Eclipse

GAD

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I work at a company filled with VERY smart people and I am convinced that come Tuesday half of them will be blind.

PLEASE:

Do NOT stare at the sun. Do not even glimpse at it.
Do NOT set your camera to live view and look at the screen. While this will save your eyes, it will destroy your camera.
Do NOT use "really dark sunglasses" to look at the sun. You meed ISO-rated solar filters to look at the sun - period.
Do NOT stack a bunch of neutral density (ND) filters on your camera - it will still fry your sensor because they don't filter UV and/or IR light.

The ONLY welders glasses you should consider are #14. For you photography buffs, #14 welding glass cuts 18 stops of light or could be measured as f:1/262144

Solar filters filter 1/100,000 percent of visible light or more as well as UV and IR bands. Invisible light (IR/UV) will blind you or ruin your camera just as effectively as visible light.

DO make a pin-hole projector! You can do it with two paper plates, though aluminum foil works better.
DO bring a colander. Yes, really! It will make cool patterns on the ground for the same reasons that a pin-hole projector works (camera obscura)
DO use proper ISO-rated filters! If you want to live-view with your camera, you CAN do this with a proper filter

Things to watch for:

As totality nears (even if you're not in the path) look at the ground under trees. You'll see a pattern of thousands of little eclipses.

If you're in the path of totality:

Bring white paper or poster board and lay it on the ground in the hopes that you'll witness shadow bands.

During totality, take off your glasses! You can see the sun's corona and you will see stars in the sky. The entire horizon will be in sunset. Birds and animals may get quiet. You know, if it's not cloudy.
 

chazmo

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GAD, I would hope people are smart enough not to blind themselves, but the blind ones are those same guys who never check their tire pressure. The good news is that when they go blind at least that'll get 'em off the road.

There will *definitely* be some Darwin awards going out next week. ;)
 

Opsimath

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Mama always told me not to look into the eyes of the sun
But mama, that's where the fun is ...

No?
 

GAD

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GAD, I would hope people are smart enough not to blind themselves, but the blind ones are those same guys who never check their tire pressure. The good news is that when they go blind at least that'll get 'em off the road.

There will *definitely* be some Darwin awards going out next week. ;)

Man, I would think that "don't look at the sun" shouldn't be necessary, but holy crap some of the stuff I've heard otherwise intelligent people say lately is mind-boggling.

Check this out: http://wnep.com/2017/08/18/20-seconds-all-it-took-oregon-man-left-partially-blind-by-1963-eclipse/

"Every time we go to an eye doctor now for an exam, they dilate your eyes and look in there, the first thing they say is, you looked at a solar eclipse sometime in your life,” he said."
 

adorshki

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GAD, I would hope people are smart enough not to blind themselves, but the blind ones are those same guys who never check their tire pressure.
Well yeah, since obviously they can't tell by lookin'.
I use the ol' squeeze test now, just like on my bicycle tires.
45+ years of playing guitar and, uh, "other" excercise have really strengthened my grip.
And of course, made me blind.
 

matsickma

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Packing up car in morning and leaving for SC at 3am on Sunday. Will meet up with my son at hotel late afternoon.

Just hope the SC clouds diminish at show time!

M
 

bobouz

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I live on the Oregon coast, about 25 miles north of the path of totality.

We should get about 98% of totality, and that's totally enough for me!
 

GAD

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I live on the Oregon coast, about 25 miles north of the path of totality.

We should get about 98% of totality, and that's totally enough for me!

Totality is so much more than the moon covering all of the sun!
 

F312

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Was going to the old town we lived at in Kentucky, maybe 30 miles from center and tried to book a room ten days ago and couldn't get anything for 60 miles from center. Lots of relatives in the area that are players. Could have been a fun time. 2024 I'll be thirty miles away from the next eclipse, niice.

Ralph
 

Quantum Strummer

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I've got other stuff keeping me near home rather than in the totality path, but even so I'll be outside with my solar specs and solar filtered camera. And a collander! If, like me, you'll be in an area with lotsa trees you'll get cool shadow patterns on the ground as the solar occultation progesses.

-Dave-
 

GAD

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We're off in a bit to start our adventure. Here's hoping for clear skies and that all the technology behaves as hoped!

I'll post pics when I have them, if I have them. I fully expect to be dumbfounded by totality, hence all the automation. :)
 

Bonneville88

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I'll be about 5 miles north of Makanda, IL, just outside Carbondale... should be interesting!
 

F312

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I've got other stuff keeping me near home rather than in the totality path, but even so I'll be outside with my solar specs and solar filtered camera. And a collander! If, like me, you'll be in an area with lotsa trees you'll get cool shadow patterns on the ground as the solar occultation progesses.

-Dave-

Don't strain your eyes with your colander.

Ralph
 

txbumper57

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Any one going to be listening to Bonnie Tyler's "Total Eclipse Of The Heart" while the eclipse is going on?

TX
 
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