Lunar Eclipse 8-21-2017

[slingshot]

Dan, the sun and the moon are up there every day, and if you want to awe yourself then think of what goes on within the sun that makes it so bright--constantly and for millions of years. Having the sun, moon, and earth line up every few years is far, far down on the scale compared to that. I have a 14" dobsonian telescope that I occasionally get excited about whenever I look up at the universe overnight. This eclipse didn't even make me think of taking it out, and it has a solar filter that's a bit safer than those stupid goggles all the clowns on TV are wearing.

It IS amazing that noone is awed by the fact the sun is constantly replenishing, that the earth is the perfect distance CONSTANTLY, that meteors, etc. have not destroyed the earth ( could those huge craters on planets be there because they were CREATED to be buffers to protect the earth?). Amazing.

[dannyj]

Dan, the sun and the moon are up there every day, and if you want to awe yourself then think of what goes on within the sun that makes it so bright--constantly and for millions of years. Having the sun, moon, and earth line up every few years is far, far down on the scale compared to that. I have a 14" dobsonian telescope that I occasionally get excited about whenever I look up at the universe overnight. This eclipse didn't even make me think of taking it out, and it has a solar filter that's a bit safer than those stupid goggles all the clowns on TV are wearing.

It IS amazing that noone is awed by the fact the sun is constantly replenishing, that the earth is the perfect distance CONSTANTLY, that meteors, etc. have not destroyed the earth ( could those huge craters on planets be there because they were CREATED to be buffers to protect the earth?). Amazing.

Amen sling.

[pkspins]

I'd love to see a picture from above, looking down on earth. Idk if that would look cool or if it'd be tough to see, though.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencete...een-SPACE.html

The shadow going across the continental US was impressive I thought.

[RS__]

I'd love to see a picture from above, looking down on earth. Idk if that would look cool or if it'd be tough to see, though.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencete...een-SPACE.html

The shadow going across the continental US was impressive I thought.

Thanks. That's pretty cool. I figured the shadow would be much smaller, since it seemed like for many places they had a period of totality for about 2 min 40 sec (2:43 was the longest).

[mickeycrimm]

This was the view at the start of the eclipse.

[mickeycrimm]

This was the view at full eclipse.

[mickeycrimm]

This is what it looked like when just a sliver of the sun was still viewable. It was eerie.

[mickeycrimm]

When the moon fully blocked the sun the desert erupted in cheers. The moon had the most gorgeous halo. It was safe to look at it without the glasses at that point. The glasses didn't work at that point anyway.

[mickeycrimm]

When the sun came back out is when the shit started. Everyone bolted to their cars and bumrushed the interstate. The state police had to untangle the mess. I had planned to drive south 60 miles to the Fort Hall Indian casino, then back to Butte, Montana where I had a room booked. When I finally got onto 15 I was quickly up to 80 mph. Cool, I thought. But that didn't last long. All the arterial roads were packed with cars dumping onto 15. Then it was stop and go, 5 mph. It took me 2 hours to do the thirty miles to Idaho Falls. Most of the cars plates were Utah with California, Arizona and Nevada mixed in.

I listened to the traffic reports. All of the arterials south of Idaho Falls were dumping heavy traffic onto 15. It was shaping up to be a 100 mile gridlock. Screw that. The north bound lanes were clear. I found a good spot to cross the median and headed north to Butte. The arterials going north were dumping north bound traffic to but at least we were driving the speed limit. We ran into a patch of road construction 20 miles south of Dillon where it was stop and go for about an hour. Then we were back up to speed limit the rest of the way to Butte. The car plates were Montana, Alberta. Idaho, and Washington.

I got to my room about 7. It had been a long day and I was beat. I slept until 5 this morning.

[redietz]

Thanks for the photos, mickey. Don't feel too badly about the traffic. My friends in Illinois said it took four hours just to get out of Carbondale.

[mickeycrimm]

Thanks for the photos, mickey. Don't feel too badly about the traffic. My friends in Illinois said it took four hours just to get out of Carbondale.

No problem, redietz. Reports I'm getting is it took 8 hours to drive from Idaho Falls, Idaho to Layton, Utah down I-15, a distance of 190 miles.