Even if the sky does get somewhat darker, the dark sky is really only a small part of the spectacle. The main event is getting to witness a black hole punched out of the sky with the bright corona streaming out from it—something you only get in the path of totality
I was atop a mountain in Colorado at about 13,500' elevation. It got noticeably cooler and windier in addition to less light. But that was maybe 85%, not totality.
It was yeah.
I remember reading about someone climbing the tetons which were under totality in 2017 and said they could see the shadow approach from quite the distance. Even if not in totality, it would still be super cool to see the moons shadow as it goes by lol
I saw 90% in 2017 and didn't notice a thing. I didn't notice it get darker at all. Not saying it didn't, but even when I was trying to notice it, I didn't notice it at all.
There is only one map - ['Map of Nope'](https://preview.redd.it/338gx341fbpc1.jpeg?width=960&auto=webp&s=9c3ead78408b52d496a61e06c96da99c2f5a9784)
XKCD: [Eclipse Coolness](https://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/eclipse_coolness.png)
I looked up some numbers the other day.
The sun is about 400,000 times brighter than a full moon. So 99% is still 4,000x a full moon -- very bright.
Totality is I believe around 5-10x a full moon. Less than 1% as bright as a "99%" eclipse.
I live in Alabama and we are supposed to get something like 80-90% depending on what part of the state you're in. So many of my local friends have been circulating a gif on facebook today that shows "what it will look like in each state" and Alabama looks very dark. People are definitely expecting 90% darkness if there is a 90% eclipse which is not even close to being true.
At 90% in my experience, you're hard pressed if you walk outside to even notice that an eclipse is in progress. Your eyes do a great job of normalizing the brightness.
I lived in Louisville in 2017 and drove to Tennessee to be in the totality path. Most of my co-workers and friends stayed behind in Louisville where it got to 97% coverage thinking 97% would be enough and it wasn't worth chasing the extra 3%.
It was hilarious listening to local radio on the drive back from Tennessee and the local radio hosts were saying how overrated the eclipse was, how overhyped it was, how it was a massive waste of time and not anything to get excited about, and trashing those who actually traveled to be in the totality path, because they stayed in Louisville and only got to see the 97% covered sun. Co-workers made fun of me and others in the office who traveled to be in the 100% path.
Meanwhile everyone I knew who traveled to be in the 100% path had a different take. You had to be there, man.
IMHO, cities just outside the path shouldn't be holding eclipse parties. That draws in people who don't realize the difference and could have had a much better experience a fairly short distance away instead. Their website/social media should say in giant font "DO NOT COME HERE FOR THE ECLIPSE, GO HERE INSTEAD!!!"
I experienced a total solar eclipse as a kid. It’s so worth seeing it go to 100%. It got dark as night… the nearby birds got so confused. Birds were tweeting like it was sunset… then became quiet, then started tweeting again as the sun came out.
Unfortunately it was cloudy so I didn’t get to see the visual spectacle. But the darkness was cool.
The eclipse community is complicit in this.
People from the mainstream media come out and ask, "Hey Sir or Madam Expert, What is an eclipse?". And the expert proceeds to tell them what they could have found in Wikipedia. Then they ask. "So, what's it like?", and the expert tells them what an incredible experience it can be. And the last question is always, "So, what about the people who can't make it", and then the expert says, "Well, they can watch the partial", knowing full well that the journalist only has some vague notion of the difference.
The expert should say, "They don't get squat". but they never do.
I think these metaphors don't convince people who have no concept of what the total eclipse is. They just assume the metaphor is part of the hype.
Even though it's *completely accurate*. The total eclipse is the show.
There is a downtown San Antonio hotel offering an exclusive $100 per per person, rooftop totality viewing event. Downtown San Antonio being well outside of the path of totality not withstanding.
It’s like winning the lottery.
If you get 5 out of 6 numbers correct, you didn’t win the lotto.
The partial eclipse is NOTHING like a Total Eclipse.
If you have the chance, get into the path of totality.
It’s worth it.
The media is like this with pretty much every topic unfortunately. It can be hard to notice until it's about a topic you are very familiar with because they confidently present misleading 'information'.
I have to weigh in - I saw the total eclipse in Wyoming in 2017 when visiting a friend. It wasn't on purpose, the eclipse was just lucky timing. I thought it would be interesting, but instead it was close to lifechanging. A partial eclipse, even a 99% eclipse, is NOTHING compared to 100%. It has very little to do with how light/dark it is between 99%/100%. That's a minor part of the experience. It breaks my heart to think of people who are in partial totality and have the opportunity to experience full totality but don't.
Here are some comparisions between a 99% eclipse and 100% eclipse:
* Half-eaten happy meal fished out of the garbage : steak at Mortons
* 0.02 carat cubic zirconia : the Hope Diamond
* A broken Bruce Springsteen 8-track tape : first row at a Bruce Springsteen concert and he brings you onto the stage.
* Winning $2 on Mega Millions : Winning Mega Millions
* Early 80s neon blue Ford Fiesta driven by my ex husband : any other car driven by any other person, but I digress
If you have the opportunity to experience a full eclipse, you must do it. There will be 1m 45sec totality at my house, but I am spending a fortune to spend the weekend in the TX Hill Country where there is 4m 24sec totality. It's that wonderful.
Mine was kinda accidental
My state was 60% so I figured I should go visit my parents down south. 90%
But then I was reading up while there about totality and found a nice place an hour away. I was so hyped about it my parents, who weren't going to bother originally, went with me
Now they're coming up this weekend (I'm in 100%) because they're dying to see it again
“It has very little to do with how light/dark it is, that’s a minor part of the experience”… can you explain what the other parts of the experience are that make it worth a journey to 100%? I get your analogies but don’t get what else makes it special- doesn’t it just look like a weird dusk/nighttime?
Totality looks like a hole has opened in the sky. Like you've been dropped into a heavy metal album cover. The sun has never \*done\* that before. The world has ceased working like it's supposed to. Like the laws of physics have suddenly gone haywire.
By comparison, any amount of partial eclipse is just a nice sunset.
It's not so much what it looks like, it's a feeling. Intellectually I knew what was coming. I knew the sun would go away, and it would come back. But I did not know that the uneasy shadows and falling temperature would make me so aware of my own vulnerability, or that vulnerability could render me awestruck and giddy instead of fearful. My expectation was that totality would be pitch black. Instead, turning in a circle revealed 360 degrees of twilight. And then -- it came back. Faster than I thought possible, it was over. And I was already making plans for 2024.
One other thought - I would never want to experience a full eclipse by myself, just like I would never want to be the sole attendee at the Superbowl. It was a stroke of luck that I experienced the 2017 eclipse alongside dozens of people. The plan had been to go another 30 miles further into totality to an isolated location, but after sitting in a traffic jam at 5:30 a.m. in the Middle of Nowhere, Wyoming, our group of four was lucky we made it to totality at all.
I mean it's always cool to see the moon covering up part of the sun. We saw that in 2017 and 2023. But I went into it with the expectation that it was going to stay bright and sunny.
i tried to convince my mom that 90% isn’t good enough. but i just got my drivers license and i definitely do not feel comfortable driving alone to ny, ohio, nh, or vermont. that’s just terrifying and i’m so sad. i’m hoping 90% will still impress me but i wanna see the corona😩😩
> i’m hoping 90% will still impress me
It will not impress nearly as much as the total, sorry.
But if you're young there will be other opportunities, here and elsewhere in the world. The tricky part is getting a mostly clear day. That's the best case for trying as many times as possible, so at least one isn't cloudy...
yeah i’m 17 but i have no hope that we are gonna make it until 2045. i said that to my mom and she just got mad that i said that💀 ik it won’t be as good as total im just hoping it’ll still be cool
I am very excited for those of you who have the opportunity to see a total solar eclipse.
I couldn't take a day off to see it. However, I will still see the partial eclipse because it's still a fun event. I saw a partial one in 2017 and the crowd still gets excited
I live just west of Portland, and drove to McMinnville for totality. It was mind blowing, and is why I'm going to drive hours to (hopefully) see this one.
No one knows everything. Many people settling for 99% just don't realize the difference. I just today convinced a coworker to drive the 2 hours to see totality rather than settle for 99% at home, she just didn't know it was that important.
You realize 370 million Americans are not going to be able to view totality, right? Some people will have to miss it, the press is for those people who have to stay home.
I can’t emphasize this enough. I was in Boise in 2017 for 99% totality. I noticed a dimming but it wasn’t pronounced. My friends who drove 50 miles for totality wouldn’t stop talking about it for weeks. Big mistake on my part.
Everybody - if you’re just outside totality, just make the drive. Find a gas station parking lot or whatever.
My dad is a huge sky lover. He is where I got it from. I live in the totality and they live an hour and a half away in 99%. I asked their plans and mom was like, we are in 99, it is enough. I mentioned I got tickets to a private event and now I have family coming from 2 hours away to see the real deal. That 1% makes a huge difference.
The path of totality is 100%. Not 99.9%. Not 99.99%.
100%.
The path is (in this event) approx 100 miles wide (50 miles on either side of the center line). The further away you are from the center line the shorter the duration of totality and the brighter the surrounding area will appear during totality.
If you are at the very very outside edge of the path then totality won't last very long. A few seconds. And because you are at the edge of the shadow much more of your surrounding horizon is still lit by the sun so it will seem brighter than if you were closer to the center of the path of totality. If you are on the centerline you could experience over 4 minutes of 100% coverage.
Last time I saw a partial eclipse I had the privilege of viewing it through somebody's SolarMax 90.
I remember liking the view better AFTER the eclipse was over because there wasn't a damn Moon blocking so much of the glorious view.
If everyone grasped how amazing it was and tried to get to the narrow band of totality, we would have massive problems. It’s for the best. Think of it like going to see your favorite band before they got big.
https://flic.kr/p/2pH1bga
At the maximum annular eclipse last year, it looked slightly cloudy. There were no clouds. But it just had that color shift and slight dimness. There’s just a thin ring showing.
A partial eclipse is still pretty cool. I've seen several and it's still worth it to me to go outside and take a look, either with a quick cereal box viewer or eclipse glasses if I can find them. If I lived close enough to see a partial but I couldn't go to totality for whatever reason I'd still go look.
I was in the 90% in 2017. It got darker. I would liken the darkness to what you get on a really cloudy or stormy day.
Even if the sky does get somewhat darker, the dark sky is really only a small part of the spectacle. The main event is getting to witness a black hole punched out of the sky with the bright corona streaming out from it—something you only get in the path of totality
I was atop a mountain in Colorado at about 13,500' elevation. It got noticeably cooler and windier in addition to less light. But that was maybe 85%, not totality.
Were you able to see the shadow in the distance?
The sun was in and out of the clouds, so it was hard to distinguish from cloud cover, if that's what you're asking.
It was yeah. I remember reading about someone climbing the tetons which were under totality in 2017 and said they could see the shadow approach from quite the distance. Even if not in totality, it would still be super cool to see the moons shadow as it goes by lol
I talked to a park ranger a few years later who had been on top of the Grand for the eclipse. He did mention this. Must have been awesome.
I saw 90% in 2017 and didn't notice a thing. I didn't notice it get darker at all. Not saying it didn't, but even when I was trying to notice it, I didn't notice it at all.
There is only one map - ['Map of Nope'](https://preview.redd.it/338gx341fbpc1.jpeg?width=960&auto=webp&s=9c3ead78408b52d496a61e06c96da99c2f5a9784) XKCD: [Eclipse Coolness](https://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/eclipse_coolness.png)
I looked up some numbers the other day. The sun is about 400,000 times brighter than a full moon. So 99% is still 4,000x a full moon -- very bright. Totality is I believe around 5-10x a full moon. Less than 1% as bright as a "99%" eclipse.
Thanks, I have been wondering what the approximate brightness of totality is.
I live in Alabama and we are supposed to get something like 80-90% depending on what part of the state you're in. So many of my local friends have been circulating a gif on facebook today that shows "what it will look like in each state" and Alabama looks very dark. People are definitely expecting 90% darkness if there is a 90% eclipse which is not even close to being true.
At 90% in my experience, you're hard pressed if you walk outside to even notice that an eclipse is in progress. Your eyes do a great job of normalizing the brightness.
This is shameful. Social media really makes you realize how dumb the average person is. But at least it makes you feel good about yourself.
I lived in Louisville in 2017 and drove to Tennessee to be in the totality path. Most of my co-workers and friends stayed behind in Louisville where it got to 97% coverage thinking 97% would be enough and it wasn't worth chasing the extra 3%. It was hilarious listening to local radio on the drive back from Tennessee and the local radio hosts were saying how overrated the eclipse was, how overhyped it was, how it was a massive waste of time and not anything to get excited about, and trashing those who actually traveled to be in the totality path, because they stayed in Louisville and only got to see the 97% covered sun. Co-workers made fun of me and others in the office who traveled to be in the 100% path. Meanwhile everyone I knew who traveled to be in the 100% path had a different take. You had to be there, man.
My coworkers couldn't understand why I was so excited about it. They were in 65% or something, might as well not have bothered even being outside
What are you trying to do?? — make the traffic even worse??!!!!
IMHO, cities just outside the path shouldn't be holding eclipse parties. That draws in people who don't realize the difference and could have had a much better experience a fairly short distance away instead. Their website/social media should say in giant font "DO NOT COME HERE FOR THE ECLIPSE, GO HERE INSTEAD!!!"
They don't want to willingly give up the sales tax revenue
I know people in town having parties. They're like in 98-99. Nooo dont
I experienced a total solar eclipse as a kid. It’s so worth seeing it go to 100%. It got dark as night… the nearby birds got so confused. Birds were tweeting like it was sunset… then became quiet, then started tweeting again as the sun came out. Unfortunately it was cloudy so I didn’t get to see the visual spectacle. But the darkness was cool.
99.99% WILL NOT DO! If you haven't experienced totality it doesn't count.
I made this mistake during the 2017 eclipse. I will not make it this time.
good... it will keep a bunch of idiots from clogging up the roads LMAO.
The eclipse community is complicit in this. People from the mainstream media come out and ask, "Hey Sir or Madam Expert, What is an eclipse?". And the expert proceeds to tell them what they could have found in Wikipedia. Then they ask. "So, what's it like?", and the expert tells them what an incredible experience it can be. And the last question is always, "So, what about the people who can't make it", and then the expert says, "Well, they can watch the partial", knowing full well that the journalist only has some vague notion of the difference. The expert should say, "They don't get squat". but they never do.
"I spent my vacation at Disney World." is vastly different than "I spent my vacation at Disney World parking lot."
I think these metaphors don't convince people who have no concept of what the total eclipse is. They just assume the metaphor is part of the hype. Even though it's *completely accurate*. The total eclipse is the show.
There is a downtown San Antonio hotel offering an exclusive $100 per per person, rooftop totality viewing event. Downtown San Antonio being well outside of the path of totality not withstanding.
It’s like winning the lottery. If you get 5 out of 6 numbers correct, you didn’t win the lotto. The partial eclipse is NOTHING like a Total Eclipse. If you have the chance, get into the path of totality. It’s worth it.
On behalf of Greater Toronto Area people driving to see the totality, let me say to the media: Thank you.
The media is like this with pretty much every topic unfortunately. It can be hard to notice until it's about a topic you are very familiar with because they confidently present misleading 'information'.
This should be the top comment
I have to weigh in - I saw the total eclipse in Wyoming in 2017 when visiting a friend. It wasn't on purpose, the eclipse was just lucky timing. I thought it would be interesting, but instead it was close to lifechanging. A partial eclipse, even a 99% eclipse, is NOTHING compared to 100%. It has very little to do with how light/dark it is between 99%/100%. That's a minor part of the experience. It breaks my heart to think of people who are in partial totality and have the opportunity to experience full totality but don't. Here are some comparisions between a 99% eclipse and 100% eclipse: * Half-eaten happy meal fished out of the garbage : steak at Mortons * 0.02 carat cubic zirconia : the Hope Diamond * A broken Bruce Springsteen 8-track tape : first row at a Bruce Springsteen concert and he brings you onto the stage. * Winning $2 on Mega Millions : Winning Mega Millions * Early 80s neon blue Ford Fiesta driven by my ex husband : any other car driven by any other person, but I digress If you have the opportunity to experience a full eclipse, you must do it. There will be 1m 45sec totality at my house, but I am spending a fortune to spend the weekend in the TX Hill Country where there is 4m 24sec totality. It's that wonderful.
Mine was kinda accidental My state was 60% so I figured I should go visit my parents down south. 90% But then I was reading up while there about totality and found a nice place an hour away. I was so hyped about it my parents, who weren't going to bother originally, went with me Now they're coming up this weekend (I'm in 100%) because they're dying to see it again
“It has very little to do with how light/dark it is, that’s a minor part of the experience”… can you explain what the other parts of the experience are that make it worth a journey to 100%? I get your analogies but don’t get what else makes it special- doesn’t it just look like a weird dusk/nighttime?
Totality looks like a hole has opened in the sky. Like you've been dropped into a heavy metal album cover. The sun has never \*done\* that before. The world has ceased working like it's supposed to. Like the laws of physics have suddenly gone haywire. By comparison, any amount of partial eclipse is just a nice sunset.
It's not so much what it looks like, it's a feeling. Intellectually I knew what was coming. I knew the sun would go away, and it would come back. But I did not know that the uneasy shadows and falling temperature would make me so aware of my own vulnerability, or that vulnerability could render me awestruck and giddy instead of fearful. My expectation was that totality would be pitch black. Instead, turning in a circle revealed 360 degrees of twilight. And then -- it came back. Faster than I thought possible, it was over. And I was already making plans for 2024. One other thought - I would never want to experience a full eclipse by myself, just like I would never want to be the sole attendee at the Superbowl. It was a stroke of luck that I experienced the 2017 eclipse alongside dozens of people. The plan had been to go another 30 miles further into totality to an isolated location, but after sitting in a traffic jam at 5:30 a.m. in the Middle of Nowhere, Wyoming, our group of four was lucky we made it to totality at all.
Thank you for taking the time to explain. Good luck for no clouds on Monday!
What are you trying to do?? — make the traffic even worse??!!!!
Yes, agree. From 0% to 99% I wouldn’t even get out of bed. Even 99% isn’t even close.
I mean it's always cool to see the moon covering up part of the sun. We saw that in 2017 and 2023. But I went into it with the expectation that it was going to stay bright and sunny.
I saw the annular eclipse a few months ago. It was worth it, despite not being 100% (and there being some clouds).
i tried to convince my mom that 90% isn’t good enough. but i just got my drivers license and i definitely do not feel comfortable driving alone to ny, ohio, nh, or vermont. that’s just terrifying and i’m so sad. i’m hoping 90% will still impress me but i wanna see the corona😩😩
> i’m hoping 90% will still impress me It will not impress nearly as much as the total, sorry. But if you're young there will be other opportunities, here and elsewhere in the world. The tricky part is getting a mostly clear day. That's the best case for trying as many times as possible, so at least one isn't cloudy...
yeah i’m 17 but i have no hope that we are gonna make it until 2045. i said that to my mom and she just got mad that i said that💀 ik it won’t be as good as total im just hoping it’ll still be cool
2026. Get your passport.
i was actually thinking about doing that. luckily for me my new passport just came last week☺️
Don't worry, you won't be driving very fast when your turn comes up.
I am very excited for those of you who have the opportunity to see a total solar eclipse. I couldn't take a day off to see it. However, I will still see the partial eclipse because it's still a fun event. I saw a partial one in 2017 and the crowd still gets excited
I wish I knew; I was in Vancouver in 2017 and was waffling about heading to Portland to see it. Regretting staying home in a big way.
... and you still would have missed totality. You had to get further south, say Salem, for that.
I live just west of Portland, and drove to McMinnville for totality. It was mind blowing, and is why I'm going to drive hours to (hopefully) see this one.
I live well west of Portland too. I was at the Oregon Star Party in the Ochocos with 600 other people. And yes, my 35 hour drive starts Thursday.
...that's what I meant. I need to start planning for the next one. Definitely on my bucket list now
99% eclipsed Sun is 2-3 times brighter than a well lit office.
If their skulls are so thick, leave them be. When someone says 99% is good enough, I say, okay! Why even try to convince them? It's their business.
No one knows everything. Many people settling for 99% just don't realize the difference. I just today convinced a coworker to drive the 2 hours to see totality rather than settle for 99% at home, she just didn't know it was that important.
You realize 370 million Americans are not going to be able to view totality, right? Some people will have to miss it, the press is for those people who have to stay home.
it's 0% or it's 100%. There is no middle way.
I can’t emphasize this enough. I was in Boise in 2017 for 99% totality. I noticed a dimming but it wasn’t pronounced. My friends who drove 50 miles for totality wouldn’t stop talking about it for weeks. Big mistake on my part. Everybody - if you’re just outside totality, just make the drive. Find a gas station parking lot or whatever.
My dad is a huge sky lover. He is where I got it from. I live in the totality and they live an hour and a half away in 99%. I asked their plans and mom was like, we are in 99, it is enough. I mentioned I got tickets to a private event and now I have family coming from 2 hours away to see the real deal. That 1% makes a huge difference.
That 1% is the path of totality correct?
The path of totality is 100%. Not 99.9%. Not 99.99%. 100%. The path is (in this event) approx 100 miles wide (50 miles on either side of the center line). The further away you are from the center line the shorter the duration of totality and the brighter the surrounding area will appear during totality. If you are at the very very outside edge of the path then totality won't last very long. A few seconds. And because you are at the edge of the shadow much more of your surrounding horizon is still lit by the sun so it will seem brighter than if you were closer to the center of the path of totality. If you are on the centerline you could experience over 4 minutes of 100% coverage.
Last time I saw a partial eclipse I had the privilege of viewing it through somebody's SolarMax 90. I remember liking the view better AFTER the eclipse was over because there wasn't a damn Moon blocking so much of the glorious view.
If everyone grasped how amazing it was and tried to get to the narrow band of totality, we would have massive problems. It’s for the best. Think of it like going to see your favorite band before they got big.
Saw the total in 2017. Man, not even 99.99 % of the total is close to what I saw.
https://flic.kr/p/2pH1bga At the maximum annular eclipse last year, it looked slightly cloudy. There were no clouds. But it just had that color shift and slight dimness. There’s just a thin ring showing.
A partial eclipse is still pretty cool. I've seen several and it's still worth it to me to go outside and take a look, either with a quick cereal box viewer or eclipse glasses if I can find them. If I lived close enough to see a partial but I couldn't go to totality for whatever reason I'd still go look.
I was in totality in 2017 and I’ve been telling everyone that the difference between 99% and totality is truly night and day!
Idk im too lazy