Not the roof of a building. Not 99% totality. And don't miss it.
Everyone that stayed in town for the 2017 eclipse barely remembers it today.
Those of us in a rural area of 100% totality thought it was magic. Pure, real, magic.
Go into a field. Bring some friends. Let yourself feel awe. You won't see it again in the USA for twenty years, so... now's the time.
It is a mind-boggling experience.
It literally isn’t the same thing at all. The moment of totality is just unreal and has me wanting to chase total eclipses.
Awhile back, I argued to our school district to move spring break for 2024 in order for families to potentially travel for this year’s total eclipse (I live in California), but they wouldn’t consider it. Sadly, I’ll miss it this year.
Also, think for a moment how crazy this is: our moon is exactly the right size to cover the sun exactly (coupled with being exactly far enough away) that we can see this beautiful ring of fire with flares emanating from the sides during the moment of totality.
That's like being 90% of the way to the ocean versus swimming in the ocean.
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On Monday, April 8, a total solar eclipse will cross North America, passing over southern Ontario. The City of Hamilton is expected to experience a deep partial solar eclipse, with the timing of this event presenting a concern for school dismissal. The solar eclipse will begin at approximately 2 p.m. and end around 4:30 p.m.
A total solar eclipse happens when the moon passes between the sun and earth, completely blocking the face of the sun. The sky will darken as if it were dawn or dusk. These events can pose potential risks and severe damage to eyesight if proper precautions are not taken. Viewing the sun directly during an eclipse can permanently damage the retina's light-sensitive cells.
In addition to the physical risks associated with directly viewing the solar eclipse, a period of increased darkness will occur. The peak period of darkness (referred to as the mid-eclipse) will occur at approximately 3:20 p.m. This aspect of the eclipse can present safety concerns for students, staff and families during dismissal time.
Hamilton Public Health Services (HPHS) understands that there are significant risks associated with the unprotected viewing of the solar eclipse and is supportive of HWDSB’s desire to mitigate potential risks. Shifting the P.A. Day is a proactive measure to support the safety and well-being of students, staff and families.
HPHS is working with HWDSB to provide information for families and staff regarding safety considerations. These resources will be shared closer to the P.A. Day on Monday, April 8.
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I sent them a letter in response:
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I fully support changing the PA Day so that children have a once-in-a-generation, highly educational opportunity to view this incredible celestial event. Describing it as risky and dangerous is just plain weird! There are plenty of dangerous natural phenomena (e.g. the lake that we happen to be situated next to, in which many people drown each year), but rather than frighten people, we educate them on how to safely enjoy them. This is an incredible opportunity to teach kids about solar cycles, space, etc., and something we should all be excited about.
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I didn't a response. I'm still completely baffled by this!
It is worth crossing continents for.
If it's like 2017, traffic out of totality regions will be very, very memorable. :\
Seeing an eclipse is like flying in an airplane. Seeing it in totality is like jumping out of one.
Even at "99.9%" you get to see the sun's corona for 0% of your life.
99% you’re in daytime. 100% you’re in nighttime.
But viewing the corona of the sun... wow! I cannot begin to describe how cool that is. You don't get to see it in 99% totality. Only when the sun is completely blocked from space. It's remarkable and beautiful and impossible to capture the light on camera and you only get to see if for maybe a couple of minutes in your life.
https://www.google.com/search?q=sun+corona+during+solar+ecli...
With things like this it's always so impossible to tell if everybody is altering the brightness and so forth.
It's entirely a natural lighting spectacle, so it's hard to capture the size and dynamic range on an LCD screen.
The pictures make it look like some sort of lens flare, but it looks nothing like that in real life. You can actually see the vapory tendrils of the suns' plasma making stringy loops around the sun in the pattern of the magnetic waves. There's a lot of detail.
This does a better job of showing the detail: https://www.reddit.com/media?url=https%3A%2F%2Fi.redd.it%2Fi... But you can tell they had to crank up the exposure because the space doesn't look nearly as black in this one.
Again, it's something you have to see for yourself. If you lived an entire life in a cave, me showing pictures of the sun would not have the same effect as actually feeling the light.
I was a skeptic when I went to the 2017 one. I've booked flights to go see next month's.
Nope. During totality, the whole sky goes dark and you look up and there's a fucking ring of fire in the sky.
It looks exactly like these photos, just sitting there up in the sky. It feels like you got teleported to another solar system onto the surface of an alien planet.
Imagine just going about your day as normal and all of a sudden the sun does that.
The feeling though, is very hard to convey. Everyone I was with confirmed that they felt it. Very primal to me. It was clear that my body (and the natural world around me) was unsettled or could tell that something was disrupted.
I'm not a "vibes" person, but for sure this was felt.
Hell, I saw it at a library in small town SC and it was still primal and surreal. The birds got quiet, the crickets started chirping. You really felt a direct link back to prehistory and you understood why it affected ancient people the way it did. There a small, tickling sense in the back of your mind that what you're seeing is profoundly wrong. The closest I can describe it is low grade existential terror, in the biblical sense of awe.
Is it about light pollution? About being somewhere quiet? Is it about a field specifically or about being away from road traffic? Like is a park OK? Is the beach OK?
Or is it mainly just being in 100% and you usually have to go somewhere rural for that because statistically it doesn't pass directly over major cities?
We were within the area of total eclipse, but as you can see from the map, there wasn't much area to choose from. Other than the towns and cities on the coast it counts as rural for England. (Plymouth is largest, 300k people; eclipses certainly do pass over cities.)
We stood on a hill, along with probably 30 other people who'd chosen the same place, just above a village. It went completely dark, and quiet (except for the people), the street lights on a road in the distance came on. We could see sunlight far to the north and south, yet ourselves were in near-total darkness (like overnight twilight at high latitudes).
Then it started to get light again, and the birds starting singing. It was mostly overcast, but with some glimpses of the occluded sun at every stage of the eclipse.
It wasn't a profound and spiritual experience, but it is one of the things I remember clearly from several holidays to that part of England with my family. Maybe being alone would make it different — there'd have been no-one else saying "isn't this amazing!" to their children. But more realistically, English families on holiday aren't looking for profound and spiritual experiences, we leave that to the Americans.
We couldn't see the corona, due to the clouds. Maybe that's important.
I think being on a small hill helped, and not being within an urban area.
You got such a laugh out of me there! True words.
Thanks for the details.
It goes from quiet sunny day, to an insect rock concert, and back again. And if you're outside, you feel the temperature plummet, adding to the experience. All in under 4 minutes.
In the city you'll likely still hear some of that, so... whichever you do, it'll be great.
I was standing in a farmer's field next to a bunch of beehives, and the change was palpable.
I can't even put the feeling into words. Not just seeing the sun, but the feeling of the entire environment was just wild.
It's not a linear "eclipesness" where 99 or 95% is close enough.
It's a binary 100% or not experience. Even 1% sunlight is enough to wash out the entire experience and you must keep the glasses on the whole time. At 100% you can take them off, and see the most incredible sight you might ever see.
Some friends and I did this for the 2017 eclipse in Nashville. We drove 30 minutes north and happened across a huge group of nerds in a big green park and the moment of totality was absolutely bonkers.
It gets true twilight dark, the birds and crickets start going wild, and you see this glowing reddish sunset color perfectly evenly along the base of the horizon. That part was the most fascinating to me, because I realized that comes from the diffraction (diffusion?) of the light from above and all around, and NOT from the “edge of the sun below the horizon” as we all kinda assumed.
(Note I am likely very materially wrong about that explanation so I’d love to be properly corrected.)
Anyway, regardless, go experience 100% totality on the ground!
For the 2017 one, we went to a field about 100 miles from where we were staying and compared our experience to our hosts who stayed behind because of cloud cover forecast for the day. Clouds cleared for both of us, but from the discussions, it was worth going that 100 miles.
In fact, I have a relative whose rural house was in the path of totality for 2017, but it was not centered on the path. That relative and I went to her friend's rural house on the centerline.
It was by a field too, and yes, the animals went weird.
If you're going to do it, go whole hog.