April 8, 2024 Total Solar Eclipse

[Ear Mountain]

Anyone planning to view the total eclipse of the sun on April 8th this year?

Nancy and I are traveling from Montana to Houston via Delta Airlines. We'll visit friends in Brenham then spend the 6th through the 9th in Austin.
Hoping for good weather and safe travels for anyone heading into the path of darkness.

Ralph

[FuzzySideDown]

Ahh awesome! That should be pretty cool Ralph. We won't be traveling for it, but that would be fun, I'm sure. According to one map i saw, we'll still get a little over 85% coverage here, which I'll gladly take, but traveling to the path would be cool. Have fun Ralph!

Cheers!
Kyle...

[wnysteve]

Totality cuts across a slice of Western New York. I'll be watching the eclipse from my back yard.

[paul]

I lived near Rochester, NY for awhile which is in the totality zone. Would have been able to see it from the backyard as well. I'm not sure I will make it out there in April though.

[al_in_al]

I'll be visiting family, and driving about 6 hours to somewhere near Cleveland, OH to view the eclipse. I'm afraid the weather won't cooperate, but it's worth a try. I saw the 2017 eclipse and it was amazing.

[Ear Mountain]

Arrived in Austin in time to watch the bats fly out of the Congress Street Bridge downtown. Over 100,000 bats live in crevices under the bridge and emerge around sunset to feed. We did see zillions of bats and probably an equal number of people. Hoping for clearing weather for the eclipse.

[FuzzySideDown]

Nice! I bet seeing the bats fly out of the bridge is quite something! Fingers crossed on the clearing sky’s for you for tomorrow!

Cheers!

[MarxMN]

I have seen those bats fly out and up from under the bridge. It is quite a sight.

I hope you have good weather tomorrow.


Bill

[Ear Mountain]

Thanks for the good weather wishes. Keep them coming. Forecast for today was cloudy but the sun broke through quite a bit. We spent the afternoon at the Ladybird Johnson Wildflower Gardens. The wildflowers didn't disappoint.

[Ear Mountain]

My group of four has been staying in Austin Texas. Since Austin is on the edge and expected about a minute of totality at our hotel, we drove to Marble Falls and joined the Eclipse Party at the Save the World Brewery. Skies in Austin this morning looked grim and they did have some heavy rain in the afternoon. Not sure how good the viewing there might have been.

In Marble Falls we had some clouds but they constantly moved by and there were nice patches of blue sky. The eclipse was spectacular with 4 minutes and 16 seconds of totality. As darkness descended we easily saw Venus and Jupiter in the dark sky. The sun's corona was marvelous and there were two big solar flares showing a red/orange prominence. That was something to behold. As the first peak of the sun began to emerge after totality we were treated to a wonderful diamond ring appearance. Daylight returned quickly but we stayed until the moon exited the face of the sun. Clouds caught up with us on the drive back to Austin -- so did the rain.

We'll drive to Houston tomorrow for our flight to Minneapolis then Great Falls, Montana.

[paul]

That sounds amazing! I'm glad it turned out so well.