Solar Eclipse weather update:
This is a four day outlook and WILL change:
Columbia, SC: 55% humidity, mostly cloudy, 52% rain.
Knoxville, TN. 53% humidity, partly cloudy.
Jefferson City, MO. 74% humidity, partly-mostly cloudy.
Beatrice, NE. 58% humidity, partly cloudy.
North. Platte, NE. 49% humidity, clear skies.
Casper, WY. 22% humidity, clear skies.
Idaho City, ID. 35% humidity, clear skies.
Portland, OR 70% humidity, clear skies.
I’m not sure if I will travel and don’t know how far I am going if I do. It may be decided as late as early Sunday after midnight. I may be an experienced Astronomer but if anyone has a hotline to the wishes of Mother Nature (another fickle bitch who changes her mind endlessly), please let me know. The best conditions East of the Mississippi is East Tennessee but it is very questionable here. When the moon passes over the sun, the temperature drops and clouds form where there is humidity. So East Tennessee could cloud over or might not. I remember seeing an Annular Solar Eclipse near Atlanta and there were no clouds in the sky. For now, the best place to be is near Casper, Wyoming. As I told you in Part One: “Be ready to travel!” I will be viewing this event with a 6″ F-9.2 reflector with a Solar Filter.
Don’t have Solar Eclipse Glasses? They were sold at Walmart for a dollar, my local Kroger for 2$ two weeks ago. Ace Hardware sold them and it formed a line for blocks. They have been sold on the internet for many months but now, you might still get them for ten or twenty times the price. BE SURE YOU HAVE FULL PROTECTION, there are scammers! I have ran out of Solar glasses to give away.
You didn’t prepare and that is YOUR fault. However, there are other ways: While #13 Wielders glass is acceptable for brief viewing, I recommend #14 or higher wielders glass. Mylar also works and can be used to filter a telescope. One can also use common binoculars (blocking one side) on white paper to view indirectly. One can also use a low power telescope and reflect the image on white paper or cardboard.
Even a kitchen Collider can reflect the image many times.
If you are in an area that reaches totality, you do not need a filter on your binoculars or telescope to view a total Eclipse until the moon starts to pass beyond the sun. From there, the total Eclipse has ended and the light from the horizon that will warn you as well as Bailey Beads. Any viewing beyond that with optics will damage your vision and perhaps instantly destroy your optics as well as all vision! Only a fool looks at the sun with binoculars or any telescope not filtered.
My mother was blind (later having one of the first cornea transplants, she seen my dad who was deaf and divorced him) but God paid it back by giving me perfect vision. I remember the doc testing it when I was 17. He told me to read the bottom line and I responded with the small lettering saying: “Made in Taiwan”. I had better than 20/10 and even while working construction, always protected my eyes. This is one reason why I like working nightshift. I’m now 54 years old and still have 20/20 in one eye and 20/15 in the other. Do you have “floaters” when you close your eyes or even while open? That is what happens when you stared at the sun when you were young. We all did it.
Astro 2 years, 5 months ago.
