April 8th eclipse and school closings

[bio-nonymous]

I watched an eclipse without the special glasses when I was in grade school. I regret that decision heartily. I think that younger kids should be supervised during this and walking home from school with your pals is a great opportunity to stare at the eclipse unprotected...

[apl68]

The city of Little Rock has announced that one of their pedestrian bridges across the Arkansas River will be closed during the eclipse.  They're afraid it won't be able to handle thousands of people jamming onto it to watch the eclipse from the river.  It's only rated to hold about 2,400 people, and they decided it would be easier to close it than to try to keep a count.

[apl68]

The coming week's forecast calls for storms, storms, and more storms.  Looks like the weather will probably ruin our once-in-a-lifetime chance to see a total eclipse in our region.

[hmaria1609]

WTOP Radio has travel tips for the DC region ahead of Monday:
https://wtop.com/dc-transit/2024/04/millions-expected-to-hit-the-roads-ahead-of-total-solar-eclipse-wtop-traffics-travel-tips-for-dc-area-residents/
Posted online 4/5/24

[dismalist]

The city of Little Rock has announced that one of their pedestrian bridges across the Arkansas River will be closed during the eclipse.  They're afraid it won't be able to handle thousands of people jamming onto it to watch the eclipse from the river.  It's only rated to hold about 2,400 people, and they decided it would be easier to close it than to try to keep a count.

Oh, hell, why not auction off the places?

[lightning]

The city of Little Rock has announced that one of their pedestrian bridges across the Arkansas River will be closed during the eclipse.  They're afraid it won't be able to handle thousands of people jamming onto it to watch the eclipse from the river.  It's only rated to hold about 2,400 people, and they decided it would be easier to close it than to try to keep a count.

Oh, hell, why not auction off the places?

For the usual reason: liability insurance is too expensive for great ideas.

[ciao_yall]

The city of Little Rock has announced that one of their pedestrian bridges across the Arkansas River will be closed during the eclipse.  They're afraid it won't be able to handle thousands of people jamming onto it to watch the eclipse from the river.  It's only rated to hold about 2,400 people, and they decided it would be easier to close it than to try to keep a count.

Oh, hell, why not auction off the places?

For the usual reason: liability insurance is too expensive for great ideas.

They could use the funds to do civic improvements. But with Sarah Huckabee as governor, determined to show that government can't fix anything, well...

[clean]

Very cloudy here.  I cancelled my travel plans to get closer to the totality zone after reading all of the warnings and restrictions from the places I had considered visiting. 

Here, it is very cloudy and we have a chance of rain if I understand so we probably wont even get a glimpse of the eclipse.   

Glad we didnt decide to go to the totality zone given the weather predictions. 

[secundem_artem]

We had about 90% of totality.  Lots of faculty and students outside. Many had eclipse glasses they would share, so everybody got a pretty good luck.  Still amazingly bright outside even with 90% of the sun covered.  Although the air temperature was noticeably colder. Pretty neat way to spend an hour this afternoon!

[sinenomine]

95% coverage in my area. One of my colleagues used a colander to get some neat images, and I made a pinhole camera. HR at my school also handed out eclipse glasses. A neat experience to share with co-workers!

[Puget]

We had about 90% of totality.  Lots of faculty and students outside. Many had eclipse glasses they would share, so everybody got a pretty good luck.  Still amazingly bright outside even with 90% of the sun covered.  Although the air temperature was noticeably colder. Pretty neat way to spend an hour this afternoon!

Same here -- they gave out the glasses on campus, and we passed them around so my whole lab could look. Definitely got much colder, and the robins started singing their evening songs which was pretty cool (though I'm sure confusing for them!).

I have a monitoring app for my solar panels, which graphs every day in 15 min bins, and it looks like there are two sunsets today!

[hmaria1609]

My colleague and I took turns standing outside in front of the library viewing the solar eclipse this afternoon. A patron asked me if he could take a look so he borrowed my pair of glasses.
Peak time was 3:20 pm for the DC region. Later we saw the last of the eclipse as it made its finale. Quite a view!

I'll be keeping my eclipse glasses as a souvenir.

Hope you enjoyed the show this afternoon!

[the_geneticist]

We were in less than 50% of totality, but it was a beautiful day so it was a great view.  The astronomy department handed out eclipse glasses & had a really neat telescope with a special filter.  The crescent-shaped shadows under the trees were fun since you didn't need anything to look at them.

I brought a colander & got some great pictures.


I'm curious, did anyone see the "colors look different" phenomenon? 

[namazu]

I'm curious, did anyone see the "colors look different" phenomenon? 

I did. It's kind of like wearing sunglasses without actually wearing sunglasses, or looking through a digital camera that has the light filtering/adjustment a bit off.

Since my kid had the day off from school, spouse isn't teaching this semester, and we have conveniently-placed cousins about 3 hours' drive from us, we were able to travel to the totality band (and really lucked out, weather-wise).  I remember it also from the 2017 eclipse (when we were outside of the path of totality, but still mostly covered).  If it weren't for the weird, slightly eerie color (and the important climate and ecological systems that would be messed up), I'd vote for 85% eclipse coverage all summer for the cooler temps and lower chance of sunburn...  ;)

It was really cool!  I left the photos of totality to the professionals and serious amateurs, especially since we were nearer the periphery of the totality band and had a relatively short time to appreciate it.  The weirdest part to me (besides the big black spot where the sun was supposed to be) was knowing that it was mid-afternoon and being able to see a couple of planets.

[Larimar]

I saw it too. We traveled to the totality path and got to see the blue of the sky become less vivid, and the light get strangely dim, and then totality hit and it was amazing! It was a beautiful twilight, and the horizon was gold just like a normal sunset, except the sun was at totality significantly higher in the sky. Afterward as the eclipse was waning, we heard some very chattery birds, as if they were saying to each other, "What just happened?"