Total Eclipse in August

Hi all,

We are taking the Midnight Rambler to Hopkinsville, Ky. for the total eclipse on August 21. Anyone heading that way?

Hopkinsville is one of the best places in the country (2:40min totality) to witness the eclipse. We are staying in The Trail of Tears Park in Hopkinsville. The Casey Jones Distillery, just outside Hopkinsville, is opening up their grounds for campers/RVs.

We hope to get up to CJD and sample their line of fine tasting moonshine!  Contact CJD and Hopkinsville Eclipse for more information.

Hope to see you there,

Bill

Found this map showing which National Parks are in line for a total eclipse https://www.nps.gov/subjects/naturalphenomena/2017eclipse.htm 

I figured it might be of interest to those looking to catch the eclipse. The NPS site also commented that visitors should see if the parks have an astronomy program that night and stay for the night sky. Since the total eclipse is mid-day - there will be NO moonlight during the night. Areas with dark skies should have awesome star viewing opportunities.

For those with kids and grandkids, the NPS has a special Junior Ranger Badge for the eclipse. You can download the booklet from this page https://www.nps.gov/kids/jrRangers.cfm  The booklet has some good information for adults too. I sure didn't know what Syzygy was until I read it.

We won't be traveling for the eclipse so we'll only see about a partial eclipse of about 80%, however, we volunteer at the Earth and Space Science Lab so we'll get to view it through the telescope in their observatory (with sun filter.)

I'm going to be sitting in my backyard and hoping all the tourists don't burn the whole forest down.

We have been receiving weekly updates from emergency services and this looks like it could be as close to a disaster drill as anyone wants to get.  Oregon has a population of less than four million and we are expecting over 1 million visitors.  Many of them from the east or overseas where tossing a lit cigarette out the window is bad but does not result in 100,000 acres burned.

We have been advised to stock 10 days food and water, be aware that EMS may not be able to get to us regardless of the situation and to please stay off the roads.  All major highways are expected to be in complete gridlock.

One bulletin says their model for this closely parallels what would happen with an earthquake / tsunami and a complete evacuation of all of metro Portland.  The governor has activated National Guard units to be staged to assist local law enforcement.

We're in Florence OR driving US101 N to S and it's been a zoo but not just due to the eclipse, it's getting really hot in the valley along the I5.  Think we'll stay put for awhile now out of the totality zone, and need to have furnace looked at before warranty runs out end of the month.  Hope Porters RV in Coos Bay has a good tech as my furnace is a real lemon.

Whoa, jatrax! I hadn't thought about the impact to the locals. I hope all goes well and the stargazers are well behaved and leave your little piece of the planet in good shape.

I went back on that Junior Ranger site and was quite surprised to see that the Eclipse booklet info and link were gone. I suspect I downloaded a draft copy (over 22 megabytes so I can't attach it here) before they pulled it back off the site. The booklet is a joint project between the Planetary Society and the National Park Service. I found a note on the Planetary Society site saying the booklet is coming soon http://www.planetary.org/get-involved/events/2017/2017-total-solar-eclipse.html (scroll down - it looks like you are at the bottom, but you're not). If you are interested in this booklet, you can check back on their site or the NPS one I linked before. The planetary society website has a lot of interesting information about the eclipse also (and the CEO is Bill Nye - how cool is that?)

More info on the NPS site: The Junior Ranger Badges listed and linked further down the page are just the ones that are available online AND that put their link there. There are many, many, many more. If you are traveling to some of the parks and want to know if they have a booklet, you can google that park name with the words Junior Ranger Badge and see if anything pops up, click on the the "things to do" "kids" section of the specific park's website or call them. I like downloading the book in advance if it is available so Chloe can work on the puzzles and learn a bit about the park before we get there. It takes less time at the park to complete the badge and she already knows the basics so she is ready to explore and find even more things.

I hope all goes well and the stargazers are well behaved and leave your little piece of the planet in good shape.

  Thanks, we hope so too!  Biggest concern is fire.  Unless you live here and understand the danger it is hard to realize how quickly things can go bad.  The west is a tinderbox in summer and a single spark can cause disaster.  EMS is justifiably concerned, with up to a million people visiting, camping, maybe using campfires or even starting bonfires to celebrate.  Add some alcohol and we have a real potential for disaster.

Wildfires are not like house fires.  You do not really put them out, you just try to control them and steer them away from structures and towns.  And they move so quickly it is nearly impossible to get out of the way.