Community Chat

[JJsMom]

We'll be in the path of totality, so we have our glasses ready and are very excited.

I have read 99% vs. totality is a completely different experience, so if you are close, then make the effort to get into the path of totality. Please read/watch these links if you're anywhere near it and considering if it's worth the effort to go.

A total solar eclipse is nothing like a partial one, even a 99% partial one : NPR

You owe it to yourself to experience a total solar eclipse | David Baron (youtube.com)

[Burnsite]

I was terrified by an eclipse when I was around 10 or 11 yrs old. I wouldn't be now, but I found it scary and profound then and have about reached the limit of my curiosity about uncanny events. 

Besides, I am too far east.  Thank goodness. The one I saw made me understand later why Roman soldiers about to do battle just ran away when they saw the darkness begin to engulf the daylight. . . .

[monicakm]

@beach-mom 

I do not.  I don't plan on looking at the sun.  I'm just going to enjoy the "look" of the earth around me.  I can see photos online in the evening of the actual eclipse.    I was thinking my heart stint was the day of the eclipse and wasn't looking forward to the traffic since we're smack dab in the middle of the path.  If you look at a map of the path, we're between Dallas and Shreveport, LA.  Heart stint is Wed.

[sunshine45]

[sunshine45]

via the washington post.....

Texas man is preparing to watch his 13th solar eclipse. He’s 105.

In 1963, LaVerne Biser and his family piled into an Oldsmobile station wagon and drove almost 2,000 miles from Texas to Maine to watch their first solar eclipse.

“The car was loaded with luggage and a bunch of my camera equipment because I wanted to get the perfect picture of the eclipse during our big adventure,” said Biser, who was then 45.

After that trip, Biser said, he knew he’d be putting thousands more miles on his car.

“That one eclipse was all it took,” he said. “I saw one and I had to see them all. I was hooked.”

 He is preparing to watch his 13th solar eclipse. He’s 105.

Over the next six decades, he watched 11 more eclipses, traveling everywhere from New Mexico to the Black Sea for the perfect view.

Now Biser, 105, is hoping for one last moment in the moon’s shadow. This weekend, one of his granddaughters will drive him from Fort Worth to his daughter’s house in Plano, Tex., so he can witness his 13th eclipse — the last total solar eclipse to be visible in the United States for 20 years.

“I probably won’t be around for the next one,” said Biser, whose birthday is in June. “So I’m hoping the weather will cooperate long enough for me to see this one. I’m praying for clear weather.”

He’s making the hour trip from Fort Worth to Plano, he said, because there, the eclipse will have one more minute of totality, meaning the sun will be completely blocked.

[Allegheny]

Got them months ago.  We're in 98% totality, unfortunately our weather may not cooperate.

[willdob3]

Schools here in central Florida are closed tomorrow because of the eclipse. No schools anywhere need to be closed for an eclipse but iwe are nowhere close to the path of totality so there isn't even a way to make up a reason connected to it. Something else is going on and we are not being told about it.

Please be careful and watchful tomorrow. 

[4kitties]

I do not understand the no school thing unless the city or town is in the path of totality.  Seems many areas are concerned about the number of visitors that will travel to rural areas which are not equipped to handle large crowds.🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️

I do not remember any issues with cell service or flights being disrupted with the 2017 eclipse and they are issuing warnings for this one.  

Weird.

Edited to add:  Illinois is the intersection of the X that will be formed by the 2024 eclipse and our schools are not closed.🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️

[Greeneyedlady21]

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@willdob3 wrote:

Schools here in central Florida are closed tomorrow because of the eclipse. No schools anywhere need to be closed for an eclipse but iwe are nowhere close to the path of totality so there isn't even a way to make up a reason connected to it. Something else is going on and we are not being told about it.

Please be careful and watchful tomorrow. 

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You aren't serious are you? 

Where I live is not in the path of totality either, and I have heard of some schools being closed because the eclipse will be happening just as kids are getting on buses. I would guess there's fear of kids looking at it and damaging their eyes? Or looking directly at in through the school windows?

For the life of me I don't understand why kids can't just stay in the school buildings for a couple of minutes longer. It's a different time from when I went to school as far as the closings, they close for anything and everything these days.

Frankly I'm surprised that FL would though, considering....

I don't have any glasses, wish I did. Couldn't find them in any stores, and by the time I got around to trying to order from Amazon I couldn't receive them on time.

[geezerette]

We are in the path of totality.

Many schools will be closed, as well as businesses/services.  My county emergency services put out a list of preparations and precautions that sounded more like Armageddon than an eclipse.  We're expecting huge crowds from all over (which have already started to arrive).  Roads to be clogged with traffic and emergency services swamped.  Store shelves are already bare in some areas.

The governor has declared a state of emergency.

I'm not leaving my property.