I still remember the one here in Blighty in 1999.

You got proper, down-to-earth eclipses in those days, not like these showy American ones.

For this historic eclipse event I was, no joke, standing under a cloudy sky, in a light drizzle, at a committal after a funeral. I'm pretty sure this is the kind of thing one writes short stories about...

We had totality for 2 1/2 minutes, it truly was an unforgettable sight. That's one thing where seeing it live is much more impressive that seeing a picture or video.

I had 92%, went out with my telescope to view it and try to get some good pictures

Totality really was amazing. 14 hours of driving, no sleep, no food, no nothing for 2 minutes and 40 seconds might seem dumb but I would do it again in a heartbeat.

Another one I saw in facebook:

"Interesting that no one is saying

-scientist have been wrong before, so, thay may be wrong about the eclipse too.

No one was insisting that it was part of a massive conspiracy, nor claiming that they can predict eclipses better than scientists because of something they read online.

Everyone seems happy that scientists are good at understanding this kind of astronomical things.

So, why is it that on topics like climate change, vaccines or evolution suddenly everyone thinks they know more than scientists do?

http://www.cnn.com/2017/08/21/politics/trump-solar-eclipse/index.html

Trump thought it was safe to directly look at the sun. Of course at his age, he doesn't have much left to look at. But after years of warnings, he still looked before putting on approved glasses.

@Randomizer

i am TRULY not surprised in the slightest. this is 100% Trumpian

Solar eclipses are a bit less complicated then global warming. One variable vs hundreds...
Just think of the math that scientists have to do just to find the average temperature of the Earth for one year.

Yes MM? You know how to find a simple average? You just sum up the inputs and divide the result among the number of inputs. I admit I'm not especialist, but seems to me that the most difficult part is to handle many data, but we have reasonable databases nowadays.

Now for accurately predict an eclipse, you need a bit of mechanics, geometry, and to be sure, maybe even a bit of relativity

Lol there's basically nothing nowadays where the math is just too complicated to calculate

Other than the square root of -1...

Yeah, I don't know about that. One needs a pretty complex set of variables to get the eclipse timing down perfectly. Global warming was pretty straightforward to lay out in a single paper 120 years ago

http://www.rsc.org/images/Arrhenius1896_tcm18-173546.pdf

Of course, climate change denialism has precisely zero to do with science


And yes, ten hours driving up and fifteen back for a little over two minutes of the most awe inspiring thing I've ever seen is worth it. I'm exhausted, but would do it again in a heartbeat.

Hey Dargargoyle, the square root of minus one is one of my favourite numbers..the imaginary number i usually written in italic form. It's a beautiful number. It is the best example of "what mathematics is about" imho.

i is not so beautiful by itself, but as part of Euler's Identity, it becomes beautiful.

Well, the math can be figured out, its just how to apply it thats tricky... and in that spirit I present this: https://www.xkcd.com/435/ I'm sure you can guess which one is widely regarded as the most lacking in scientific thought and method.

Anyway, the eclipse was dope and I too was in Western Kentucky! Just outside of Hopkinsville to be precise. Where were you at bo_sox?

Cerulean, KY. You were probably one of the 4 million people on the interstate that convinced me to hole up in a motel the other night.

Nope. Took the back roads. But yeah the interstate looked bad.

I took the back roads on the way in. On the way out, they were just as bad, and lots of wrecks.

Really? wow, I didn't see a single wreck. I guess all the roads were bad until I crossed whatever interstate was around there, but after that it was pretty clear sailing. I suppose it might have depended on the direction we were going.

A friend of mine going back to Chicago said it took him 16 hours to get back from Carbondale on I-57. He has the same chase equipment in his car as I do so at one point he turned on his amber and white emergency lights and everyone pulled over for him.

Haha! I've seen a similar thing happen with s dark colored charger because it looks so much like a police car from a distance. I live about 2 hours north of Chicago and it only took 9 hours :P

It took me a little over 9 hours to get to Detroit Lake in the Cascades in central Oregon and 15 hours getting back. Pretty bad when I-5 became a parking lot in the middle of nowhere between Redding and Willows at 1:30 am. Yikes.

@_Jeff Kuta.. A wise chappy once observed that "beauty is in the eye of the beholder" & when I reminisce upon the first time I gazed upon The Fire breathing MemSahib, Her Indoors lying around on a sofa eating cakes, I kick myself for not having consulted a good optician immediately prior to that ominous event. However, mathematically speaking I am a simple chap, or simpleton, so for me, the number i (being the square root of minus one) is beautiful in it's own right, and it doesn't need Euler to give it identity, lustre or beauty. I adore the number i for i's own, singular merits. In this brave new world of gender and identity tolerance, may I diplomatically suggest that you are being somewhat Paternalistic and repressive with georgious little i, by implying that it is only as a dependent of this Euler blighter that i can have identity and beauty. I might draw a parallel between i and those bisexuality types whom we now embrace, if at arms length at times, in that on a two dimensional plane with x & y axis there are both a positive and negative solution to any square root that can be plotted on said plane if x is the square root of y. Similarly we can say that the square root of minus 16 is plus, and minus 4i ...So I say that in this brave new world of freedom of identity expression, the number i has an inalienable right to self determination and self expression. And let's have an end to this outdated mathematical cultural imperialism and repression

Our Great Leader who art in Horsham, The Omnipotent Zultar clearly has a preference for +1s, but this cannot be assumed to mean that His Omnipotence would discriminate against a + i if they were offered. I would suggest that His Omnipotence's desire to have a more inclusive forum and WebDiplomacy site that celebrates diversity indicates that His Omnipotence would welcome a + i with benevolent dictatorial grace.

@ bo_sox48. I traveled to Bucharest Romania to see this same Saros in 1999. This time i drove to Idaho to see it with the astronomical society i belong to. i just got back last night. i was so excited to record some video of the darkening skies that i almost forgot to look. it was fantastic! the moon blotted out the sun and it was like staring at a black hole in the sky. I cannot wait until the one in 2024 that will travel from texas to ohio and will be twice as long!!

gameID=205179
The Sun Is Eclipsed By The Moon