So you probably heard that the Northern US is right in the path of a Total Eclipse on Aug 21. Won't be a while until another one hits land so close to us and apparently a ton of people are heading down as hotels in the line of totality are filling up and charging crazy prices.
Anyone heading down? What's your plan?
Personally I was debating it but it seems like such a huge risk if the weather doesn't cooperate. You get an overcast day and you wasted a ton of time and money to hangout in Montana or Idaho. I can't get over that risk, but I can see why it might be worth it.
There's nothing like a total eclipse. Watch this video from a recent one in Indonesia for an idea. This isn't false color or anything like that, this is actually what you would see:
It's definitely a bucket list thing for me it's just I'd rather risk travelling to an area that I'd like to be in regardless of the eclipse so I don't waste a lot money if a stupid cloud decides to roll in and block the show. Calgary will experience a total eclipse on August 23 2044 for those of us that should still be alive. You'll also see a 90% partial eclipse (https://www.timeanddate.com/eclipse/in/canada/calgary) from town when this one rolls in but a partial eclipse is nothing like totality. Even though 90% sounds impressive and is pretty close to total, it's like comparing a 2 to 10. If you have glasses it's neat to see a crescent sun but chances are unless you hear about it or catch the shadow of the sun through a tree canopy, you wouldn't even notice. It'd be like a small cloud drifting in front of the sun on a normal day.