Eclipse watchers in America on April 8th.

[jpanhalt]

Our sky (Cleveland, OH) was just a little high haze and clear.  The ring of fire was easily seen.  My eclipse glasses did not show the ring  during totality.  It was simply dark.  Switched to my welder's helmet at 11 to 12 (I didn't realize it went to shade 13) with better glass, and it was quite distinct. Spurs extended more than the apparent width of the moon. 

[BrianHG]

Though there were a few hazy clouds, it was still a spectacular show.

There was a perfect ring for over a minute and a half, then the 'diamond ring' came through.

I used 2 professional sets of photographic quality polarizers when rotated at their darkest cut light at over 1million:1.
I was able to adjust the contrast through rotation throughout the eclipse and had the best possible view albeit the loss by the overcast clouds...

[mag_therm]

Further to my #21, here are images of data as the eclipse passed over.
I quickly edited some explanatory text boxes over the images
The first one is from the power datalogger for my solar battery powered ham station.
It is as expected, the solar panels shut down completely and sharply  at UTC19:15 confirming the estimated alignment time in local media here.
https://app.box.com/s/az1x7kabj5ckf5869q2426rkc0ewom5i

The second is for the doppler shifts of the signal from CHU on 7850 kHz.
The re-combination and re-ionization are clearly shown, I think.
https://app.box.com/s/9h748ohj6w3g0ixvo7jvjrcxgfk5pgvw

But this coincided in time with the max occultation AT my QTH,at about UTC19:15.

Queries ??
-If the signal was a symmetrical hop, the doppler shifts would have been at a position halfway between my QTH and CHU,
which is a bit North of Toronto and later in time.

-If the signal was a Pederson mechanism, there would have been two doppler shifts at different times.

-So maybe this signal was an asymmetrical NVIS ( near vertical incident skywave.) ??

There are about 60 hams contributing data , so the researchers report will be interesting.

[Sal Ammoniac]

I had perfect weather here, but since I didn't travel, I was way off the path of totality and only 30% of the sun was obscured. Fun to watch anyway.

[johansen]

Clouds parted just in time for us to see the entire 3 minute long eclipse in dripping springs tx.

The image attached is from my fther in laws seestar telescope.

[BrianHG]

  Excellent shot!

[soldar]

My relative who works in a large corporation in Dallas reports they all went out to the huge parking lot to see it.

And as the eclipse was taking place the parking lot lights all turned on automatically.

[Circlotron]

I wonder of anyone reported seeing a star that is slightly behind the sun, but visible because of space time curvature caused by the sun's mass / gravity.

[BrianHG]

My relative who works in a large corporation in Dallas reports they all went out to the huge parking lot to see it.

And as the eclipse was taking place the parking lot lights all turned on automatically.

  Talk about luck.  Especially if it were LED lights which illuminate instantly unlike the old HPS lights which take a good 5 to 10 minutes before they get bright enough to see.

In my neighborhood, I have 3 schools, grade and high school, all sharing a small community football / baseball park within walking distance.  I'm around 3 blocks away and you could hear the screaming and cheers.  It must have been packed...

[Altair8800]

Best pics of the 8 Apr 2024 Total Eclipse

Last pic infrared (space is very very cold, sun is very very hot)...

[BillyO]

Nice photos!

It was just very cloudy where I am.  We were supposed to get a 96.5% eclipse, but all we got was a moderately darkened cloudy sky.  It's amazing how much light 3.5% of the sun's area still casts.

[vad]

I wonder of anyone reported seeing a star that is slightly behind the sun, but visible because of space time curvature caused by the sun's mass / gravity.

I noticed that, but I thought it was a solar flare. Was it really a star? If so, which star was it?

[vad]

Nice photos!

It was just very cloudy where I am.  We were supposed to get a 96.5% eclipse, but all we got was a moderately darkened cloudy sky.  It's amazing how much light 3.5% of the sun's area still casts.

We drove from Boston to Jackman, ME, which was almost on the centerline. The skies were clear, and the totality was absolutely worth the 4+7 hours in traffic.

[jpanhalt]

I wonder of anyone reported seeing a star that is slightly behind the sun, but visible because of space time curvature caused by the sun's mass / gravity.

I saw a bright spot in pictures taken over the Cleveland skyline and toward lake Erie.  It seemed too bright to be a star.  My impression was Venus.  Here's what Google says:

While totality is the main event, a few dots of light were also visible in the sky near the eclipse, belonging to Jupiter, Venus, Mars and the faint light from Saturn.

[vad]

So it wasn't a star or a planet; rather, it was a prominence - a massive ejection of plasma, forming a rainbow-like shape, tethered by powerful magnetic fields.

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/red-dots-around-total-solar-eclipse-explained/

[David Hess]

I used 2 professional sets of photographic quality polarizers when rotated at their darkest cut light at over 1million:1.
I was able to adjust the contrast through rotation throughout the eclipse and had the best possible view albeit the loss by the overcast clouds...

I wondered if that would work.  I will have to check it out for next time.

Ended up in Pittsburg, New Hampshire.  My point and shoot camera could not focus through a dark filter, but worked for the total eclipse.

[jbeng]

I viewed the event from my friend's farm in southern Illinois.  The weather was great - we had high clouds which were essentially transparent, with a temperature of about 75F (24C) and light winds.
Here are a couple shots:

[BrianHG]

Anyone watching the eclipse get the sensation as totality approached; This must be the appearance of daylight from our sun if we were living on one of Jupiter's or Saturn's moons?

[Andy Chee]

Anyone watching the eclipse get the sensation as totality approached; This must be the appearance of daylight from our sun if we were living on one of Jupiter's or Saturn's moons?

I haven't done the math, but I don't think any of Jupiter's or Saturn's moons has the correct size-distance ratios to have the same effect.

Or in other words, the effect would be no different to living aboard the international space station and passing through Earth's shadow, and experiencing the sun emerge through the edge of the earth every 90 minutes or so.

[BrianHG]

Anyone watching the eclipse get the sensation as totality approached; This must be the appearance of daylight from our sun if we were living on one of Jupiter's or Saturn's moons?

I haven't done the math, but I don't think any of Jupiter's or Saturn's moons has the correct size-distance ratios to have the same effect.

That isn't what I meant.  You cannot live on Jupiter or Saturn itself as they are gas giants without a surface.  I was talking about if you built a colony dome city on one of those moons, or in a space suit on one of those moons, just having a dim sun as you maximum day light level because you are far away from the sum.  I was not talking about an eclipse on the planets Jupiter or Saturn.

[Andy Chee]

Anyone watching the eclipse get the sensation as totality approached; This must be the appearance of daylight from our sun if we were living on one of Jupiter's or Saturn's moons?

I haven't done the math, but I don't think any of Jupiter's or Saturn's moons has the correct size-distance ratios to have the same effect.

That isn't what I meant.  You cannot live on Jupiter or Saturn itself as they are gas giants without a surface.  I was talking about if you built a colony dome city on one of those moons, or in a space suit on one of those moons, just having a dim sun as you maximum day light level because you are far away from the sum.  I was not talking about an eclipse on the planets Jupiter or Saturn.

My analogy still applies. Just imagine the ISS being Titan or Ganymede, and the Earth being Jupiter/Saturn.  The effect seen in the video will be the same.