That's a big if.
If everyone gets hushed, you may have a peak spiritual experience.
But if you're in any kind of crowd, your shot at hearing a hush are approximately zero. Look at the videos from the 2017 eclipse and you will see how Americans respond. They scream:
LOOK AT IT JUSTIN!!!!
Every mom within earshot will be yelling her own kid's name, insisting that he look at this thing. And that was 7 years ago. These days, the kids will probably be staring into smart phones and the moms and dads will need to scold them. I can't believe we came all this way and you'd rather look at that fucking phone! NOAH! Look at the fucking sun!!! And all the little Noahs and Liams will respond in variations of Mom! I told you I didn't give a shit about the sun!
Oh, yes, there will be some lovely children too and maybe some of them will even respond with hushed awe. But those are not the ones you will hear. Maybe someone will attempt crowd control, screaming, "Everyone shut the fuck up!" Or, less likely, Please honor those of us who have traveled here to experience the eclipse in a state of hushed awe.
"Look! Look up there!" someone will surely scream, as if it's tricky to find where the sun is.
What are the chances you won't hear the phrase "Oh, my God!" at least a hundred times? Well, who going to count? Some blogger who wastes the hushed-awe opportunity to count the annoying things other people shouted?
I'm suddenly torn from my reverie by Meade, who has been reading something and decides to read this aloud: "It will be remarkably awesome for a few life-altering minutes."
My response: "I'm writing a poem about that.... I mean... where did that come from? I'm writing a post."
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It is supposed to start raining tomorrow and continue for 4 days. The sun will be eclipsed and it will be cooler. The quiet solitude will be interrupted by lightning and thunder. It is a violation of human rights.
During a total solar eclipse if you are on the high altar about to have your heart ripped out, you get to go free, as in Apocalypto.
Something to remember.
I wonder how many movies have been made in which the white adventurer hero goes free because he knows the solar eclipse schedule.
I am 4 miles from the totality, but 3.5 miles of that is a lake…so instead I’ll take a train to a nearby city and stand in a crowd of other people at a park that is in walking distance to a train station. I wish I could go somewhere secluded, but despite being tantalizingly close, geography makes it almost impossibly difficult.
But if you're in any kind of crowd, your shot at hearing a hush are approximately zero.
Well, maybe not a "hush" exactly, but...
There's a kind of hush all over the world...
We’ll be looking at it from the seclusion of our Vermont mountain top backyard, out of earshot of anyone else. If we can shovel away the snow, that is.
It got pretty quiet in Glendo Wyoming back in 2017 as I recall, and that was no small crowd. This time my family and I are driving to Texas to sit under a cloudy sky and watch it get dark. It may be a bit uninspiring, but we shall see.
I watched the last one from the University where I was working. My wife came down to watch it with me. We stood close to a Jesuit priest just in case things got really weird.
Better to stay at home if home is near totality, and notice the shadows sharpening.
Otherwise it's just the sun disappearing in a place that you're not familiar with.
Once you've seen one solor elipse you've seen them all.
As a confused agnostic I hope that interactions between people have more spiritual significance than interactions between astronomical objects.
I'm in Florida so we'll get a partial eclipse down here- supposedly 57.9% of the sun eclipsed from our view here in Sarasota. I'll be watching my old dog to see if she does anything out of the ordinary. Like this, only in her own version: Hello my baby...".
What DC needs is heads coming off, rolling down the steps of the temple until the Sun reappears!
I took my adult children to see the totality for the last eclipse. It was very interesting, but, at least for me, not life changing. It looked exactly how I expected it to look. I did feel gratitude that I had the opportunity to witness it, because it was the first total solar eclipse that I had seen. Probably also the last, since we're only going to be 98% where I am - if it's even cloud-free enough to see here.
If you are looking for hushed awe, my recommendation would be to find a lonely cornfield in Indiana. If you are looking for the true American experience, try the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
i saw the 2017 eclipse, on a drift boat, on the North Platte..
We( my guide and me) hadn't seen another person for over two hours when it happened.
My guide oared us ashore so he could watch (which is WHY we caught no trouts during; even though i tried)
The temp drop was maybe 10 degrees (75 down to 65).
Being in a crowd would have made it SUCK.
Unfortunately, it's going to be cloudy for most of the path of totality.
Here, in Pugetopolis, it's also going to be cloudy with only a 20% coverage of the Sun. So, not worth paying any attention.
"Darkness at the break of noon
Shadows even the silver spoon
The handmade blade, the child’s balloon
Eclipses both the sun and moon
To understand you know too soon
There is no sense in trying"
Hiked to the top of Mt Sherman last eclipse.
Everyone else was in bumper to bumper traffic making a bee-line to Wyoming - where the total darkness was set to occur.
Heard from a few people that despite hours of traffic = the experience was thrilling and totally worth the inconvenience.
Me - I do not have the patience for hours++++ of traffic jam. (and the jams were insane)
Top of 14er, I'd guess there were only 10-12 people up there during the event. Did not get to experience the darkness. Only a slight barely perceptible dimness. Bummed we missed the darkness - but thrilled we missed the crowds.
Someday I'd like to experience the darkness created by the path of the event. Not excited about the yelling and screaming crowds.
During the last solar eclipse a group of us went to a winery owned by an old friends. In the northern Georgia mountains. Perhaps 40 people in total there. Wine and conversation. Then the eclipse began. Everything advertised. Birds, cooling, hushed awe. A remarkable experience.
Far too many seem to think, "This is going to be fun, look at the crowd!".
We ... 5 people, including 2 grandchildren ... drove about 8 hours in 2017 to a small town in Tennessee. We parked in a large grassy area that charged $20 per car. Maybe 50 people in the crowd. Sky was blue. I remember seeing the eclipse, being surprised at how dark things got, hearing the crickets get loud as if it was night, seeing street lights come on. But I have no memory of whether the crowd was hushed or obnoxiously loud. It was a personal moment. I'm glad I remember it that way.
"I wonder how many movies have been made in which the white adventurer hero goes free because he knows the solar eclipse schedule."
I think that's the plot of A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court.
People reacting loudly rather than hushed seems to be particularly irritating to Althouse because I've never read so many "fucks" in a post. Someone told me we would be something like 90% totality up here in my part of Wisconsin. I guess it reflects my interest in seeing the eclipse that some random guy in the bar is enough research into it for me. If it's noticeable up here, I will notice it.
In 2017, I took a long road trip to a fine observing location in Greenville, South Carolina, a charming little city with a lovely stretch of whitewater bifurcating its central business district. My chosen destination was a Walmart in the suburbs located near Greenville's beltway. I picked out that site by careful study using Google Earth resources. Unobstructed vistas box the compass. Only an isolated site in the Nebraska high plains could have been preferable.
I arrived about two hours early and found a small knot of cars and RVs parked well away from the Walmart itself and its various satellite businesses. Eclipse watchers were lounging in folding chairs, picnicking, and generally socializing in a manner that gives one confidence in the triumph of civilization, the antipode of the anthropoid chaos typical of the blue states these days. Someone told me that the shopping center management had disabled all the parking lot lighting and illuminated signage that would normally be triggered by the darkness of peak totality. The sky was utterly cloudless. Everyone spoke in hushed tones. Where did you come from, sir? I drove two hundred miles today. What are you using to shield your eyes? Welding goggles do a good job. Would you like some fried chicken?
Everything developed as I expected -- the sudden chill, the birds scattering to roost in silence -- but there was one aspect I had not anticipated and cannot fully explain today. At the instant of totality, the entire horizon glowed a vivid pink, that vanished when the "diamond ring" effect developed, undoubtedly some form of prismatic effect, but the exact opticals at work elude me.
Afterward, our little society of strangers, endured for several hours as we swapped impressions and email addresses. All in all, a lovely experience.
Actually, if you can find a spot without clouds, this is a pretty easy eclipse to find a secluded spot- the band of totality is much wider for this eclipse than for the one in 2017.
I despair of find a location on Monday without significant cloud cover- for me, the trip, if I take it will be over 300 miles, and I don't yet have a location where I have even 50% chance of actually seeing it through cloud cover.
I hope there's no earthquake during the solar eclipse. That would freak everybody out. Fortunately the eclipse will not happen anywhere near Armageddon.
I hope there's no earthquake during the solar eclipse. That would freak everybody out. Fortunately the eclipse will not happen anywhere near Armageddon.
Fortunately, a friend's house is in the path of totality.
We didn't travel to the last one though we had many friends who did. We were about two hours away from the totality. I watched on the back deck with a kid who was sick and had to stay home from the school's eclipse activities. The temperature drop was very noticeable.
We are not doing anything special this time either. I did buy glasses and my little kids made pinhole projectors. The school district is giving them a half day so no kid has eye damage on their watch.
A relative's house was in the last path of totality.
People have plenty of time to befriend or arrange family members' marriages to people who live in the paths of totality of future eclipses.
"Actually, if you can find a spot without clouds, this is a pretty easy eclipse to find a secluded spot- the band of totality is much wider for this eclipse than for the one in 2017."
But as you go on to note, it is very hard to find somewhere within the zone without clouds predicted for Monday.
Here's a TikTok about the problem. Spoiler alert: Get yourself to Maine.
"People have plenty of time to befriend or arrange family members' marriages to people who live in the paths of totality of future eclipses."
You still have to drive there.
We have a camper and can easily head anywhere, but it is not easy.
I guess having access to someone's private property helps with my everyone's-going-to-be-screaming-and-saying-stupid-things problem
I'm worried about traffic.
If we went due south to the zone, it might be a cloudless place, but also everyone from Chicago (and a lot of other places) will also be headed there.
If I go it has to be within 8 hours driving distance because I can't leave my mom on her own more than a day- so it has to be Arkansas, Kentucky, Illinois or Indiana, with Ohio as a last possibility. If I had the freedom, I would have chosen Vermont or Maine as the first option as I would love to see one eclipse from a mountain top- I think it was the commenter The Godfather who once mentioned seeing the one in 1963 from a mountain top in either Maine or New Hampshire and seeing the Moon's shadow coming towards him at a 1000 miles/hr.
I will make my decision tomorrow evening, one way or the other.
Looking at eclipses is a lot like looking at the Mona Lisa in the Louvre - sure, you're going to do it if you get the chance but it's not much more interesting or exciting than looking at the photos.
We all wandered out of our office in 2017 to view it. It was pretty subdued as I recall but we didn't have any parents trying to herd kids around. Quietly wandered back to our desks after about 30 minutes.
I worry about traffic as well. We're 100%, so in the big shadow. Cloud cover expected to lift by totality time. Not going to look at it, just curious how dark it will get.
If she's lived her life in the city, she doesn't know what birds sound like other than gulls and pigeons...
Anyone flying their Learjet to Nova Scotia?
We saw the last one in Idaho, having spent a week at a horse ranch in Montana that I selected with the eclipse path in mind. We found a stretch of back road where we could just pull over. There were, maybe, 30 cars along a 1/8 mile stretch of road. People gathered together and shared stories and food and drink. We definitely had the hushed thing going on when the eclipse happened. People from all over, getting to know each other quietly, politely, warmly. My favorable opinion of the human race went up a bit that day.
Cold?
"Word has it" that if clouds interfere with seeing the eclipse, it's because of Global Warming.
Trust me: someone will make that stupid argument.
The opening of "Werckmeister Harmonies" starts with a similar description of an eclipse.
It's closing time in a bar and one of the things they do is ask Valushka to describe an eclipse and guide their recreation of one--one guy standing still as the sun while another as the moon tries to circle and spin around a third as the earth as he spins and circles around the sun. It stops momentarily for the eclipse, then starts back up, now joined by everyone else just spinning and circling around.
It's probably my favorite opening scene in a movie, which is currently streaming on the Criterion Channel in a new 4K restoration.
Opening Scene
Trailer
The point isn't to look at the sun. Not sure why they keep showing pictures of everyone looking at the sun.
The world around you is ghostly. It is something that helps people envision what a parallel dimension would be like.
I plan on driving out to somewhere random on the path and be outside for a bit then to follow it in the car for a bit.
Clark said...
We saw the last one in Idaho, having spent a week at a horse ranch in Montana that I selected with the eclipse path in mind. We found a stretch of back road where we could just pull over. There were, maybe, 30 cars along a 1/8 mile stretch of road. People gathered together and shared stories and food and drink. We definitely had the hushed thing going on when the eclipse happened. People from all over, getting to know each other quietly, politely, warmly. My favorable opinion of the human race went up a bit that day.
That sounds like a good plan.
"I'm worried about traffic."
Me too. But if we try and fail, so be it. If we don't even try, well, that's unacceptable.
Based on cloud forecasts, we're headed for far eastern Maine.
"The point isn't to look at the sun. Not sure why they keep showing pictures of everyone looking at the sun."
No. The corona and solar prominences are the main attraction.
Original Mike said...
"I'm worried about traffic."
Me too. But if we try and fail, so be it. If we don't even try, well, that's unacceptable.
Based on cloud forecasts, we're headed for far eastern Maine.
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Unless you're in the Zone of Totality, you won't see the corona or the solar prominences. If you're moving away from the Zone, you'll just seee less of the sun covered by the Moon.
We had one in my home town back in the 70s and it's definitely something to be experienced. They definitely confuse the birdlife, and millennial cultists.
We will go out to the hometown in Niagara County where, accordance with the best traditions of western New York, we will stare up at the clouds.
"Unless you're in the Zone of Totality, you won't see the corona or the solar prominences. If you're moving away from the Zone, you'll just seee less of the sun covered by the Moon."
I know how eclipses work. This will be my third total.
Regarding my 9:08 AM comment:
I've been thinking about that pink glow at the horizon, and I've come up with a hypothesis. I propose that it is produced by the atmospheric refraction of light coming from the Sun's corona which is always present but goes undetected by our eyes except in the case of a total solar eclipse. I'd be grateful if those here planning on observing Monday's eclipse in the zone of totality would look for the pink horizon effect that I saw.
We're practically in the path, in NW Arkansas. But a contractor will be here installing a new entry door at that time. I guess I'll just hold the flashlight for him when it goes dark.
the white adventurer hero goes free
I think that happened to Tintin once too.
I'll be at work on Monday, same as always. But a lot of people I work with have left to view the event.
At a rented house in S Illinois in the National Forest where sun is predicted. Wonderfully isolated and traffic driving back Tuesday should be easy.
Spring flowers were blooming on our hike after arriving today, seems like a good 3 weeks or more ahead of Madison (folks mowing lawns, dandelions already gone to seed, etc)
After the event, millions of yokels will be crowding doctors' offices to address the 3rd degree sunburns to their tonsils suffered while gaping up at the sun.
IMHO "Apocalypto" is a terrific movie, largely shunned because its director Mel Gibson was in bad odor in Hollywood over his drunken anti=semitic rants at the time (ironic, eh?).
In it, a Mayan priest strides back and forth atop a pyramid where human sacrifices have been performed to propitiate the gods---who at the moment appear to be threatening to devour the Sun and exterminate all mankind.
The priest, armed with atronomical knowlege and knowing how all this will end, stokes up the crowd and feeds their fears. HE knows what an eclipse is all about, and HE know the power he holds over those who don't.
It's a great scene.
Staging it, Gibson showed the local Mayan who played the priest some old film of Mussolini strutting in front of a frenzied crowd at Rome's Victor Emmanuel monument. "Do it like that", Gibson urged the guy.
And "like that" is what he did.
Original Mike said...
"Unless you're in the Zone of Totality, you won't see the corona or the solar prominences. If you're moving away from the Zone, you'll just seee less of the sun covered by the Moon."
I know how eclipses work. This will be my third total.
************
Okay. Then why are you traveling AWAY from the totality?
"Okay. Then why are you traveling AWAY from the totality?"
I'm not. We'll be in the path of totality. I'm not sure what I said to lead you to think otherwise.
Mark said...
"At a rented house in S Illinois in the National Forest where sun is predicted. Wonderfully isolated and traffic driving back Tuesday should be easy.
Spring flowers were blooming on our hike after arriving today, seems like a good 3 weeks or more ahead of Madison (folks mowing lawns, dandelions already gone to seed, etc)"
While your there go to Old Shawneetown and see the bank. It was open for business for exactly one year. Look around. Ozymandius for a modern age.
Is it too early to blame Biden for the lackluster eclipse?
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