2017 Eclipse

I plan to drive down to southern Illinois or somewhere else in the area, weather depending. The eclipse will pass through some nice parts of the Shawnee NF.

Here is a fun rendition of a total eclipse from a classic 1925 German silent film. According to one of the slides people were already preparing for the 1999 total eclipse which would pass through central Germany as early as 1925 :)

 
I have plans to be in the Lost River Range for the eclipse. The southern part is directly under the eclipse, and I'm hoping it's obscurity means I will still have some solitude.
 
I was very interested until I got to thinking.
Trailhead parking could easily fill up a week ahead.
Forest Service Campgrounds the same.
The Exodus beginning on the 22nd will be awful.
The alternative:
A Walkabout in the Winds after Labor Day. A possible prelude around Titcomb Basin the week before.
Wayne


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Venchka said:
I was very interested until I got to thinking.
Trailhead parking could easily fill up a week ahead.
Forest Service Campgrounds the same.
The Exodus beginning on the 22nd will be awful.
The alternative:
A Walkabout in the Winds after Labor Day. A possible prelude around Titcomb Basin the week before.
Wayne


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Click to expand...

Do you think a lot of people would start backcountry trips the week ahead? I feel like it's more likely they would go for a weekend affair since it's on a Saturday.




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Its going to be cloudy over eastern Idaho that day....... stay mobile.
 
If I have an idea that something might happen and I act on that idea then it will happen.
Merging normal traffic with eclipse traffic and you've got a mess.
Prowling around the internet you'll find that everyone in northwest Wyoming has an Eclipse Event Schedule planned.
40+ years of New Orleans Mardi Gras and avoiding Mardi Gras taught me to avoid such pandemonium.
Besides, I have week long trip in the Winds planned after Labor Day.
Wayne


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Venchka said:
If I have an idea that something might happen and I act on that idea then it will happen.
Merging normal traffic with eclipse traffic and you've got a mess.
Prowling around the internet you'll find that everyone in northwest Wyoming has an Eclipse Event Schedule planned.
40+ years of New Orleans Mardi Gras and avoiding Mardi Gras taught me to avoid such pandemonium.
Besides, I have week long trip in the Winds planned after Labor Day.
Wayne


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Click to expand...

Normally I am this type of person as well, but obviously leaning towards something outside my normal "stay away from the popular" mentality for this particular event.

My thoughts with the Winds/Gros Ventre was that a lack of National Park status/ longer distance you are willing to travel from a trail head in advance of the Eclipse day would = less people. Perhaps I am a naive East coaster in that mentality.




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Nethos said:
Normally I am this type of person as well, but obviously leaning towards something outside my normal "stay away from the popular" mentality for this particular event.

My thoughts with the Winds/Gros Ventre was that a lack of National Park status/ longer distance you are willing to travel from a trail head in advance of the Eclipse day would = less people. Perhaps I am a naive East coaster in that mentality.




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At least for the Winds, the Elkhart Park parking lot and Titcomb Basin area are going to be busy. I was on the trail in the middle of the week early last August, and the parking lot was nearly full. We passed a ton of groups headed to Titcomb on our way out. I can only imagine the eclipse, plus it being close to a weekend, will add considerably to the standard crowd. That being said, it seemed that about 90% of the groups on the trail register at Elkhart were headed to Titcomb, and there are so many other areas you can access from that trailhead. You could also try the Green River Lakes and Glacier trailheads.

I haven't been, but I'd bet you're probably much more likely to avoid crowds in the Gros Ventres.
 
I'm planning to make it up north to witness this. I heard a total solar eclipse described by someone a couple years ago, and they said that you could see the stars in the sky in the middle of the day. I find that way too intriguing to pass up. I'm not even all that interested in trying to photograph it, I just want to experience it. I'm also planning to backpack to try to lose the crowds. Still figuring out which trail, but I'll definitely be avoiding anything popular.
 
The problem I see, or can imagine, is with the very limited parking.
I admit that I've not been to any of the trailhead parking areas. However, I've parked at trailheads in Colorado and New Mexico. Even the largest ones can't accommodate more than 100 vehicles. If systematically and perfectly parked. In reality it only takes a few unthinking folks to ruin the parking capacity.
I hope I'm making a mountain out of a mole hill.
Y'all have fun. I'll be up after the crowd goes home.
Wayne


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Stories from my trip to Puerto Vallarta to see the eclipse...

I second/third the notion of not spending the time and effort to try and photograph the eclipse. Here is a photo I took in Mexico for the 1992 totality using a Nikon FE film DSLR with a medium focal length lens. I was so wowed by the eclipse that I was able to squeeze off only this one picture. The event is too short and the various stages so distracting that it is better to just observe it naked eye during totality and then with solar glasses and solar film on your binoculars for the stages or partiality before and after, in my opinion

IMG_5614.jpg


Here is the picture full size with the book I carried for reference which I still recommend for learning about the history of eclipse watching and the physics and phenomena.

IMG_5613.jpg

Unusually and fortuitously the apparent diameter of the moon and the sun are very close from earth. The phenomenon pictured in my photo and the one on the cover are the fuzzy fringe of the sun's chromosphere revealed due to the occulting nature of the moon's body. This fringe of light is the chromosphere that is normally invisible even when viewing the sun through a solar filter. You don't get to see this region during an annular eclipse because the photosphere, the bright white center surface of the sun we normally see is too bright and overpowering. It was early expeditions to see eclipses centuries ago where scientists started understanding the anatomy of our star. Now, modern astronomers and photographers use specialized optics with occulting disks to cover the white photosphere to observe this chromosphere. The red loops and streaks in the larger photo are called prominences which originate in the chromosphere. More on that later and in the book. Then there are the corona. More on that later too. And Bailey's beads, and the wedding ring effect, and the wall of shadow overtaking you. More on that later or in the book too. We were thunderstruck by nearly all of that.

The picture on the right is basically the naked eye view. You can view this without any eye filters because it is not that bright. This view can be greatly enhanced with careful observation through binoculars and we did. We quickly too our filters off the binoculars and made sure to quit viewing before the sun came out from behind the moon. The darkness of the sky varies from eclipse to eclipse and in our viewing it was twilight-level sky color. The picture was exposed like this by the lab probably trying to bring out detail in that little light object in the center called Sol occulted by la bella Luna.
 
Venchka said:
The problem I see, or can imagine, is with the very limited parking.
I admit that I've not been to any of the trailhead parking areas. However, I've parked at trailheads in Colorado and New Mexico. Even the largest ones can't accommodate more than 100 vehicles. If systematically and perfectly parked. In reality it only takes a few unthinking folks to ruin the parking capacity.
I hope I'm making a mountain out of a mole hill.
Y'all have fun. I'll be up after the crowd goes home.
Wayne


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Click to expand...

My thought of doing a longer 5-6night trip as as much for this reason as for enjoyment. Start a trip on Thursday before the weekend so you're still out for the totality but logistics like parking and campsites are a little easier. Again, perhaps naive to think that others won't have the same thought.

-c


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Artemus said:
Stories from my trip to Puerto Vallarta to see the eclipse...

I second/third the notion of not spending the time and effort to try and photograph the eclipse. Here is a photo I took in Mexico for the 1992 totality using a Nikon FE film DSLR with a medium focal length lens. I was so wowed by the eclipse that I was able to squeeze off only this one picture. The event is too short and the various stages so distracting that it is better to just observe it naked eye during totality and then with solar glasses and solar film on your binoculars for the stages or partiality before and after, in my opinion

View attachment 54635


Here is the picture full size with the book I carried for reference which I still recommend for learning about the history of eclipse watching and the physics and phenomena.

View attachment 54636

Unusually and fortuitously the apparent diameter of the moon and the sun are very close from earth. The phenomenon pictured in my photo and the one on the cover are the fuzzy fringe of the sun's chromosphere revealed due to the occulting nature of the moon's body. This fringe of light is the chromosphere that is normally invisible even when viewing the sun through a solar filter. You don't get to see this region during an annular eclipse because the photosphere, the bright white center surface of the sun we normally see is too bright and overpowering. It was early expeditions to see eclipses centuries ago where scientists started understanding the anatomy of our star. Now, modern astronomers and photographers use specialized optics with occulting disks to cover the white photosphere to observe this chromosphere. The red loops and streaks in the larger photo are called prominences which originate in the chromosphere. More on that later and in the book. Then there are the corona. More on that later too. And Bailey's beads, and the wedding ring effect, and the wall of shadow overtaking you. More on that later or in the book too. We were thunderstruck by nearly all of that.

The picture on the right is basically the naked eye view. You can view this without any eye filters because it is not that bright. This view can be greatly enhanced with careful observation through binoculars and we did. We quickly too our filters off the binoculars and made sure to quit viewing before the sun came out from behind the moon. The darkness of the sky varies from eclipse to eclipse and in our viewing it was twilight-level sky color. The picture was exposed like this by the lab probably trying to bring out detail in that little light object in the center called Sol occulted by la bella Luna.
Click to expand...
In other words.. ..it's basically photoshopped ..... Not what you really see
 
ok it's almost upon us. where are people headed? I have a week off starting this weekend and still not sure where exactly to head, for the eclipse first then fishing after. Debating between green river lakes area(maybe just park somewhere and backpack for couple days), or gros ventre area(surely all dispersed sites will be taken this weekend), or Sawtooth area in idaho.
 
I'm stuck in Colorado with a torn ligament. If it heals enough to drive by then, I'll go up into that area around Craters of the Moon way out on some back road, or maybe out in some agricultural area west of Driggs, east of Rexburg. Odds are good I'll have to watch it here, which I think will be only about 93%.
 
My fiancee decided to take some time off and make the trip with me, and the trip evolved from a backpacking trip to a car camping trip. I keep coming back from trips to Oregon and raving about it, and he's never been so that's where we're heading. I trolled the Oregon State Parks reservations web page for a few days searching for last minute cancellations, and managed to get us a site at Cove Palisades State Park for the eclipse, so we will be camped in the path of totality.:cool: I'm fully expecting the roads to suck on Tuesday so we will be hitting the road EARLY.
 
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