Total Solar Eclipse 8-21-2017

Sadly I'm going to be too far to the South to see any of it.

I'll definitely check it out on YouTube or wherever they have video of it. Frankly, you're going to get a better view on a stream than you would trying to view it on your own (and a lower risk of permanent retinal damage!)

I don't know if we can see it from here but I'd guess we might get at least a partial eclipse. This might be blasphemy but I'm really not too interested in seeing it first hand.

You know lots of people are going to have eye injuries because they're going to do stuff like look at the sun through binoculars. You KNOW there will be some people who actually think that's a good idea.

Worse yet - I predict traffic accidents due to people staring at the sun while driving. Stupid, yes, of course, but again you KNOW there will be those who do that.

Yo, I live in the path of totality and am gonna see the whole thing. We're taking a break at work to check it out. Luckily we have welding masks which *are* rated safe enough to look at the sun (these are heavy duty #14 welders' glass).

What grinds my gears is the traffic and flood of tourists we're going to have. They're anticipating clogged freeways and overcrowding in restaurants and hotels. It's going to be a nightmare in some respects because this is a rare event in which my area would actually get a sudden increase in tourism.

Same here. I'm not too far from you, to be honest.

We're worried about the gas stations potentially running out of supplies. It's dump but when you don't get much tourism, it's actually hard to deal with a sudden influx.

I'm not looking directly at the sun through anything, no matter how safe it supposedly is. I'm going to step outside (I'm scheduled for work but we'll get a short break) and look at the shadows under trees. You can see the crescent shape projected by the gaps between the leaves on the ground.

No need to go blind just to watch a 10 minute eclipse. Just look at the shadows on the ground, hell, make a shadow with a sheet of paper with a hole in it. Simple.

On Tuesday, August 8th, 2017 at 7:40 am, sloop said:

I'm not sure all welding goggles or masks are insufficient, just that some of them are.

Unfortunately I'm not an expert on welding glass but if the manufacturer (or NASA) states that number 14 rated welder's glass is safe, then it probably is.

That not withstanding, it is still better to play it safe and not view directly. If you really want to view it first hand, take a cardboard box, poke a small hole in the side, and then view the sun's projection on the inside of the box. It doesn't sound like it should work but it does and amazingly so. Way safer on your eyes.