An Eclipse Chaser’s Guide to Your First Eclipse | Hacker News Reader

An Eclipse Chaser’s Guide to Your First Eclipse

nytimes.com

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I think there are all of four tips in this guide. Mostly it's a profile of eclipse chasers. Tips:

1. Get to somewhere in the path of totality.

2. Get there the day before.

(There's already highway signs up near me in NC warning of traffic and I'm five hours away from the path of totality.)

3. Stay mobile if you can to be able to drive to clear skies in case of weather.

4. Don't bother with a camera; just observe as much as you can with your eyes.

I'll add a fifth. Reconfirm your reservation with your hotel. Mine called me yesterday.

The problem with "get there the day before" is that you then have to get back. You might want to do that the day after.

(I'm not. I'm getting there two days before, and trying to get back the same day, and I'm nervous about the second part...)

At least if you're late getting back, you miss work. If you're late getting there, you miss the eclipse.

Very true. And if I miss a day of work, there's another one the next day. If I miss the eclipse, there's another one in... eight years.

My sister lives in Charleston - she says the hotels are full, even though many demanded a 3-night minimum stay.

If you're driving somewhere Monday afternoon, you might want to pull over - not just because that way you'll get to see the eclipse, but to avoid all the people craning their neck to see it as they drive.

Monday probably should have just been declared to be a national holiday. No one is going to get anything done anyway.

> Monday probably should have just been declared to be a national holiday. No one is going to get anything done anyway.

I feel really sorry for people who can't just take a break to watch the eclipse. That ranges from people like emergency room surgeons and nurses, to subway train drivers, and to poor McDonald's employees who may not be in a position to risk their job to run outside.

I'm driving to Oregon, but I bought a dashcam so even if I don't make it I should have some good footage.

Having seen a few of these I also strongly recommend to learn about phenomena you can see during a eclipse. Look up things like Bailey's Beads, shadow band and the awesome stuff that will happen to your shadow leading up to the eclipse. Also bring a white cloth so that you can see the shadow band of they occur. It's well worth it.

> Don't bother with a camera; just observe as much as you can with your eyes.

"Look up (at the Sun), don't look down (at the camera)."

I'm actually going to install the full astrophotography stack - telescope, camera, computer, software, battery, etc. But it's all dialed in, it will take a timelapse on its own while I'll kick back and enjoy the show. I only need to remove / replace the main filter at the edges of totality, at the same time when I take off / replace my eclipse glasses.

I look forward to seeing your time lapse. Thank you for taking the time to record it! :-)

It will be up on my channel some time after the event https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIU4rTjkOVHvuucaVDdrhQQ

Excellent! I think a "Show HN" post would be in order.

My plan was to set my camera up on a tripod facing my family and record our reactions and the transition into and out of darkness on the landscape behind us. I'm not sure how good my dslr does at transitioning exposure on it's video mode so it might turn out useless, but I figure it's got a chance of being interesting.

You can test this to see if you can adjust the settings to fix it by setting it up in a room at night and turning the lights on/off. Might not be anything you can do about it, but, it might allow you to adjust a setting to make the video come out!

I would just be happy to know how (where) to get solar eclipse glasses. I had a thought a couple months ago to order them, but I brushed it aside. About two weeks ago, I started to get serious, but it was already too late. I couldn't find anything that wasn't wildly marked up on Amazon. Finally, I found a set of 4 on REI.com with estimated delivery of August 18th, and I ordered them on the 10th. They were shipped on the 15th, five days later, with an estimated delivery of August 22nd... and a day later, that estimate has been pushed back yet another day by UPS. So I'll get them, and then have to figure out how to time travel to get any use out of them.

See if you have a local planetarium/ observatory /science museum that is selling them or giving them away.

My wife called five libraries and about a dozen retail establishments yesterday. Nothing! It does sound like the only way to get them is to go to one of the science museums _early_ on the morning of and try to get in line before everyone else.

Are you near CA? I can still spare a pair or two, and I got them directly from one of the suppliers NASA had named. E-mail me ([HN user name] at x0.ms) your mailing address if you're interested.

I paid two dollars for a pair at Fred meyers. I'd many places expecting increased sales in the path of totality will have some.

If you are in the path of totality, don't worry about the glasses. In the path of totality, eclipse glasses are only for observing the sun before and after full occlusion. Instead, make a pinhole projector. It's super easy (any thin-walled cardboard box will do).

Then, when you are at full occlusion, you can look directly at the sun to observe the eclipse until full occlusion is over.

My local Ace hardware will be getting glasses in tomorrow, supposedly. Plan B is this improvement on the pinhole projector: http://richardsont.people.cofc.edu/safe_solar_folder/index.h...

As discussed on another thread, one of the NASA guides says

> One of the most widely available filters for safe solar viewing is a number 14 welder's glass, available through welding supply outlets.

https://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/SEhelp/safety.html

While there's probably also huge demand for welding goggles right now, a majority of people shopping for eclipse viewing gear might not know that (some) welding eyewear would be safe for eclipse viewing. (It would be a good idea to ask an expert before using arbitrary welding gear to view the sun, in case different kinds of welding goggles block different parts of the spectrum to different extents.)

A good suggestion. I probably should've put more information in my original post. Hopefully I can find a hardware store that has Shade 14 goggles/glasses in stock (if I can't find otherwise suitable eye protection.) At least checking inventories online, local big box hardware stores are out of stock of these, too! Even the DIY welding lenses being sold standalone are OOS.

Potentially unsafe, but it can work:

Buy welding googles like these: ($5.29) https://www.harborfreight.com/2-piece-welding-goggles-set-35...

And combine that with a real pressed CD. NOT a recordable CD!! It must be a real, aluminum colored, CD! (And one without a label.)

I did this to look at the transit of venus over the sun a while back. Worked fine, but my viewing time was limited.

However I must add that they advise against doing this, not because it's inherently unsafe, but because if you mess up (for example the CD has a scratch) you can hurt yourself, so......

Those are #10 welding glasses, quite bright.

If you use #14 or even #13, there's no need to stack them with anything. They are sufficiently dark on their own. #14 are even ISO 12312-2 compliant for the purpose of eclipse viewing.

Here's the best information on related topics:

https://eclipse.aas.org/resources/solar-filters

There are still random places with the glasses too. I had a friend that recommended Lowes (when I got there they said they ran out over a month ago), but I stumbled onto some at Kroger for $2/ea this week.

Yup - my wife called our local Lowes and our local grocer chain, and they did not have any! I'm sure there's some... somewhere. But the problem is that I don't know where that "somewhere" is, and we've contacted over a dozen places with no success.

Yeah, it's a little late, but not all hope is lost.

The AAS page lists the gear that meets the ISO safety standard, along with the vendors that carry it:

https://eclipse.aas.org/resources/solar-filters

I prefer the Baader solar film (for telescopes and cameras) or its newer "gold/silver" version (for goggles) because it's color neutral and it shows the Sun in its true color, not some arbitrary shade of orange, green, etc.

But any ISO-compliant filter should be fine.

Do you know any welders? Are there welding supply shops near you? Welding glasses #14 are ISO-compliant for the purpose of the eclipse. Even #13 are fine for non-continuous observation.

Check Walmart. They have 6 packs for a dollar, and the one near me still had plenty.

Both of my local universities still have glasses available. One is giving them away free and the other is charging $1 per.

Check Warby Parker - their stores are giving away free pairs.

B&H Photo has them back in stock https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1354619-REG/lunt_sola...

Since we live only 3.5h drive from totality, in a low-population density area, we're planning to load up the car with water, potato chips, kids and a sat phone and set off very early on Monday morning.

When I thought to check first, in early June, there were no hotel rooms available but you could get camping sites still. Interestingly the Eclipse doesn't seem to have overloaded the airlines in this area: you can still get a reasonable price ticket to Idaho Falls on Sunday for example. But there are no rental cars left..

I am exceptionally glad I work from home, Boise is going to be a mess come Monday.

I am beyond excited for this event. I'm traveling to the totality on Friday/Saturday just in case. I think the media/online buzz over this event will be overwhelming, and frankly, I'm glad. Our country could really use something like this to bring us together!

> Our country could really use something like this to bring us together!

Yes! I'm also hoping many Americans come away with a newly discovered appreciation for our many parks, National Forests, and Bureau of Land Management wildernesses.

I was considering flying down to the Smokey Mountains to do some hiking, and eclipse seeing. But from the sound of things, it's going to be a complete madhouse. Coupled with the prices for everything, and the risk of poor weather(thunderstorms are predicted this entire week), not worth it. The eclipse in 2024 is going to be literally dead center over my house, I think I'll wait it out, and check out the mostly total eclipse this time around :)

My grand parents live there. It is mostly national forest so hoping it will be okay.

That's exactly what I'm doing with my son. Couple of days in the mountains, then to middle TN to watch the eclipse. I'm not going to obsess over the weather! checks weather app for the eighth time today

My past experience with hiking in northern Georgia was that thunderstorms come up sort of randomly in the mountains in the afternoon. My hope is that even if they hit that day it may be after the eclipse passes through, or they'll be scattered enough that I'll get lucky

Thanks for this. All the hype makes it sound like this is an exceedingly rare event, but it looks like the 2024 eclipse will sweep over a huge part of the US population as well.

Yep, but after that, you've got a looong wait for the next one in the USA.

You should re-think your decision before it's too late. April showers bring May flowers.

Except the April showers haven't stopped. It's been raining most of the week for East coast, all summer.

Gonna be watching this from the black rock desert. Not in the path of totality, but should be an incredible place to watch from!

Possibly not the right crowd, but if anybody from here will be out there as well: we'll be at 10:00/Esplanade watching on Monday morning.

I remember from past eclipses, one of the interesting things is that all light gets the eclipse shape (light though opening in tree leaves for example).

Someone said a colander makes a good pinhole camera to cast shadows and see eclipse shapes.

(Don't look through the colander at the sun though.)

So as someone who did not plan for this monumental event, what are my options to see the totality? I live in NYC and can rent a car.

Be prepared to sleep in the car. If you know anyone along the path, ask to sleep on their lawn or something. Start driving down probably a couple of days out. http://www.eclipse2017.org/2017/maps/whole-us.jpg

You probably won't get home Monday.

Flights New York - Nashville for Sunday - Tuesday (I didn't check Monday evening return flights) seem to go at a bit over $1000, and some still available hotels $300 to $1000 per night.

Could also check prices to fly to some other cities on the path in the map. Kansas City?

KCI (the airport itself) is in the path. I've been through there recently. Huge place; standing in a parking lot there will be enough to catch it.

> You probably won't get home Monday.

New York to/from SC is an 11 hour drive without stopping, and the eclipse in the afternoon, so definitely.

Beware that cloud cover also affects where you might want to go to view the eclipse. The West (basically Idaho, some of Wyoming) is looking good right now. You could fly from EWR to Idaho Falls round trip for less than $800. The airport is in the the middle of the totality zone so even if you can't find a car or accommodation you'll still see it. Also Jackson, WY but air fare is a bit more to there.

Late follow up, but also NYC based & could potentially split driving.

Don't forget to check with your local optometrist for viewing glasses, got some for 1$ donation per pair.

Do you guys have any recommendations where to get to totality from philly?

That's not totally booked up.

Hang around an airport that caters to general aviation. Ask who's planning to see the eclipse from the air. Offer to pay for gas.

Can you just rent a car and drive? With a second person you wouldn't really need anywhere to sleep.

Where can I find glasses to see the eclipse? Most good ones are out of order on Amazon.

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