I'll say it first: BFD
Eclipse Camping/Viewing Options: Oregon, Idaho, Wyoming
- Thread starter EMSC
- Start date
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Musical tastes are a personal thing. But really, Patrick was trying to make a nice gesture, and of course FTO's resident skunk has to chime in with his usual negativity. This has been going on for years including in a good chunk of this thread.
For years this negativity has driven people away from this forum. Many forums would have sent warnings and eventually banned this type of user. MarcC would be better off on TGR, where I suspect he would be on the receiving end of at least as much negativity as he dishes out. But nothing will ever happen here because the admin is the skunk's toady.
For years this negativity has driven people away from this forum. Many forums would have sent warnings and eventually banned this type of user. MarcC would be better off on TGR, where I suspect he would be on the receiving end of at least as much negativity as he dishes out. But nothing will ever happen here because the admin is the skunk's toady.
Awaiting Tony's TR...
Here in NYC, we only had 71% coverage of the sun, so it was more fun to enjoy as a social spectacle -- with thousands of desk jockeys out in front of their buildings gazing up at the sky, it felt like a happy version of 9/11 -- than for the actual event. Trump looking straight at the eclipse six times without eye protection was a nice bonus.
Here in NYC, we only had 71% coverage of the sun, so it was more fun to enjoy as a social spectacle -- with thousands of desk jockeys out in front of their buildings gazing up at the sky, it felt like a happy version of 9/11 -- than for the actual event. Trump looking straight at the eclipse six times without eye protection was a nice bonus.
I left Whitefish at 1am Monday and after hitting one deer and just missing a large black bear I felt pretty lucky arriving at Mud Lake ID around 830.
I parked on Clay Butte, a small rise overlooking the very blue lake. Maybe 10 cars along the half mile ridge .
I can't describe the beauty and the emotions that arrive with the moment of totality. Those 2 minutes might have been the most amazing natural event I have ever witnessed.
I parked on Clay Butte, a small rise overlooking the very blue lake. Maybe 10 cars along the half mile ridge .
I can't describe the beauty and the emotions that arrive with the moment of totality. Those 2 minutes might have been the most amazing natural event I have ever witnessed.
EMSC
Well-known member
Not sure that I'm going quite as far as Lono,
with one week to go I changed plans and diverted east into Nebraska, camping a bit outside the totality zone and then driving to lake Minitare near Scottsbluff for 2 min 9 sec of totality. Perfect spot to stand on a peninsula surrounded by a large lake and plenty of people but not overcrowded. Packed up a bit before 'the end' and was in the car about the time C4 (final contact point) occurred. The ~10-15 min before to the same amount of time after total was pretty incredible the way the light changes and then disappears entirely, etc... The light gets to being just very weird, dim, sharper shadow edges, etc... A lot of effects that can't be adequately described vs experienced. The temperature changes and wind changes were pretty dramatic too. Anyway, while we did hit a touch of traffic it was only 15 min or so in, of all places, Kimball, NE. Otherwise traffic was heavy but flowing smoothly. On the other hand I heard from some folks who stuck with WY and I25 that it was a lot worse that way. At one point they had made it 80 miles in 3 hours.
A few pics I took below; From:
1) A Pentax K50 with 55-300mm WR PLM lens - primarily of Totality.
2) 420mm telescope with tracking mount and of all things Samsung S7 Edge (in pro mode). The Green color is due to using a special filter that blocks infrared and red parts of the color spectrum to make the sun not destroy your eyes.
3) Just phone camera
(FTO is only letting me upload a few pics so a few more in a second post).
, but definitely worth the effort.lono":8dj7tnfi said:
with one week to go I changed plans and diverted east into Nebraska, camping a bit outside the totality zone and then driving to lake Minitare near Scottsbluff for 2 min 9 sec of totality. Perfect spot to stand on a peninsula surrounded by a large lake and plenty of people but not overcrowded. Packed up a bit before 'the end' and was in the car about the time C4 (final contact point) occurred. The ~10-15 min before to the same amount of time after total was pretty incredible the way the light changes and then disappears entirely, etc... The light gets to being just very weird, dim, sharper shadow edges, etc... A lot of effects that can't be adequately described vs experienced. The temperature changes and wind changes were pretty dramatic too. Anyway, while we did hit a touch of traffic it was only 15 min or so in, of all places, Kimball, NE. Otherwise traffic was heavy but flowing smoothly. On the other hand I heard from some folks who stuck with WY and I25 that it was a lot worse that way. At one point they had made it 80 miles in 3 hours.
A few pics I took below; From:
1) A Pentax K50 with 55-300mm WR PLM lens - primarily of Totality.
2) 420mm telescope with tracking mount and of all things Samsung S7 Edge (in pro mode). The Green color is due to using a special filter that blocks infrared and red parts of the color spectrum to make the sun not destroy your eyes.
3) Just phone camera
(FTO is only letting me upload a few pics so a few more in a second post).
Evren
New member
I was not a belieber going into this; both the partial and the annular eclipses I saw had been solid "meh"s.
Totality is totally different. It was not earth-shattering or reexamine-your-life kind of different but I did say "wow" and that is worth driving 200 miles for.
Like emsc said, it has to do with how the surroundings change, the unfamiliar light, entering the twilight zone. Nice pics by the way. I didn't take any since I wanted to make this an old-fashioned experience. It all went by too quickly but I won't forget how the Tetons looked in that light. Especially with their patches of snow.
As for the other thing, I am with tony. No problem with some spice and ribbing but don't crap on people's moments. Especially not for a flat joke. Not lobbying for sanctions or anything and what happens between admin and MarcC behind closed doors is their business. But I hope I am not being homophobic when I say MarcC can suck deeply at times.
Totality is totally different. It was not earth-shattering or reexamine-your-life kind of different but I did say "wow" and that is worth driving 200 miles for.
Like emsc said, it has to do with how the surroundings change, the unfamiliar light, entering the twilight zone. Nice pics by the way. I didn't take any since I wanted to make this an old-fashioned experience. It all went by too quickly but I won't forget how the Tetons looked in that light. Especially with their patches of snow.
As for the other thing, I am with tony. No problem with some spice and ribbing but don't crap on people's moments. Especially not for a flat joke. Not lobbying for sanctions or anything and what happens between admin and MarcC behind closed doors is their business. But I hope I am not being homophobic when I say MarcC can suck deeply at times.
Nice pix, EMSC. I would've driven similar distances that he and Evren did to witness it, but the closest totality point for me was Nashville or Columbia SC.
Not a priority for few reasons.jamesdeluxe":6ae1rdw8 said:
First, we just got home and for 5 days after Jackson we were in Yellowstone, with infrequent cell service and minimal WiFi. I could check e-mail a couple of times a day but forget about looking at anything with pictures.
As the organizers for 57 people we were quite busy in Jackson. As I noted before, we also had conflicting weather forecasts right up to 4AM on eclipse day. The majority of forecasts were favorable so 40 of us stayed put and went up the Jackson tram. The other 17 gave up their tram tickets and went for the more unanimous clear forecast in eastern Idaho. In our case we had been to 8-10 other eclipses and really wanted to see this one from 10,000 feet. The amazing view we got justified our taking that chance. Of course we had another event planned up there :mrgreen:, which could have been performed later if the weather was bad and everyone went to Idaho. We had some concern that people would follow us up the mountain for the wedding, so I sent an e-mail at 5:15AM disclosing that the 2 most veteran eclipse chasers in our group with 20+ viewed were decamping to Idaho and that each group with a car was free to make its own call.
Several in our group took pictures. Liz has some from the photographer who was with us last year in Indonesia. A few others have been posted on Facebook, including a screenshot of us on the Weather Channel. A Dropbox is being set up also. It will take some time to get to all of that.
Within a few days I should get something up from Yellowstone. It was extremely busy but 2 of our 5 days there were in more quiet and remote areas, which will be of more interest to this forum.
As for the eclipse, I am pleased that several people on this forum heeded our advice instead of the Debbie Downers from SLC. The results speak for themselves.
Meanwhile the topic was raised on PugSki on August 9, had grown to 8 pages by eclipse day and is now at 15. http://forum.pugski.com/threads/solar-e ... hread.5566. Tseeb drew this to my attention on August 10, so I devoted my later online efforts there. There was some pushback and skepticism but also a more constructive tone and a far wider audience. Despite the thread starting with less than 2 weeks notice, several people there made last minute plans, got to totality and were appreciative that they heard about it on a ski forum.
Even more surprising, post eclipse there was enough enthusiasm that a Northeast Gathering for the 2024 eclipse is under discussion. http://forum.pugski.com/threads/2024-ea ... 7-12.5704/ To no surprise Patrick is quite active over there, wanting to ski and see an eclipse on the same day. James can count on Patrick recruiting him!
Congratulations on the nuptials -- I had no idea. How far in advance did you have to plan something like that?Tony Crocker":36sqdtfp said:
I guess Patrick's reference got by James too.
We should get a copy of the Weather Channel's video of our wedding. There are stories online from Esquire and Outside magazines.
JHMR referred the Outside writer to us. https://www.outsideonline.com/2235826/j ... ld-eclipse
We met the Esquire writer at an event in Pasadena where she was covering Jay Pasachoff's lecture there.
http://www.esquire.com/lifestyle/a57037 ... e-hunters/
1) Get groceries at Costco Pocatello to stock the condos
2) Pick up a wedding cake in Idaho Falls
3) Check out the alternative eclipse viewing site, a horse pasture in Rigby
4) Pick up Teton County marriage license in Jackson before the office closed for the weekend.
5) Pick up condo keys at another office in town
Contrary to the expectations of the Chicken Littles,
1) There were no traffic issues for any of our group getting to Jackson on the 18th, 19th or 20th.
2) The grocery stores and gas stations were not stripped bare, according to a few of our group who used them.
3) The cell service and internet did not crash. As in many national park regions, there are large areas without cell service. For our group that meant the Jenny Lake area where we spent 6 hours on Aug. 20.
Adam's group had no issues getting to their BLM campsite near Madras on Sunday. All of the traffic issues related to people trying to leave their viewing sites within a few hours after the eclipse. It took 12+ hours to get from Casper to Denver or from Madras down Hwy97 to the California border. I-15 in Idaho was bad too, though perhaps not on the level of I-25 or Hwy 97.
2024 will be busier because word of mouth from this eclipse will get far more people interested. So the key is to stay put at/near your viewing site and leave the next morning. Traffic was slow in places but backed up only at park entrances as we headed north to Yellowstone on Tuesday. Yellowstone itself was the busiest of my 3 summer visits, but we were told at Old Faithful that the entire summer had been like that and eclipse week was no worse.
We should get a copy of the Weather Channel's video of our wedding. There are stories online from Esquire and Outside magazines.
JHMR referred the Outside writer to us. https://www.outsideonline.com/2235826/j ... ld-eclipse
We met the Esquire writer at an event in Pasadena where she was covering Jay Pasachoff's lecture there.
http://www.esquire.com/lifestyle/a57037 ... e-hunters/
We thought about it in July. We did not find a retired judge to officiate until Aug. 6. Almost no one in our group knew about it until they arrived in Jackson Aug. 18. That was a busy day. From Salt Lake City we had to:jamesdeluxe":cq78kge0 said:
1) Get groceries at Costco Pocatello to stock the condos
2) Pick up a wedding cake in Idaho Falls
3) Check out the alternative eclipse viewing site, a horse pasture in Rigby
4) Pick up Teton County marriage license in Jackson before the office closed for the weekend.
5) Pick up condo keys at another office in town
Contrary to the expectations of the Chicken Littles,
1) There were no traffic issues for any of our group getting to Jackson on the 18th, 19th or 20th.
2) The grocery stores and gas stations were not stripped bare, according to a few of our group who used them.
3) The cell service and internet did not crash. As in many national park regions, there are large areas without cell service. For our group that meant the Jenny Lake area where we spent 6 hours on Aug. 20.
Adam's group had no issues getting to their BLM campsite near Madras on Sunday. All of the traffic issues related to people trying to leave their viewing sites within a few hours after the eclipse. It took 12+ hours to get from Casper to Denver or from Madras down Hwy97 to the California border. I-15 in Idaho was bad too, though perhaps not on the level of I-25 or Hwy 97.
2024 will be busier because word of mouth from this eclipse will get far more people interested. So the key is to stay put at/near your viewing site and leave the next morning. Traffic was slow in places but backed up only at park entrances as we headed north to Yellowstone on Tuesday. Yellowstone itself was the busiest of my 3 summer visits, but we were told at Old Faithful that the entire summer had been like that and eclipse week was no worse.