Eclipse 2017

Non-fashion, non-skirt, non-gender discussions. If your post is related to fashion, skirts or gender, please choose one of the forums above for it.
User avatar
Jim
Member Extraordinaire
Posts: 1551
Joined: Mon Aug 27, 2012 1:39 am
Location: Northern Illinois, USA

Re: Eclipse 2017

Post by Jim »

We (wife, 25-year-old son, and I) went down to Redbud, IL to view the total eclipse yesterday. Memorable! A little slow traffic on the way, but not too bad. On the way home, even the back alternative roads were zooming along at about 4 mph. We got home very late.
DSCF1248.JPG
A binoculars made a good projection.
DSCF1253.JPG
A look through an arc welding helmet
DSCF1259.JPG
Totality

I was wearing a 14" camouflage skirt, an unbuttoned blue left-buttoned sleeveless denim shirt (it was 93°F and humid), a blue terry cloth sweatband, and homemade Bolivian sandals. Sorry, no self-portrait. No one seemed to notice what I was wearing.
You do not have the required permissions to view the files attached to this post.
User avatar
moonshadow
Member Extraordinaire
Posts: 6994
Joined: Sun Aug 09, 2015 1:58 am
Location: Warm Beach, Washington
Contact:

Re: Eclipse 2017

Post by moonshadow »

Yes, we did make it back okay and in one piece. I do have stories to tell, but as you know, I like to accompany pictures with my stories, and I have to find a wifi spot to transfer them later today. Hopefully I can share tonight!

But, just so you all know, it was one of those trips I was sad to see it end, despite being completely exhausted having only a couple hours of sleep....
Jim wrote:On the way home, even the back alternative roads were zooming along at about 4 mph. We got home very late.
As one of my coworkers said, with the eclipse being on a Monday, most people probably trickled in over the weekend thus relieving some of the congestion on the roadways. However what he failed to realize was once the eclipse was over, EVERYONE split virtually at the same time....

I myself ran into a few a few traffic issues coming back, however since I come from a part of the east coast thinly populated, and my destination was out of the ordinary for folks from my neck of the woods, the backroad I took had virtually no traffic. I only shared about 10 miles or so with one other car from Ohio. I'm sure the driver of the Ohio car was patting himself on the back too for dodging all of that eclipse traffic.... and we both got to enjoy some awesome scenic Tennessee country side!
-Andrea
The old hillbilly from the coal fields of the Appalachian mountains currently living like there's no tomorrow on the west coast.
Ralph
Member Extraordinaire
Posts: 493
Joined: Wed Jun 26, 2013 9:07 pm

Re: Eclipse 2017

Post by Ralph »

So Moonshadow finally gets a thread relevant to his name :-)

Traffic going north from Colorado in the morning was bad enough but tolerable since eclipse-goers spread out their arrival time over the past week; coming back south to Colorado was a different story as ALL of them wanted to go home at the same time. Next time (in what, another hundred years?) I'll know better and just stay home. I never did make it to the 100% band, but 95% is good enough for the likes of me.
Ralph!
Bikerkilt
Member Extraordinaire
Posts: 156
Joined: Tue Feb 09, 2016 4:32 am

Re: Eclipse 2017

Post by Bikerkilt »

I had 2 sisters and a brother and his wife come out from Ohio and a sister from California come out to see a total eclipse but do to cloud cover and rain we miss it, 45 min later the sky was clear and the sun was shining bright. Glad that they came out and had a good visit with them.
User avatar
Elisabetta
Member Extraordinaire
Posts: 1145
Joined: Fri Nov 20, 2015 11:13 am
Location: Warm Beach, Washington

Re: Eclipse 2017

Post by Elisabetta »

Here you go guys. This is the eclipse viewed from Cookeville, TN was amazing!
You do not have the required permissions to view the files attached to this post.
"When life gets blurry adjust your focus."
User avatar
moonshadow
Member Extraordinaire
Posts: 6994
Joined: Sun Aug 09, 2015 1:58 am
Location: Warm Beach, Washington
Contact:

Re: Eclipse 2017

Post by moonshadow »

The story:

I worked until mid Sunday afternoon. I got in home in time to finish digging my gutter trench in the backyard, to which I still was short about 10 feet of drain tile to put down however with the trench being dug, the hard part was over.

We went to Walmart again, I was wearing my black Macabi and a regular t-shirt (photo in the "It's so HOT that I..." thread). Once again, despite this outfit not really being flamboyant (and technically not crossdressing as the Macabi is for men too), I still detected a little snubbness among a fair number of people. Oh well.... it's time to accept the way it is and move on... people gonna be the way they are.

I went to be around 1030PM however I struggled to sleep, for one thing I was excited about the following road trip, and additionally, I'm not accustomed to going to bed that early so I tossed and turned most of the night. My alarm was set for 3AM figuring we'd depart at 4AM, however I finally awoke at about 2AM and decided to go ahead and get my day started.

I wore my light blue tiered knee length skirt with a black tank top and sandals. I stopped at the local Walmart one more time for a bag of ice before we left town.
Our drive too a slightly different route as I noticed traffic was pretty quiet the whole way, I took VA route 71 out of Lebanon all the way to US58 in Gate City VA, where I followed it all the way to the Cumberland Gap and went south into Tennessee where I got on TN state route 63 where I followed it all the way through Lafayette TN, and into Huntsville TN where I followed US27 south just a few miles and took TN route 52 all the way to Livingston TN which was in the path of totality.

The whole trip down there was uneventful, the sun didn't even come up until we were about two thirds into our trip.

Image
Above I have a road side shot of the morning fog hanging in the Tennessee valley along TN route 52.

Image
As you can see, traffic was quite minimal at 615 in the morning along our route!

Image
Ahhh! SO MUCH BETTER than taking the INTERSTATE!

Image
Uh oh! This can't be good! Even GPS lost track of us! :lol:
I actually only brought it incase we needed it and got utterly lost and turned around, however we actually never used it for navigation and relied on my old 2010 paper road atlas. The decision to do so was simply that we were taking a route that the GPS would have advised against, it would have wanted us to go I40, and we were wanting to take back roads, so we never programmed the address in and just relied on our map and good old fashioned human instinct. You will also note that yes... I am speeding slightly, the limit was 55. :mrgreen:

We arrived at Cookeville (our destination) around 830EDT (730 CDT), and with plenty of time to spare we stopped at the local McDonalds for breakfast and then proceeded to drive around town to scope out a good spot to set up for the big event! Of course though, being in a new town, I had to take advantage of this opportunity to be the skirt wearing "tourist" and snap some photos of their downtown district...

Here's one for you Fred:
Image

And then finally, a few shots from out and about:
Image

Image

Image

Image

After I got that out of my system, we proceeded to take a little ride around. Truthfully I was just hoping to find some little hideaway where we can rest a little, cat nap, and then wake, watch the eclipse, and go home. I saw a sign for a local park and decided to follow it. I'm glad I did! The part was PERFECT for watching such an event. The best part was, IT WAS FREE! I paid nothing to park and to stay at the park all day, and I got to enjoy some awesome scenery without having to worry about being run off by the cops for squatting in some industrial parking lot somewhere! :D

Image
Now THIS beats an old strip mall parking lot ANY day of the week!

Image
Found us a nice shade tree next to an open area for eclipse gazing later!

Image
Moon and Jenn pose for a shot at the park!

I was so tired from the lack of sleep, I actually laid in the grass for a 45 minute nap while waiting on the eclipse. The August heat would have been a lot worse to bear had I not been wearing such a lightly and fluffy skirt... It was a real life saver that day! We picnicked on tuna sandwiches, sweet tea, and Dr Peppers for the day.

Then came the moment we were all waiting for, at 1200 noon CDT, the eclipse started with a very small bit off the side of the suns disc. The next hour and a half, we gradually watched as the daylight got weirder and weirder.

Image
Moon moon gazing 8)

Image
Jenn moon gazing!

What made it bizarre was the type of light that we were experiencing during the partial eclipse. When the sun was about 2/3's of the way obscured, I noticed that it was noticeably darker outside, however still daylight was shining. The first thing I realized is that EVERYTHING had excellent contrast! Items were more vivid and "crisp" under the partially eclipsed sun. I speculate that this had to do with most of the suns light being obscured, yet still enough shining down to make things quite legible and clear. I know that every evening the suns light lessens and lessens, but on a sunset, the light rays are reddened due to the atmosphere. In this case, we were still under the full spectrum of the suns rays, just no where near as intense, thus nothing was being "over exposed". It was really cool... and I mean that literally. When the eclipse just started, you could barely stand to look up at the sun for longer than a few seconds because it was so damned HOT. However once it was about half way eclipsed, it was actually cooler in the suns light than under the shade tree!

Image

Finally, it happened, we all watched eagerly as the little sliver of the sun got smaller and smaller, then... it was GONE!

QUICK! I told Jenn... take your glasses off! We did and looked up at the totally eclipsed sun, and I was taken by what I saw. I looked like a giant "eye" staring down at me. The photograph attached doesn't do it justice. The corona was a sight to behold and though I was only able to view it for about a minute, it's image is burned in my memory (not my retina) forever.

I grabbed my Nikon for a quick shot....
Image
Under a moon shadow...

I watched it for as long as I could during totality and caught the "diamond ring" at the end. At that point I had to look away, as oh did that diamond shine! I've never seen such a "white" light! I can see where staring at that for longer than a split second would cause damage...

The ride back was a little more busy than the ride down. Everyone was leaving at the same time. Even the hghway 111 byway was slowing to a crawl just a few miles south of Livingston. There were cops EVERYWHERE....

Image
A solid stream of cars heading north... very little on the southbound side!

But once I got into Livingston, everyone else followed 111 into Kentucky and north bound, I took TN highway 52 east. There as a little traffic going through town, but when I saw the sign where 52 broke off, immediately it was smooth ridin'!

Image
A STRESS FREE ride home!

Image
AAAHHHH! To think of those POOR SOULS stuck on the I40 right now! HEHEHEHEHE! 8)

Image

Image
See that car waaaaaaaaaay up there? That's about as bad as it got for us for 5 out of 6 of our drive hours!

Image
I end our photo journey with a barn taken in Lee County Virginia.

That concludes my eclipse 2017 road trip! A great time was had by Jenn and myself. A day that will live favorably in our memories. The whole trip was very good for the soul.
-Andrea
The old hillbilly from the coal fields of the Appalachian mountains currently living like there's no tomorrow on the west coast.
User avatar
Fred in Skirts
Member Extraordinaire
Posts: 3989
Joined: Mon Mar 14, 2016 6:48 pm
Location: Southeast Corner of Aiken County, SC USA

Re: Eclipse 2017

Post by Fred in Skirts »

Great shots Moon! :thumright: And thanks for the train shot too! :thumright: :thumright: Glad it all worked out and you got to see the whole thing at a beautiful location.

Fred
"It is better to be hated for what you are than be loved for what you are not" Andre Gide: 1869 - 1951
Always be yourself because the people that matter don’t mind and the ones that mind don’t matter.
User avatar
crfriend
Master Barista
Posts: 14433
Joined: Fri Nov 19, 2004 9:52 pm
Location: New England (U.S.)
Contact:

Re: Eclipse 2017

Post by crfriend »

Awesome photos, Moon! I'm glad you got to see totality. That is seriously cool stuff. I also really like the shots from around the hills -- very pretty.

And -- just to toss some gasoline on the naysayers -- there's proof positive that the Earth is round: You're looking upwards at a steeper angle than we here in New England had to to see it.
Retrocomputing -- It's not just a job, it's an adventure!
User avatar
moonshadow
Member Extraordinaire
Posts: 6994
Joined: Sun Aug 09, 2015 1:58 am
Location: Warm Beach, Washington
Contact:

Re: Eclipse 2017

Post by moonshadow »

crfriend wrote:Awesome photos, Moon! I'm glad you got to see totality. That is seriously cool stuff. I also really like the shots from around the hills -- very pretty.

And -- just to toss some gasoline on the naysayers -- there's proof positive that the Earth is round: You're looking upwards at a steeper angle than we here in New England had to to see it.
Thanks Carl!

I work with a flat Earther and we discuss it often. We respect one another's views but it's clear neither is going to change the others mind. He also thinks we're in a big digital simulation.

Interestingly enough, he made a comment to me a few months ago, when we described how to prove one way or another. Someone suggested to plant a buoy in a body of water at least 5 miles across, he explained that as we moved away from the buoy we should cease to see it. However, given his "digital reality" model, he said that the universe we see as individuals in sort of "tailored" to what we're accustomed to see.

For example, using the experiment above, he stated that some event would take place to render the test ineffective, such as rain, fog, or other matter. He said that the "powers" that be would see to it that the world always appeared round to me, and flat to him.

I figured it was a bunch of B.S., however during the eclipse, I noticed how I was able to see it despite some formidable odds [0], and my friend, who really could have used to see it (to prove to himself the shape of the Earth is a sphere) got called into to cover our route, and while in Kingsport, one solitary cloud covered the whole event from his perspective.

I thought that was strikingly odd.

[0] The only reason I got the day off to begin with was my boss screwed up and forgot to write another coworkers weeks vacation on the calendar. His vacation started this Monday and ended on Friday. As is typically the case in work places, two people can not be off at the same time as it creates a significant labor shortage in the department. However when I had my day off (Aug 21) formally approved in writing, upon telling my coworker friend he reminded me that was supposed to be his day off to.

When the news hit my boss, not wanting to piss either of us off, he gave us both the day and pulled my flat Earther friend up from Knoxville to cover our routes for the day.

THEN, despite the fact that we have had nothing but RAIN virtually every day, off and on for the last several weeks, I would have never believed it if someone would have told me the weather would have been sunny during eclipse day. I had been watching the forecast all week long prior to the eclipse and it always said Monday was going to be sunny. I never believed it. Sure enough, Monday came, and nary a cloud in the sky. There was a couple of parts during the day where one solitary puffy cloud obscured the partial eclipse, however by the time totality came along, it was clear skies all around the horizon and we were treated to quite a show!

THEN, considering the fact that we pulled this off on a shoe string budget, on short notice, with little sleep. The news of freedomforever saying people are charging $100 to park in their driveways, rumors of millions of people choking the roadways, and us, taking an unheard of back way traveled by virtually nobody, we made it in plenty of time, found an awesome FREE place to set up, with no hassling from law enforcement or security guards, and I'm left to reason that we seemed to have been destined to see this for some reason or another....

Personally, I think my guardian just knew I needed a day off... :)
-Andrea
The old hillbilly from the coal fields of the Appalachian mountains currently living like there's no tomorrow on the west coast.
User avatar
beachlion
Member Extraordinaire
Posts: 1627
Joined: Wed Aug 14, 2013 3:15 am
Location: 65 year The Hague, The Netherlands, then Allentown, PA, USA

Re: Eclipse 2017

Post by beachlion »

Nice pictures and also a nice report. Your pictures make me want to see more of the USA than just a small part of the east coast. :wink:
All progress takes place outside the comfort zone - M J Bobak
User avatar
crfriend
Master Barista
Posts: 14433
Joined: Fri Nov 19, 2004 9:52 pm
Location: New England (U.S.)
Contact:

Re: Eclipse 2017

Post by crfriend »

moonshadow wrote:Thanks Carl!
You're more than welcome of course.

Here's the view, roughly, as I saw it (the shot is courtesy of my good friend who's the Observatory Curator at Brown University's Ladd Observatory in Providence, RI) and I suspect it was shot through something large. I'm hoping that it was the 14" refractor, but it was probably a little Cassegrain somewhere. But, anyway -- sunspots!

Best of luck with the Flat-Earther [1]. Recall, though, that the Ptolemaic system works for celestial navigation... (Odd as that might seem, the firmament doesn't move around very much in the lifespan of a mortal human.)

[0] Not wanting to go down the conspiracy-theory lane when I was arguing the point in fun.
[1] "It's round! We have photographs of it from space!" // "That shot proves nothing [0]. It's pizza-shaped, and they look round yet are flat. Have you ever seen a spherical pizza? My god, it'd be the size of a beach-ball -- and not have enough topping!"
Retrocomputing -- It's not just a job, it's an adventure!
PatJ
Member Extraordinaire
Posts: 372
Joined: Wed Oct 22, 2003 9:34 pm
Location: Wisconsin

Re: Eclipse 2017

Post by PatJ »

crfriend wrote:"Have you ever seen a spherical pizza? My god, it'd be the size of a beach-ball -- and not have enough topping!"

But think of what you could have for a filling inside the pizza! Yum yum!
User avatar
Sinned
Member Extraordinaire
Posts: 5804
Joined: Sun Aug 19, 2012 5:28 pm
Location: York, England

Re: Eclipse 2017

Post by Sinned »

Moon, perhaps you needed not just the day off, one could hardly call it restful with what was involved, but more importantly feeding spiritually. To feel that all was right with the heavens and to bring harmony and peace to the soul. Over here we say an eclipse a few years ago. I was not in the totality but close enough and yes, the whole atmosphere and aura is awesome. I'll never forget it.
I believe in offering every assistance short of actual help but then mainly just want to be left to be myself in all my difference and uniqueness.
6ft3Aussie
Member Extraordinaire
Posts: 419
Joined: Sun May 17, 2015 11:24 am
Location: Brisbane, Australia

Re: Eclipse 2017

Post by 6ft3Aussie »

Moon,
Looks like you and Jenn had a great day, watching what is probably a once in a lifetime experience.
Great pics too, always like your pictures. You guys look relaxed and happy, and your outfit looked cool and comfortable too.

The closest I have been to a solar eclipse was probably I think late 1991/early 1992, in New Zealand, while we were probably 150 plus miles from the area that saw totality, we could see a significant drop in light levels and air temperature, which where we were probably lasted for an hour or so. There was an eclipse here about 3 years ago, where the area around Cairns in tropical north Queensland was treated to the total eclipse at around 6.30 to 7am, this area is about 900 miles north of us (in Brisbane, South East QLD), and before I left for the office that morning you could see that the sun was about 1/3 to 1/2 obscured and I recall that the sunlight was distinctly odd, definitely not normal, and I'd go as far as saying that if you didn't know there was an eclipse happening, it would feel a little un-nerving. Colours were different, shadows were strange, but the sun still looked bright enough.
User avatar
Uncle Al
Moderator
Posts: 3861
Joined: Tue Oct 21, 2003 10:07 pm
Location: Duncanville, TX USA

Re: Eclipse 2017

Post by Uncle Al »

Hi Moon :D

LOVE the pic of the Engine & Cabin.
Is the steamer a '10-Wheeler' or 'Pacific' [0] :?:
I couldn't see any wheels under the engineers deck.
Great color scheme on the engine. Reminds me of
the "Southern Crescent" :D

Uncle Al
:mrgreen: :ugeek: :mrgreen:

[0] A '10-Wheeler' is shown as a 4-6-0, a 'Pacific'
is shown as a 4-6-2. These number set's represent
the numbers of wheels on each side of the engine.
Kilted Organist/Musician
Grand Musician of the Grand Lodge, I.O.O.F. of Texas 2008-2009, 2015-2016,
2018-202 ? (and the beat goes on ;) )
When asked 'Why the Kilt?'
I respond-The why is F.T.H.O.I. (For The H--- Of It)
Post Reply