How about a US total eclipse DO?; Aug. 21, 2017; let's start planning!
 

http://www.popularmechanics.com/spac...solar-eclipse/

About a year from now, the lower 48 of the US will experience its first total eclipse since 1979. Looks like the max time of totality will be in southern IL. But the path goes pretty near some decent-sized cities/airports, it appears.

I'd say a major consideration would be a place with low likelihood of cloudy skies. So with that in mind, please look at the map in the linked article and give suggestions on the best place to have an Eclipse DO.

TN, SC, WY, MO?

I already have a hotel reservation in Alliance, Nebraska. Why there? High probability of good weather - and Carhenge! It's also about a 2 hour drive to Wind Cave National Park.

The two places a lot of the serious eclipse viewers I know are heading to are eastern Oregon / western Idaho and a bit further east in Nebraska than I'm planning (where there are more hotels but no Carhenge.) I do have a friend who is an astronomer who is heading to eastern Tennessee, but the weather odds are worse there. (He has other motivations for the choice, since Jonesborough, TN is a pilgrimage site for storytelling.)

I am 3 for 3 on eclipses so far and am hoping my weather karma continues.

I'm booked for this, including the HSV pre-tour:

http://www.insightcruises.com/events/st08/

I thought Carhenge were those upright Cadillacs (actually called Cadillac Ranch https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cadillac_Ranch ) but then realized you meant Carhenge NE http://carhenge.com/
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thanks for the tips on likely optimal viewing!

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I thought I read somewhere that the eclipse will peak somewhere over Kentucky. Is there much of a difference between Kentucky and the other places mentioned above?

Hopkinsivlle, KY will get about 2 minutes 40 seconds of totality. Towns in western Nebraska will get about 2 minutes 20 seconds.

According to the U.S. Naval Observatory, the point of longest totality is actually in Illinois. There is a spot in the Shawnee National Forest that will get 2 minutes and 44 seconds. You can see the map and input your favorite viewing spot at http://aa.usno.navy.mil/data/docs/Eclipse2017.php

I would be interested in joining this. I am as of now planning to fly to Boise and drive north from there. My logic is that BOI is usually reliably cheap for flights, high probability of clear skies, decent hotel options. But I could be convinced to go to other locations if there is a FT DO to join.

This has been getting some media play in KC in the past week or two as the -1 year anniversary has passed. MCI is one of the larger airports along the line of totality, so hotels are already getting a ton of bookings for that weekend.

Plan A for us is to go to St. Joseph, Missouri. Plan B, if northern Missouri looks like it will have bad weather, would be Marshall, Missouri. The period of totality around here is 2 minutes and 38 seconds.

We just booked Charleston SC for April 20-23. Turn the lights out!

http://www.eclipse2017.org/2017/path_through_the_US.htm

just booked a hotel room in BOI for the nights of 20-21 Aug ... the two Marriott properties near RDM are showing $430+ per night, so that was a definite non-starter

which hotel did you book? i will see if i can get something there or in a nearby place, at least for now.

Charleston, SC Ren for me.

Res Inn Boise West, Sat & Sun nights -- $124, $112 non-refundable, $111 AAA, $105 senior

I'm seeing hotel rooms in Nashville (closest major city/airport to Hopkinsville, KY) going for $175ish a night on average. That doesn't sound too bad to me. I'll have to see if I want to go there or some other location though.

Thanks. I usually stay at IHG properties and their booking calendar for 8/21 opens tomorrow. I'll be grabbing a room somewhere in BOI for now and will see what shakes out with this DO idea.

Anyone else making plans for the 2017 total solar eclipse?
 

It's only 11 months till August 21 so time to make plans. I've got hotel reservations in two places, one in Nebraska and one in Wyoming, and will go to the one with the best weather forecast. Anyone else have plans yet? Anyone thinking of heading to Grand Tetons National Park?

http://www.greatamericaneclipse.com/eclipse-2017/

I would take a look at this thread.
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/commu...-planning.html

Not something I ever even really thought about until I saw the threads here.

I'd look at the thread in the link above. I think most will post there.

Cheers.

I'm thinking about buying some of these in bulk...

https://www.amazon.com/Eclipse-Glass...clipse+glasses

Then I'll go to City Park on August 21 and sell them for $5 each.

@:-)@:-)@:-)

Check this site out:

http://www.eclipse2017.org/2017/weather.htm

Anyone spending serious money to travel to see the eclipse needs to choose the spot most likely to have clear skies, in my view.

Never occurred to me that there would be more than one OMNI-type forum for flyertalk when I searched for an eclipse thread.

How about St. Louis or Nashville?

What does "scattered" and "broken" mean in the cloud cover chart on that link? Depending on their definition certain locations might not be an absolute dealbreaker.

Only the northern parts of Nashville will have the full eclipse, so someplace like Hopkinsville may be a better bet.

Apparently not: http://aa.usno.navy.mil/solareclipse...ille&height=10

Duration of Totality: 1m 58.2s
Magnitude: 1.005
Obscuration: 100.0%

Note that Boise itself is not in the path of totality, though there are places within a couple of hours drive that are.

As much as I love Charleston, SC, the weather there is not particularly favorable.

Why not? It is sunny and cloudless now.
Also, if it is cloudy then you could just drive to the mountains and watch from there.

Heck, I put one in the Marriott Forum yesterday thinking the same. We booked a few nights in Charleston SC to see the eclipse .

Well CommunityBuzz is for those who are planning or attending get-togethers, whether they be as simple as a meal, as organized as OzFest, or a bunch of like-minded folk such as those who want to get together to see the Eclipse.

CommunityBuzz
"The official get-together page for the FlyerTalk community as well as topics related directly to the general membership of FlyerTalk."

Cheers.

Plans made. We'll be visiting friends in Greenville, SC. :D

Another airport to fly into is Evansville, Indiana (EVV). It is only about 75 minutes north of Hopkinsville, KY, and about 2 hours east of Carbondale, IL. Plenty of Marriott availability for that weekend.

One additional option if you have UA miles would be Paducah, KY (PAH)--about equal distance to Hopkinsville and Carbondale.

Rural Missouri for us. Probably camping in central Missouri...unless the weather forecast suggests we go north. From KC, we can easily go either direction (north or east) depending on weather...

High humidity and a lot of precipitation tend not to make for great viewing. Mountains are not really high enough to get above the clouds.

Cool site. :)

For Marshall, MO, it's...

Duration 2h 54m 29.0s
Duration of Totality 2m 41.1s
Magnitude 1.014
Obscuration 100.0%

Approx. 1:10PM CDT is the time of day.

Do I care about the Magnitude?

No, as long as it is ≥ 1.0

For now, I reserved a room at the HIX in Ontario, Oregon for the night of 8/20. It is about 90 minutes from BOI.

The asking price was $681 :eek::eek::eek: but I paid 15K IHG to reserve the space for now. I will get a room the night of 8/21 in BOI, or more likely, just fly back that night after the show is over as totality is around 11:30am in eastern Oregon.

I'm within driving distance, so I'll probably make a call the night before, based on the weather, as to whether I get up early and make the drive. I'm sure I can pull over on the side of the road somewhere in the middle of central-nowehere-southern-US.

Funny how some hotels have already figured this out and decided to try to make a fortune off it, whereas others probably wonder why the hell they're filling up on a random Sunday night 11 months from now...

I suspect at the end of the day, people won't pay $681 for an HIX. Prices will eventually fall back to near-normal. There are a few thousand miles along which to watch the eclipse and plenty of cities you could pick to spend the night before and/or after.

If anyone ends up in Wyoming around grand teton let me know. Our cabin is a bit south of jackson and if we're around would love to meet up.

I'm divided whether to drive all the way up to Casper from Denver on 8/19 or just park it in Cheyenne. If I do the latter, I then have a better option to jump east towards the Scottsbluff area in case cloud cover becomes an issue. Traffic on southbound 25 will be BRUTAL that Monday afternoon.