# Solar Eclipse 2017



## Deleted member 30996 (Jul 22, 2017)

Are you in or close to the path of totality, and do you plan to watch it?

I'm about 100 miles north of the path of totality, but should get a good part of it and a grand view. I doubt I'll travel south to watch it, unless drhowarddrfine invites me.   JK

I bought some Shade 14 welders class goggles on ebay and plan to watch the whole thing. I got my immediate family some ISO approved plastic glasses but I got the last pair of goggles the seller had at $30.

Here's an article about the mythology of the eclipse in different cultures:

https://www.timeanddate.com/eclipse/solar-eclipse-myths.html

This one occurs August 21, 2017. There is another on April 8, 2024, visible across North and Central America so keep your glasses if that applies to you.

Actually, my favorite niece lives 90 miles away directly under the line of totality and this looks like a good time to visit. Forecast is 79° F and sunshine.


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## roddierod (Jul 22, 2017)

I'm in the 90% path of totality, at least that what my daughter says I didn't look it up yet...but I plan on watching.


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## Beastie (Jul 22, 2017)

I find them overrated and prefer lunar ones by far; at least you can look at them directly. But to each his own.


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## Deleted member 30996 (Jul 22, 2017)

Oh I'll be looking directly at it. From what I researched arc welders usually use a lower rated glass than the Shade 14 goggles I purchased and NASA says it's alright to look directly at it through them.

I'm half blind anyway, good thing I can touch type.


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## Datapanic (Jul 22, 2017)

I wish I was in the path of totality, but here it'll only be about 55%.  Here is an excellent map for the eclipse:  http://xjubier.free.fr/en/site_pages/solar_eclipses/TSE_2017_GoogleMapFull.html


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## sidetone (Jul 22, 2017)

There should be a program for astronomical events. Maybe with a lot of hard work, sysutils/conky can be used for that.

The closet program is astro/wmmoonclock for displaying the Moon's phase, on which a solar eclipse will always land within a new Moon. astro/wmsun just tells of sunrise and sunset when given coordinates. There are sysutils/xworld, astro/xearth, astro/xglobe, and others which will display the illuminated side of the Earth. There are other programs in ports with these same functions as well: `psearch -c astro` . None of these will substitute for reminding of eclipse time during August 21, but some might help as a reminder.


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## Deleted member 30996 (Jul 22, 2017)

That maps shows me at Obscuration : 98.172% at where I live. It doesn't look I'm going to be able to watch it with my niece so that will suffice.

I use astro/gkrellmoon2 for a moon clock. You can set your Longitude and Latitude it displays several variables.


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## sidetone (Jul 22, 2017)

Trihexagonal said:


> That maps shows me at Obscuration : 98.172% at where I live. It doesn't look I'm going to be able to watch it with my niece so that will suffice.


 That's a travel of less than 100 miles, maybe 60miles.


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## Deleted member 30996 (Jul 23, 2017)

Yes, I could travel exactly 60 miles to a town listed. Problem being, I my sister lets me use their car and they are afraid to take it out of town. I can't complain since they are good enough to let me borrow it.


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## Deleted member 30996 (Jul 24, 2017)

My goggles came today so I tried them out. You can't see anything BUT the Sun through them and it's nothing near bright. They come with a spare pair of clear lenses, too.

https://solareclipsespectacles.com/


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## ronaldlees (Jul 25, 2017)

I'm probably around a hundred and fifty miles north of the northern border of the "totality" path.  Thought about going down there with my binocs and filters, but too late.  Hotels are gonna be double-rate now, if you can find a room at all.   Should have booked months ago, I guess.  I'm thinking  it'll get pretty dark here where I am ...  and it'll cost less money.


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