On Oct. 14, 2023, an annular solar eclipse will cross North, Central, and South America. Visible in parts of the United States, Mexico, and many countries in South and Central America, millions of people in the Western Hemisphere can experience this eclipse.
Then, next year:
On April 8, 2024, a total solar eclipse will cross North America, passing over Mexico, the United States, and Canada. 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.
Is anyone living in or planning to be in the path of either of these? For the second one, the path of totality is only about an hour’s drive north of us, so we’re planning to find a good location for that – maybe hiking a small mountain. The problem with April is that the likelihood of major cloud cover is high, but I don’t think that will deter us. I already ordered eclipse glasses because I remember there being a shortage a few years back.
We are going down to Corpus Christi which is in the path of the annular eclipse on 10/14. We have a daughter who lives there.
For the one next spring, we live right in the middle of the eclipse path, so only have to go to the back yard. It is sort of crazy, hotels around here and Airbnbs are already pretty full at highly inflated prices.
I noticed the paths of both eclipses cross somewhere over Texas, so that makes sense that things are already selling out. You could probably make good money renting camping space on your backyard for those who booked late.
Of course, there may be a Biologos discount…
It is sort of interesting how the annular eclipse is really not getting a lot of hype, whereas the total one is. Perhaps a symptom of the polarization of society, and you have to be fully committed to eclipsing to get any respect, otherwise would get accused of being a EINO (Eclipse In Name Only)
We have plans for the second one. If we can score tickets to Wrestlemania at a decent price the week of the two-night event we are going to drive from CT to Philly for that on Sat and Sunday and then Monday drive where ever the weather looks best good for the eclipse.
For Oct 14, we’re having a viewing on campus (not very close to the path, just partial). Not sure if I can make the April path versus helping run something for folks here.
I could catch totality for the first one by driving an hour and a half south, assuming I could get above the cloud cover. The one in April I’d have to spend about $900 to get to the path of totality, which wouldn’t be worth it given how many eclipses I’ve watched (including three from right where I’m now living).
BTW, I’ve never used eclipse glasses; I’ve made a pinhole camera, a pinhole “projector”, and once a pinhole mirror telescope (instructions for all of these can be found online). I think the best one was when we did a projector where the magnified pinhole image got projected onto a old home movie screen – nice big image that was incredibly sharp.
If I’m reading the charts right, to see the Saturday eclipse from Oregon I’d have to get higher than eight thousand feet at a bare minimum. There’s a bit of irony there because that means getting up in the mountains, and for the ones the eclipse path crosses that likely won’t help because they’re part of a mountain range that clouds climb on the way over. The only peaks that might suffice aren’t ones I’d want to climb at this time of year – especially since the forecast is for snow and ice!
If only this had been a month earlier and the path two hundred miles farther north I could have snagged a pass for camping on top of South Sister and watched from ten thousand feet up!
Unfortunately for me - our area of Kansas here is forecast to be cloudy and overcast on Saturday! I can only hope that maybe at several days out here yet, there is enough margin of error that we could still hope to get lucky.
By the way, do you just stick some eclipse glasses over your cellphone camera lens(es) to get a picture? I’ve never actually done it but assumed that would work when the time comes.
Good question. i have a darkroom filter that should work with a bigger lens. The problem with cellphones is that of such a small picture. I have often been disappointed trying to photograph the moon. One thing I plan to do with the grandkids is build a pinhole projector out of a box to look at it with.
I remember one solar eclipse that occurred when a bunch of cousins were visiting and we were all at my parents’ house. We set up a pinhole projector with a mirror to throw the image of the sun onto the nice white wall of the house where the deck was, and every few minutes one cousin took a pencil and drew what was being seen right there on the wall, so by the time it was over we had a record of the different stages drawn on the house.
My dad thought it was ridiculous but that arc of pencil images served as a great conversation starter for more than a few guests over the next few months!
Sunny and 70s tomorrow in Albuquerque. 10:36 a.m. peak viewing, and the cool thing is it’s the closing weekend of Balloon Fiesta. Should be some pretty spectacular pics coming from there tomorrow. (Don’t like crowds, so I’ll be watching from home.)
