2024 Eclispe
 

Are there any eclispe watchers? We are hoping to get over towards Erie to watch. The last eclispe was easy, it went directly over my son's home in South Carolina.

The last total was amazing! We were in the path and it was something else! Had all the family up and made an awesome weekend of it! Slight one here last fall. Would love to be in PA when it happens!!!

we have been mapping out 2 months vacation and the rvparks are slammed, doubling the fees, and zero refunds.
We are leaving until that day, it will probably just get dusky here.

We will see 99.8% of the eclipse, so we’ll be watching from our backyard!

We are planning an eclipse watching party in our neighborhood here in northern Vermont. I am planning round foods - moon pies and other treats. I have a bunch of glasses for people to wear, and we will set up lawn chairs. Hoping for no clouds and warmer temperatures over the snow we sometimes get in April. It should be fun, regardless of weather.

I'm in the path way and local news said to expect 1.5 million people to be in our area for the eclipse. Have groceries and gas bought for a week at least. All hotels and every rental place available are booked. Farmers are renting out their empty fields. I know my grands are learning more about astronomy and are excited.

I'm almost dreading it. The crowds they are expecting in the Finger Lakes are predicted to be enormous. Hotels, even though rates are double normal rates, have been booked for ages.

The upside, for me, is that our younger daughter and her twin 3-year olds will be coming up from southeastern PA to visit for the first half of the week. That means I'm going home from FL earlier than planned, but I'll do most anything to see family, lol.

I vaguely remember one when I was in grade school. We had to make a viewing box with a shoebox and foil. Now, the local chamber of commerce and libraries are giving out the specially rated glasses. It will be interesting to see how it pans out.

My daughter was preschool age in 2017 and we were able to go to the other side of our county and view totality from a community park. It was fun but she hardly remembers it. Now she is 11 one of my wife’s dear friends is the path of totality about 5 hours drive from us, so a good excuse for a visit and for our daughters (13 months apart) to get reacquainted. Hotels have limited availability at $1,000 per night so we are staying with the friends. We are looking forward to a nice visit and hoping for cooperative weather. In 2017 we had perfect cloudless day.

We live in the direct path of the blackout zone. We have our glasses and will be in our yard ready!

If you do travel for the eclipse, be prepared for the traffic. We went to Nashville for the last one. Our 4 hour drive home took 10 hours! When my husband went to work the next morning, the traffic on I-75 was still bumper to bumper. But the party and the eclipse were spectacular. Besides the viewing glasses, we got a couple pairs of special eclipse binoculars. Have dug them out so we're ready for this one.

I will be in a plane flying home from Alabama to Detroit airport. How weird is that going to be?

Watson

In our new (Peoria) location, we are just outside the total path, should have a significant amount of dusk right in our yard so are staying home.

Coming up later this summer for us will be a major cicada hatching. LOL, my new quilting ladies don't understand why I'm excited to be part of that. I remember being a little girl in Georgia during one of tbe (I think it was 17 year) hatchings. The telephone poles were just covered with the exoskeletons. I think events like this are fascinating -- or at least that is this side of the hatching!

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/wh...e083cceb&ei=52

Oh I used to collect those skeletons! Love hearing them.

We were in direct path here in Corpus. Crazy tourism. Awesome experience in the serenity of the country. The glasses we bought had both dates, so I knew I'd be watching the next one--it's on our anniversary!!

We are in the path, and already being warned to make sure we are set for up to 2 weeks, going to be slammed with a lot of people. Watching from my front yard.

Eclipse
 

We are traveling to get to an area of total eclipse. We are camping (tent) and had to take a spot in Shreveport. We will have to drive less than two hours to get to a spot that day. We are getting to the campground early so we can look around so we know where to go the day of. We saw the one in 2017 but didn’t know if we’d be around for this one! So far, so good. Ha ha!
If you have never seen one, it is worth going to see it.

I am in central Maine, so I am in the path of totality. I am working on the day of the eclipse. Lots going on in my area, including the same warnings as I'm reading on here regarding gas and groceries. I am lucky enough and will be able to step outside to see it. 👍

We were in the path of the last eclipse, and I did not "prepare" by gassing up or grocery shopping. We simply went outside at noon and watched. We didn't even run out of toilet paper!!!

Reading these comments about eclipse tourism is gobsmacking! I'd never thought of the potential chaos an event like this could cause in the path and feel for those of you living in those direct viewing zones. As exciting as it will be, I don't think I'd enjoy the influx of people. I'm far enough north that I'm on the periphery of the map and am not even sure we will see a perceptible light change.

I ordered my glasses from Ebay, $2. I'm ready!

Eclipse
 

I’m no genius but I think they are overstating the threat for chaos during the eclipse. It’s like the forecast for a hurricane that turns out to be a rain storm.

I have my eclipse glasses but I just also made an eclipse viewer out of a shoebox. Super easy. Looking forward to it.

I'm with you on that! I always dread when big events come to my area. It's always such a mess!

This is kind of where I land. We had an eclipse here several years ago, the path of totality was maybe an hour south of me, and it was nowhere near the big deal that this year's eclipse is becoming. I have a theory about that. The major news networks are all headquartered on the east coast. Stuff that happens on the west coast doesn't get anywhere close to the intense coverage that stuff happening on the east coast gets. Which, TBH, is just fine with me. Lol.

I made eclipse boxes for me and my parents, so hopefully we get part of it!

Weather was beautiful today and the eclipse was amazing. I only had my phone camera so no great pics, but I have my memories. The area we are in was expecting tons of traffic and lots of tourism, but that turned into a big nothing-burger. I feel a bit badly for the mom and pop businesses that were hoping for a boost in business, but the tourism angle was WAY over hyped. We are heading home tomorrow and don’t expect any problems or unusual traffic.

Got to see the eclipse. I was at work. It was a very cool experience. The chaos didn't happen. The grocery stores still have food. The gas stations still have gas. I do have to say though, the traffic was unreal. Mostly locals that drove to the area of totality. I had to take a different route home just to avoid sitting in traffic in our little one light town...😲 All in all, glad it occured during my lifetime.

We had a very nice neighborhood gathering on our neighbors' front yard. Each brought a lawn chair and we had glasses for everyone who had brought goodies to share (indoors at my house). It felt very cozy and friendly. We cheered at totality, and we could hear other small groups in our neighborhood doing the same. There were lines on the highways and at charging stations afterwards, but most drivers were patient and just happy to enjoy the lovely day with strangers as well as friends/family.

I saw it at about 98%. Shared my eclipse glasses with the patient I picked up, she was impressed. It didn't get really dark here. Lots of traffic. Apparently it was still backed up at midnight. Huge lines of people waiting to use the EV chargers at a local shopping area. Hard to understand - you know how many miles you have to drive, you know the range of your car, you can look up how many chargers there are? Did you just assume you would be the only one using it? I wonder if they made it to the eclipse, this was yesterday afternoon and 50 miles south of totality . And they told people, don't bring your EV!

Lovely, clear sky, glasses on and a few neighbors to chat with made the event impressive and fun. No party, no traffic to deal with and no fuss. Just a terrific opportunity to watch this solar event and to tuck it away in our memory.

By the way, I read that Delta Airlines had sponsoring trips that either crossed or followed the path of the eclipse and they served, "Sun Chips" and "Moon Pies" Love that sense of humor. My daughter in Indianapolis hosted a party for her apartment complex and served only black and white food along with "Sunny D" for the kiddos and Bell's "Eclipse" Beer for the adults. Bet Bell's Brewery sold lots of the Eclipse this spring.

Was a bit underwhelming 100-200 miles away. I didn't watch the actual sun, it was at a difficult angle from my house/yard (pretty much straight up) and I had no glasses.

We did have a bit of darkening and changes in light quality. I followed the progress through the light on the porch outside my sewing room and I did turn on the basement/sewing room light for about half an hour... The birds quieted a bit, and the dogs were somewhat subdued. And then it went back to bright/normal and I went out for groceries!

total nothingburger where we were, on the road crossing Mr. Lassen in California. Didn't stop, just a little light change.

We drove about 1 1/2 hours toward Erie, PA to a lovely college campus, Edinboro(PennWest). Plenty of parking, food trucks, things for kids, indoor bathrooms, telescopes set up. It was cloudy most of the morning, but as totality approached the clouds parted. It became dark, street lights came on, people cheered, crickets made noise, we saw the 360degree sunset. It was pretty awesome. May 3 1/2 year old gs kept saying "this is so cool" Memories made