Good luck with that. I-5 and 99E are going to be absurd.

Yeah I'm sure it will. I'll try get up real early and on the I-5 and pray to god I make it to Salem in time. I'm staying south of downtown at the Marriott Residence Inn so in theory SHOULD be able to get on the I-5 right away. we'll see. I also have a reservation for Sisters, but it's on the edge of the path and I'd have to drive too, and traffic to Madras will probably be even worse.

According to one page:

Do not look at the Sun through a camera, a telescope, binoculars, or any other optical device while using your eclipse glasses or handheld solar viewer — the concentrated solar rays will damage the filter and enter your eye(s), causing serious injury.

Good advice? If so, no pictures of partial eclipse (C1, C3)?

You can get filters for cameras and other optical devices that can be used safely. The most serious eclipse photographers I know tend to favor hydrogen alpha filters, although white-light solar filters are probably more common. The cheaper approach is to use welder's glass, but be forewarned that will result in color distortion, i.e. seeing the sun as green.

Will a neutral density filter work alright? I'd be focusing in live view.

I only have a smartphone camera. I see conflicting opinions on whether that's safe for taking photos as is (without filter). There are two issues: 1) is it safe for the camera lens? 2) is it safe for your eyes?

Anyone want to weigh in?

It's perfectly safe for your eyes provided you don't look directly at the sun without glasses. You should probably switch it to the front camera (as if you were taking a selfie) so you're safely facing away from the sun.

I would guess it's safe for the camera lens but that's purely a guess.

people take sunset photos every day and do no damage to their camera lenses. this is no different. ;)

Not recommended. Use a real solar filter to avoid damaging your equipment.

Generally, when taking a sunset photo, you are not looking directly at the sun.

The camera is. If sunset sun rays don't damage it, I'd think it'll handle corona rays just fine.

OP, the image on the phone's screen can't hurt your eyes. It's just light generated by the LEDs in the screen. I'd face away from the sun, remove my eclipse glasses, and frame the image on the phone using its front (selfie) camera. Make sure to put on the glasses again when you face back to the sun, and don't let the goal of photographing the event distract you from experiencing it yourself. :)

transportation available still from portland to totality
 

amazingly there are still at least a couple of companies with available transportation to/from portland - i won't post info here, as it may violate terms of use against advertising, but PM me if you're still looking

If said transportation is a train that makes me avoid the I-5 risk, I'm interested. Otherwise... nah.

I'd offer anyone a ride but I still haven't actually booked the non-refundable trigger so I don't want to get anyone's hopes up.

type of transportation in oregon
 

the ones i've found are all via car/limo/van (not train)

Cell companies setting up additional temp towers in st joe. Expecting 1/2 million people from all over the world to converge on city of 50,000.

I'm flying into and out of STL on eclipse day. Renting a car and driving south or east based on weather and traffic (Most of St. Louis is not in path of totality).

Is that just to be cautious about protecting the back (better) camera, or is there another reason?

It's to avoid looking at the corona with your unprotected eyes, which could be seriously damaged. With your back to the sun and the phone set to use its front camera, you can look at the image on your phone without risking your eyesight. You can then put the eclipse glasses back on and look directly at the eclipse safely.

Just found this thread. We're hosting a mini-do at my place near Smithville Lake (just south of St Joeseph, MO about 45 minutes - only 6 seconds of totality off the center line). Anyway, we've got 9 so far (SweetWillie, ADAM-DFW, ClaudiSTR, johnnywho, FriendlySkies, monitor, susiesan, iris30) along with my family and anyone else who stops by. I'm smoking 8-9 racks of ribs for a mid-afternoon meal after the eclipse. Plenty of parking and beverages if anyone else wants to avoid the crowds in St Joe - just shoot me a PM. We're about 15 minutes from MCI for those trying to beat a hasty retreat.

Rich

That's very nice of you. I hope your party goes well.

Anyone going to be in Jackson Hole WY?
 

Airport parking lot is close to center of eclipse center and the weather here is usually good. I will be coming in the night before.

Found Saver Award to Jackson Hole on morning of eclipse
 

A long-time lurker here, just saw this thread. A few days ago I was pretty happy to to find a 1-way 12,500 mile saver award NYC-JAC for the morning of the eclipse. Convinced a Colorado friend to do the same, we're landing at 945 AM, just in time for the eclipse which begins at 1020. I guess we will be running into other flyertalk-ers there, sounds like we should just watch the show from the airport!

I hope your flight doesn't get delayed

I was looking at Boise flights and looks like the Sunday night last arrivals are cheaper than earlier in the day. Obviously many don't want to take this risk.

Thanks for the concerns, I guess we might have a view from the air if delayed! Spending a few days in the mountains is my main reason for heading west. The eclipse is icing on the cake if it works out!

Would be glad to meet up with you. Are we allowed to put our email address on this chat?

That would be great, just sent you a message.

I paid over $200 one way for a late Sunday afternoon flight to BOI from SMF...YMMV but that is certainly not cheap for the route.

Ontario events/viewing locations...

There are a few events listed here...
http://ontariochamber.com/solar-eclipse-2017/

And viewing sites here...
http://www.ontariooregon.org/2017SolarEclipse.cfm

I have a pretty early flight out of BOI at 3:00pm, so I will probably try to beat the rush out of town by leaving after totality ends. Others who will be there, feel free to let me know your plans if you desire.

I'm planning to come to Jackson Hole. My current plans: arrive JAC on Aug 19 and stay at Hampton Inn Jackson Hole. Enjoy the mountains and nature over the weekend. On Aug 21 head to the airport in the morning and watch the total eclipse before catching my 12:45pm flight home.

I'm tentatively set to give it a try in the Greenville SC area, driving to there and having a motel reservation for the night of August 20.

Visibility is iffy in South Carolina, though, given the weather lately and the kind of summer it has been. Thanks to climate change there's more water vapor in the atmosphere and so far it has meant more rain and more overcast days than is normal (the more normal pattern is hotter, drier and hazy). Would be a bummer if that continues.

The WaPo had a good story today about how airlines are raising fares to cities near the eclipse path for that weekend

I still found semi-reasonables from ATL to DEN or SEA on F9, but then take a look at what the car-rental companies want from those airports that weekend...$100-ish A DAY. They're outdoing the airlines on raising prices.

Would guess that the most gung-ho people planned further in advance and are betting on places like Wyoming, where I'm sure all the lodgings near the path must be booked up. Would have been nice for F9 not to seasonally drop their ATL-MCI service on 8/15 :mad:, as that might have been a good option.

So I'm trying to do it on the cheap. :( The Lowe's near here had a few of the eclipse glasses but sold out almost instantly.

This thread has been going since August 31 last year - and it was a bit late to the party!

Didn't think glasses would be that bad! I ordered these ones for $10.98 in June...$60 now! Should have picked up a few more and scalped them...almost a 600% increase!

My DH and I are looking forward to being in Sweetwater, TN. Some nice southern hospitality with an all day festival and an eclipse. Can't beat that.

So how do you guys feel about the weather forecast for Oregon?

Madras vs. Salem, I'm still deciding. Madras at the moment looks slightly better but will be more of a hassle to get to.

Current weather forecast for BNA on the 21st is "mostly sunny". So far so good; I was getting concerned yesterday when almost the entire 10 day forecast had thunderstorms on it. It could change drastically before then though.

Too soon to tell. NWS Portland office's eclipse weather page: http://www.weather.gov/pqr/eclipse

Historic weather probability for Oregon coast & southern Willamette Valley: http://registerguard.com/rg/news/loc...lipse.html.csp

But perhaps more of an issue could be the wind direction & smoke drift from forest fires: http://registerguard.com/rg/news/loc...6-75/story.csp

:eek:

I wonder how his trip was? I imagine he found the eclipse underwhelming, not to say nonexistent, in April!

:cool: (wearing eclipse glasses)

That was quickly corrected...we are actually going to be in Jackson now for the eclipse. Right dates and preparation.