I seen it in 2017 and we will see it again this year, if it isn't cloudy. It was kind of cool to see. The weather was hot and humid, I remember that. We had special glasses to see it. My husband bought new glasses for us last week so we can step out on our porch and observe it again, IF it isn't cloudy. The motels and campgrounds are booked all around, plus 100 miles away. And of course, the prices have double or more for the motels rooms, cabins, campsites, etc. People seem to get very excited about the solar eclipse. I think it is supposed to last about 4 minutes. Many towns and establishments are advertising eclipse parties, and I hear many local people are planning to have parties too, but not me. Guess I am a party pooper!
I read an article saying that residents of Niagara Falls (both countries) had been issued the same warning.
I just read an article where the governor of Indiana has declared a state-wide emergency because of all the eclipse version of "leafers" they expect. I wonder if there will be international visitors for the event.
"Leafers" are tourists who flood areas when the leaves turn color in the fall. The northeast (esp Vermont) gets them. Virginia has some in the Shenandoah Valley area, but not to the extent that the northeast does. I believe the colder weather brings out brighter colors. The challenge is timing your trip, based upon guessing when they are gonna peak. The eclipse is [obviously] accurately predicted. I take it there are no leafers in the northwest. Too many pines and not enough deciduous trees? Or do you all have better things to do
We do have trees that turn colors in the Pacific North West, but you're right ... lots of pines. So many pines that we don't really go out to look at them ... we just enjoy the greenery.
The only time I experienced a full solar eclipse was around 1970 (?). I was in Savannah, Ga. and still in the Army. It’s a weird feeling as I recall. I was downtown at the time and all the automatic lights came on such as street, front of store and the gas station on the corner. People turned on their car lights even though the traffic came to an abrupt halt and everything went extremely quiet for a few moments. Even the pigeons from across the street at the small park flew off to their roosts during the first parts of the “dimming” and stayed there until the sun was fully visible again. I guess the best way I can describe it is that at some point, it felt like everything suddenly “held its breath” for a minute or two whilst awaiting a great happening in conjunction with the eclipse. In the end, I can fully understand why the ancients thought that a dragon was eating the sun or why whole civilizations thought they somehow fell into disfavor with God or the gods. I mean, even though I knew what the reason was for the eclipse, I still had an unshakable sense of uneasiness about the whole affair. Spooky.
I'm glad we have very little, if any, view of the eclipse here since it brings crowds. Tourist season, followed by leaf season, will begin here soon enough.
We are in the area where it will be almost 90% of total eclipse, but we are supposed to have rain all next week. We will still see the sky getting darker, but will not actually be able to see the sun when it happens. We do not have the special glasses, so would not be looking directly at the sun even if it were not hidden behind the clouds. If you have a cloudy sky in Florida, you should be able to watch that way, too, @Marie Mallery . I think that I remember the sky getting darker and then coming back again when we had the last eclipse in 2017. It was probably cloudy then, too.
Ok, thanks Yvonne. The sun alone is bad enough for my eyes, yesterday I looked up to see where to cut vines and was instantly blinded. Like the Ice Bucket Woman,lol. Remember her?
I guess Total solar eclipses doesn’t happen very often, and to have two totality solar eclipses in a short span of time is very rare, so I was told. Lunar and partial eclipse happens more often and I think those kind of go unnoticed by the average person. In my area, we had a total eclipse in Aug 2017 and now happening again next week. It was a little bit eerie seeing the sun go away. We saw it, took a selfie of ourselves looking at it, and then we went back in the house to where it was cool.
Yup. I had a telescope with a sun filter on it and was living in the burbs of DC when that one came around. Solar and lunar eclipses both have an eerie feeling to them. The critters fall silent (day or night) when eclipses occur (I wonder if a solar eclipse creates a unique wavelength of light that they perceive.) Edgar Allen Poe employed that state of being in "Fall of The House of Usher" when he wrote of the "blood red moon," which is the color of the moon during a total lunar eclipse.