait to see the forecast on Monday. They are having races at the Texas Motorplex the day before. Maybe they should have an eclipse race on Monday?

A total solar eclipse was on my bucket list, drove to South Carolina in 2017. Amazing experience, but I won't be chasing this one.

I was where the 1984 eclipse was 96%. It was interesting, but not dramatic; the light just got a little dim. The difference between 99 and 100% is astonishing.

Looks like its gonna spilt between us!

Here in Northern Ohio we are in the path. Schools will be closed and also the doctor's office where my daughter works will be closed. Hopefully it isn't cloudy.

I am about 3 1/2 hrs away but am going to Utica NY to the Adirondack scenic Rail Road who are running a train up to their station in Thendara NY. which if I read the map correctly is on the edge of totality. I'm just hoping the weather is clear. If not at least I'll get a nice train ride,

Had I stayed in Russellville, Arkansas I would've been. Not driving hours for this.

Apparently I'll just need to go up the driveway a few steps to clear the trees. We're on the path of totality.

Kevin

It's really a darned shame.

Current weather predictions are a cloud-out for around 80% of the total eclipse path from Texas to Maine.

Only apparent exceptions seem to be southeast Missouri, and southern Illinois, plus the far northeast (Maine, Vermont, etc.)

Who'da a thunk.

Previous long term weather averages favored the Texas region, and went against the northeast as to cloud averages this time of year.

Mother nature has her own way of things....

I can not comprehend the motel and resort bookings that will be in chaos.

Yet, in their defense, pre-eclipse bookings should know of the weather gamble.

This will get interesting media coverage post eclipse.

Wife and I blessed to be three hours away from what is HOPEFULLY a clear area (near Poplar Bluf, Missouri).

It will be our third Total, and undoubtedly our last.....

I'll see what Sunday's cloud forecast says for Monday. I was thinking of trying the Carbondale IL area or maybe Jackson, MO.
I had the camera out this afternoon practicing. Looks like there is some small sunspot activity going on:

I'm in FL, changed my mind on buying some glasses.
Only 55% coverage and clouds, so I'll count on you guys to post some good pics.