Official Eclipse Viewing Thread

general topics
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So, who else is taking a field trip Monday?

I am loading up the kiddo and heading up north east of KC to a dirt road somewhere. I am using that map linked at the bottom of this page (read it, so you don’t screw up the time.) Plan to be as close to the blue line as possible. People tell me the roads will be to hard to travel on, but I am figuring most of the people in KC will be just fine with 98% totality. Just the nerds are going to venture out for perfection. And the out of towners will already be out there.

Got my eclipse glasses from Amazon that came from a solar astronomy site. My ex-wife is super paranoid about them being fake, even though they have all the proper markings, seem to work (super dark), and the company makes $10K solar telescopes, they aren’t going to screw up making substandard glasses. So I took them to a local eye doctor and they said they were cool.

I did see someone do this craft idea, which will help block out any sun AROUND the glasses. Really smart, I thought. And she can decorate if she wishes.

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So got that, going to pack lots of water and some lunch. I even bought one of those camping toilets where you can pee in a bucket in case she has to go while we are out in the middle of nowhere. Got chair, umbrella, and bug spray and sun screen

I am bringing lots of stiff comic book boards to use for pin hole cameras, as well as some magnifying glasses. I have one on a stand that I hope I can make work to just sit out and be “on” all the time on the dirt.

I had an idea to take some and make multiple holes in the board, and see if we can get like 6 suns on the ground in a pattern. Got this idea when someone posted seeing lots of eclipsed suns on a house from going through leaves in a tree.

Also, tomorrow I will see if I can find some of that photo sensitive paper, where you put something down and the sun turns the paper blue where it isn’t being blocked. Not sure that will work with the eclipse, but she can find stuff lying around and make a few images while we are out there.

So, anyone else have plans? Anyone got some ideas to fill the time some, as sitting around for an hour is hard for kids. And watching the eclipse move is like watching paint dry. You can check back every 5-10 min.

I am packing a pirate hat and some props for the joke totality photo - where during totality there are no rule or laws and you can do what ever you want.

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my school district is keeping everyone inside and making sure all blinds are closed between 11:00 and 2:30 that day in the grades pre-k through 8. high school students who leave the building will be strongly cautioned to not look at the sky. i’ve got a pair of eclipse viewers with the correct optical filters i bought from a verified source three months ago. my principal has told me i will not be allowed to exit the building during the relevant time. i may have to take half of a personal day in order to see it. in my vicinity the eclipse will be 70-80%. as a science teacher the whole thing boggles my mind.

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o_0 what? That is weird… why not go out and view it - you can use indirect methods. I remember when I was in 3rd or 4th grade we had a partial eclipse and could see it with a magnifying glass.

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they believe that if you send 700 students outside and tell them not to look directly at the sun during an eclipse but instead use a pinhole viewer that most of them will go ahead and burn their eyes.

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…and that they will get sued out of their jobs as a result.

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. . . yep . . .

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Granted, my school was a fraction of that size, but kids aren’t that dumb.

I guess since mine was a partial eclipse no one was tempted to look at the sun any more than they would be normally.

Still, seems like a horribly lost teaching moment. I guess they can see it on tv.

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I’ll be up in Idaho or Wyoming for the day. I’ll have my nice camera for a time-lapse of the landscape while my phone focuses on the eclipse. My professor cancelled lecture on Monday because my uni expects student turnout to be pretty low around midday

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Cool, please show us.

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Count on it! :+1:

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Bring a jump rope for her, and yo-yos for both of you?

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I’m in Minneapolis, so, not totality but still pretty good…however, the weather prediction at this point is for mostly cloudy with 50% chance of showers and thunderstorms, so it could be a bust here.

I’m working a temp job, and I asked my co-workers there if everyone will be taking time to view the eclipse. The answer was No! But it’ll be during the lunch hour for me, so no problem. And I already go outdoors for every break and lunch that I possibly can, so they already think I’m weird :slight_smile:

I’ve been planning to do the cardboard-with-a-pinhole thing. I have fond memories of an eclipse that occurred when I was a kid, and my dad made some pinhole viewers for us and we went to a park somewhere to have a picnic and view it. (So a pinhole viewer seems to me like the right way to view it, you know? :slight_smile: )

I’ll make some extra pinhole viewers in case anyone else there gets interested, but at this point I don’t have a lot of hope concerning the weather here. At least making the cardboard viewers won’t cost me anything, and if I’m lucky I’ll get to use it.

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Ugh… I think they might be doing the same in the public school district here. In my daughter’s school, however, elementary up is staying slightly later than usual and will all be going outside for the eclipse (it’s 98% here, I think). It helps that the classes are pretty smallish (our biggest classes are probably primary - 15 or so students in each class). They are not taking out the toddlers or the primary kids, which probably makes sense.

As for me, I’ll be on campus for the first day of classes. I have a 1:30 and a 3pm class, so I should be able to get outside to view it between those two, since it will be the first day stuff and that usually wraps up early.

Although I heard they are predicting cloud cover and maybe even rain on Monday in the Atlanta area!

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I hope not, or I’d be like this:

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The Washington Post has a great Eclipse map of the weather for the entire us, if you’re really worried about finding a good spot.

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Also, final decision, if I can make it there I will be photographing from Victor, Idaho.

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I came into a pair of glasses from the Adler planetarium. Reckon the chance of Chinese knockoffs of that branding are low, so I’ll be out on my lunch break.

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God damn it - I just jinxed myself. Was getting an oil change and the forecast says it might be cloudy… son of a bitch…

In other news, finally ordered a new keyboard for my laptop so I can get working x key.

This map says partly cloudy…

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Okay, unless I get kicked out of this highway pull-off this will be my view, into the Jackson valley or whatever its official name is

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Pfft, introduce yourself hand out the syllabus and say come on kids lets to watch the eclipse…
Here is to clear skies.

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