SIGforum
Lodging Rates During Eclipse
February 09, 2024, 08:43 PM
mcrimmLodging Rates During Eclipse
I’ve seen 2 of these total eclipses in my lifetime. Very strange experience. The last on August 21, 2017 just north of Idaho Falls, Idaho. We had a bluegrass band, libations and lots of chow to commemorate the event.
I'm sorry if I hurt you feelings when I called you stupid - I thought you already knew - Unknown
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When you have no future, you live in the past. " Sycamore Row" by John Grisham February 09, 2024, 09:32 PM
KMitch200I was in Wyoming for the 2017 eclipse.
Drove from Phx to Colorado Springs, got a hotel for some badly needed sleep and watched the weather channel to decide between going east towards Omaha or north to Wyoming. Omaha had a 10% chance of rain so north I went.
If you are wondering what all the fuss is all about, you haven’t seen one.
I was so fortunate to find a rancher that was a gun nut and a stand up guy. Rented a dozen or so of us wanderers space for $50.
Other ranchers were hitting people up for almost $200 - for truck camping.
I was prepared be totally self contained, self sufficient and left nothing but temporary tire tracks.
The drive back south was something to behold. Vehicles bumper to bumper for as far as you could see, which was about 10+ miles or so…
If there is ANY way I can swing it to get to totality again this year, I’m going!
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After the game, the King and the pawn go into the same box.
February 09, 2024, 09:46 PM
P-220Hoping to view it from Kelleys Island.
Ordered my glasses and camera filter yesterday.
Niech Zyje P-220
Steve
February 09, 2024, 09:50 PM
KMitch200That’s thinking ahead!
I stopped at a gas station mini-mart in Cheyenne and asked if they had any for sale.
Got 1 pair for me, 1 for the camera and 1 spare for $10.
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After the game, the King and the pawn go into the same box.
February 09, 2024, 09:51 PM
sjtillSon John (dilettante on SF) and I are flying to Texas for this eclipse. I refused to pay $10,000 for a few nights in the towns on the path of totality; so have rented a VRBO about two hours away; we can drive to any public place on the path in the Texas hill country and get a great view.
quote:
My dad had no idea that leaves can be a natural lens, when the half covered sun’s shadow played on the ground. Thousands of little half eclipsed shadows.
This was a surprise—my wife and I, in the first year of our marriage, drove from Pittsburgh to Virginia Beach to watch the eclipse, and it was truly memorable. We chose Texas because the sky is likely to be sunny and clear in April—-at least that’s my hope.
_________________________
“Remember, remember the fifth of November!"
February 10, 2024, 03:52 AM
BurtonRWMrs.BurtonRW and I will be a little outside of Dallas, where I was able to secure a nice room at a very well reviewed Scottish Inn (9/10 on Hotels.com) for the normal price of around $140/night. Everything else anywhere near Dallas was incredibly inflated, as OP noted.
Crazy, but we’re looking forward to it. Just have to decide where to watch.
Anyone in the greater DFW area up for a SigForum watch party?
-Rob
I predict that there will be many suggestions and statements about the law made here, and some of them will be spectacularly wrong. - jhe888
A=A February 10, 2024, 11:24 AM
Blackmorequote:
Originally posted by steve495:
After looking at hotel rates in northern Vermont, I think it will be a pretty long day of driving if we go.
Then there is traffic ... with everyone doing the same thing as us - driving all the way up I-91 and back.
About a normally 1.25 hour drive north for me to the closest spot of totality but the day trippers on I-91 and I-93 will make it nuts.
Harshest Dream, Reality
February 10, 2024, 01:26 PM
Skins2881quote:
Originally posted by KMitch200:
I was in Wyoming for the 2017 eclipse.
Drove from Phx to Colorado Springs, got a hotel for some badly needed sleep and watched the weather channel to decide between going east towards Omaha or north to Wyoming. Omaha had a 10% chance of rain so north I went.
If you are wondering what all the fuss is all about, you haven’t seen one.
I was so fortunate to find a rancher that was a gun nut and a stand up guy. Rented a dozen or so of us wanderers space for $50.
Other ranchers were hitting people up for almost $200 - for truck camping.
I was prepared be totally self contained, self sufficient and left nothing but temporary tire tracks.
The drive back south was something to behold. Vehicles bumper to bumper for as far as you could see, which was about 10+ miles or so…
If there is ANY way I can swing it to get to totality again this year, I’m going!
I just said fuck it and booked a room the night before in Rochester, NY. I will already be in total eclipse path. I plan on waking up and driving a little closer to the dead center of the path on the water as I was for 2017, this time it will be lake Ontario instead of the Atlantic. I'll put my bike in my truck and if I hit traffic or no parking, I'll get as close as possible to my viewing point, then bike.
Then since I've never seen it before and it will be off season midweek (not crowded hopefully), I'm going to go see Niagara Falls.
Normal room rate $170, my friends and family rate $90, the rate for that night $497.50.
Jesse
Sic Semper Tyrannis February 10, 2024, 04:21 PM
doublesharpLouisville is just about 50mi south of total eclipse is what I've heard.
I remember one when I was a child and there was a technique to view where you put a pin hole in a small piece of cardboard and turned your back to the sun and looked at the image from the pin hole paper on another piece of paper held beneath it.
We must have been starved for entertainment in the early 60s.
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God spelled backwards is dog
February 11, 2024, 04:44 PM
signewtWe did considerable reading prepping for Totality. There were a handful of notable astronomical events before & after the period of Totality.
One of the nuances I would have missed, was the visible to normal eyesight, rushing toward us approaching at IIRC ~500mph. the actual moon edge ground shadow. If we hadn't been in the really open country around Horse Heaven Hills near Pasco, I probably would have missed it.
The 'string of pearls' was another notable feature, during the last/first 1% surrounding full totality.
A buddy had made a shoe box pin-hole camera that took a fine single photo.
Certainly a Peak Event for me. Worth the effort to catch the show for sure.
February 11, 2024, 04:55 PM
Lefty SigAll of the Indy area will be total eclipse? Damn, I can watch from home.
If you wear polarized UV-filtering sunglasses, is it really a risk?
When I was a kid the elementary school teachers would preach "don't look at it" like Indiana Jones to Marian when the Ark was opened and the angel of death was flying around. But it was only ever a partial eclipse with no real darkening of the area. If they didn't tell you it was a partial eclipse, you wouldn't notice. But still we had our pinhole paper and viewing paper like good little programmed nanny-bots.
February 11, 2024, 05:16 PM
sigmonkeyquote:
Originally posted by Lefty Sig:
All of the Indy area will be total eclipse? Damn, I can watch from home.
If you wear polarized UV-filtering sunglasses, is it really a risk?
When I was a kid the elementary school teachers would preach "don't look at it" like Indiana Jones to Marian when the Ark was opened and the angel of death was flying around. But it was only ever a partial eclipse with no real darkening of the area. If they didn't tell you it was a partial eclipse, you wouldn't notice. But still we had our pinhole paper and viewing paper like good little programmed nanny-bots.
Polarized UV-filtering sunglasses are absolutely no good, except during totality.
You need proper deep tint (like welder's protection) until totality, then you can look at the sun, because the sun's disc is blocked 100%, and only the corona is visible.
Like the image in mcrimm's post.
If you are using eye protection, you will see the dimming of ambient light around your periphery, just before totality, and when you see the "beads" you can look.
You will get a "crack" of the sunlight, at the end of totality, and you need to look away at that instant.
Your eyes can handle a very short exposure without damage, much like accidently looking at the sun, as we all have done. It's the looking at it for more than a couple of seconds that can result in damage. So, the idea is to avoid any exposure.
"the meaning of life, is to give life meaning" ✡ Ani Yehudi אני יהודי Le'olam lo shuv לעולם לא שוב! February 11, 2024, 05:58 PM
sigfreundquote:
Originally posted by sigmonkey:
Polarized UV-filtering sunglasses are absolutely no good, except during totality.
Every now and then I wonder why it's necessary for constant reminders about the dangers of viewing an eclipse without proper eye protection to be aired in various public forums and media over and over and over and ....
And then I remember.
► 6.0/94.0
To operate serious weapons in a serious manner. February 12, 2024, 09:47 AM
Fly-SigWe're ticking two bucket list items off the list. We will be on a Panama Canal cruise that also hits the eclipse in the Pacific.
February 12, 2024, 09:57 AM
jprebbWe are planning to see the eclipse using San Antonio as our base. Just out of curiosity, I checked AirBNB in Kerville and there is some knuckle head asking $50,000 a night for his 3 bed house!
Crazy!
JP
February 12, 2024, 02:35 PM
TRIOI have relatives who live for this stuff. I don't mind seeing pictures.
Since family is gathering at a relatives home in Texas, I'm going too. For me, it is about the gathering of family, and we might see something cool.
--Tom
The right of self preservation, in turn, was understood as the right to defend oneself against attacks by lawless individuals, or, if absolutely necessary, to resist and throw off a tyrannical government.
February 12, 2024, 05:01 PM
Loswsmithquote:
Originally posted by Blackmore:
quote:
Originally posted by steve495:
After looking at hotel rates in northern Vermont, I think it will be a pretty long day of driving if we go.
Then there is traffic ... with everyone doing the same thing as us - driving all the way up I-91 and back.
This is no lie. I did the trip to Corvallis OR to Tacoma for the August 2018 eclipse (I lived in T-town, my MIL in Corvallis, my boys and I went down to experience it). I'll tell you flat out it was one of the craziest thing I have ever experienced and I'm a big science nerd and had read up about them for years. Totally worth it for me and my kids to have as a life event BUT a normally 5 hour drive took 13.5 hours and I got off lucky.
By the by, it also totally convinced me that "shelter in place" was the only practical tactic for a regional emergency since no one was going ANYWHERE and that was only a small but significant fraction of the population moving in one direction.
About a normally 1.25 hour drive north for me to the closest spot of totality but the day trippers on I-91 and I-93 will make it nuts.
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Life Member NRA & Washington Arms Collectors
Mistake not my current state of joshing gentle peevishness for the awesome and terrible majesty of the towering seas of ire that are themselves the milquetoast shallows fringing my vast oceans of wrath.
Velocitas Incursio Vis - Gandhi
February 12, 2024, 05:31 PM
ftttuquote:
Originally posted by sigfreund:
quote:
Originally posted by sigmonkey:
Polarized UV-filtering sunglasses are absolutely no good, except during totality.
Every now and then I wonder why it's necessary for constant reminders about the dangers of viewing an eclipse without proper eye protection to be aired in various public forums and media over and over and over and ....
And then I remember.
Mama always told me not to look into the eyes of the sun, but mama, that's where the fun is…
Retired Texas Lawman
February 12, 2024, 08:03 PM
KyjondeereI’m on the southern graze line in western Kentucky. I have room for everybody that wants to come.
February 13, 2024, 08:30 AM
dgshooterMy wife and I saw the 2017 event and we were in awe. Planning to see this one somewhere around 100 miles along the path centered in Poplar Bluff, MO. Just waiting to see where the cloud cover might be. For the event I purchased an 8" Dobsonian reflector telescope with a sun filter. Been having fun with that too!