Watch the Eclipse

[dragoneggs]

Made it down to Corvallis from the Seattle area. No issues. Typical summertime I-5 traffic. Got here early today so we spent the afternoon on winery adventures. We hit several and they all were hosting tents and/or campers. Festive but not the madhouse advertised. Will be wandering over to the OSU campus in the morning for viewing. So far, a fun and relaxing time.

 

[Raspy]

Made it down to Corvallis from the Seattle area. No issues. Typical summertime I-5 traffic. Got here early today so we spent the afternoon on winery adventures. We hit several and they all were hosting tents and/or campers. Festive but not the madhouse advertised. Will be wandering over to the OSU campus in the morning for viewing. So far, a fun and relaxing time.

That's good news. Sounds like a nice trip. Will the sky be clear tomorrow?
I want to see if all the hype comes true, with millions of viewers, or if it's gonna be more sane.
Really quiet up here in Idaho. Sitting outside tonight I could hear unidentified animals way off in the distance. Every once in a while our dog Gogo perks up and makes a comment about something I can't hear.
Tomorrow will be a fun day.
Tuesday we'll start heading South and look for some interesting places to stop at on the way home. No hurry, as I've allowed the rest of the week for this trip.
Let me know how it goes up your way.

 

[dragoneggs]

A bit concerned. Weather says mostly sunny all morning. Monday daily forecast predicts 26% cloud cover. Just praying for no marine air that needs burning off. Might not be perfect as far as the diamond ring effect but it WILL get dark!

 

[Mace Canute]

I remember being stopped at traffic lights and having to look right at the sun to just barely see the traffic light. Apparently dark glasses were enough to keep me from going blind. I don't remember if the windshield was tinted. It scared me to look at the sun like that, but what are you going to do? I guess you could just wait until the cars behind start honking.

Over the years there have been millions of drivers who drove hundreds of millions of miles looking into the sun at sunrise and sunset. If it was really as dangerous as it's made out to be there should be a he!! of a lot of people who have eye damage because of it but somehow it seems to be exceedingly rare.

 

[dragoneggs]

Over the years there have been millions of drivers who drove hundreds of millions of miles looking into the sun at sunrise and sunset. If it was really as dangerous as it's made out to be there should be a he!! of a lot of people who have eye damage because of it but somehow it seems to be exceedingly rare.

I don't believe those people were staring (focusing) directly on the sun anywhere near full power. One will be able to stare directly at the sun at total eclipse but at a certain point while in the penumbra, entering or exiting, damage will occur.

 

[k0ua]

Over the years there have been millions of drivers who drove hundreds of millions of miles looking into the sun at sunrise and sunset. If it was really as dangerous as it's made out to be there should be a he!! of a lot of people who have eye damage because of it but somehow it seems to be exceedingly rare.

The problem is you cannot stare at the full sun for more than a second or two as it hurts too much and you turn away. BUT you can stare at the corona of the sun showing around the moon all you want as the overall darkness will allow it, and your pupils will open and allow the damage to occur. In other words our built in defense mechanism is defeated allowing for damage.

 

[BlacknTan]

I've got an old hood with a #10 shade. I don't stare, I just catch a glimpse for a second or two... I've been flashed much worse!

 

[PJSprog]

Used my HF auto-darkening helmet just a few minutes ago, and it darkens to 13. We got about 99% totality here in North St. Louis City. It was flickering a bit, trying to stay on, and the flashes were enough to limit my time to just a few seconds. Pretty cool when fully dark, though.

 

[PJSprog]

It was more interesting to me how dark it looked when I walked outside.

 

[rekees4300]

91% here - it was eerie, absolutely no wind, crickets chirping, temperature dropped 5 degrees :moon: