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Merged Solar Eclipse 2017!

Sun's Name?

Does the Sun have a proper name? The Moon does. According to the International Astronomical Union, it's "Moon." But it is unclear whether the same logic applies to the Sun. To confuse things further, the Union prefers we capitalize the words "Sun" and "Moon" when referring to our Sun and Moon.

If the issue has never been officially settled, I propose we, once and for all, name the Sun.

Ideas:
Fred
Sunny McSunface
John Elway
 
Dumb All Over said:
Does the Sun have a proper name? The Moon does. According to the International Astronomical Union, it's "Moon." But it is unclear whether the same logic applies to the Sun. To confuse things further, the Union prefers we capitalize the words "Sun" and "Moon" when referring to our Sun and Moon.

If the issue has never been officially settled, I propose we, once and for all, name the Sun.

Ideas:
Fred
Sunny McSunface
John Elway
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Red Baron Farms said:
Sunny
Click to expand...
Saul
 
Dumb All Over said:
Does the Sun have a proper name? The Moon does. According to the International Astronomical Union, it's "Moon." But it is unclear whether the same logic applies to the Sun. To confuse things further, the Union prefers we capitalize the words "Sun" and "Moon" when referring to our Sun and Moon.

If the issue has never been officially settled, I propose we, once and for all, name the Sun.

Ideas:
Fred
Sunny McSunface
John Elway
Click to expand...
The scientific reference name is Sol, but Sun is the proper name for the sun in our solar system. Just like the Moon is the Earth's moon.

In literature, writers (so I've learned) don't always capitalize Earth's sun and moon where an astronomer would. Most astronomers do consider Sun and Moon to be proper names when referring to Earth's sun and moon.;)
 
rooms available

There are still hotel rooms available in Casper as of today.

Look what The Sterling Hotel has to offer:

1 bed studio - $1300/night (going fast)


1 bedroom apt. - $2800/night (4 left)


Less than an hour ago the studio was listed at $1100/night and the apt. was $1800/night. The prices changed literally while I was typing this post.

ETA - OMG, the apt. just jumped to $3500/night. Within an hour, the price has virtually doubled.
 
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Amazon has eclipse glasses for a reasonable price with free shipping. The trick is that they will arrive on Aug. 22 or later. Expedited shipping is $29 extra. :eek:

Digging around a bit I found that my local Lowe's has American Paper Optics eclipse glasses in stock for $2. APO is one of the brands recommended on NASA's eclipse safety page.

The path of totality is only 100 miles to the north. Our plan is to leave early watch the eclipse and drive home the same day.
 
BowlOfRed said:
I think I have a place to camp in totality, but it's just off I-5 in Oregon.
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Yup, finally got that locked in. Talked to the folks that live there and they're getting horror stories from the local news folk. Basically they're planning to have all the shopping done by Friday so they don't have to drive until after it's over (because the roads will be gridlocked).

I've also got an offer north of Boise as well in case the forecast for the Willamette Valley is poor.

If it weren't for the fact that school starts here beforehand, I'd be all set. But it means I have to hustle folks back quickly afterward. Unfortunately I'll bet I-5 will be almost undriveable leaving the area for hours afterward.
 
Kestrel said:
Amazon has eclipse glasses for a reasonable price with free shipping. The trick is that they will arrive on Aug. 22 or later. Expedited shipping is $29 extra. :eek:

Digging around a bit I found that my local Lowe's has American Paper Optics eclipse glasses in stock for $2. APO is one of the brands recommended on NASA's eclipse safety page.

The path of totality is only 100 miles to the north. Our plan is to leave early watch the eclipse and drive home the same day.
Click to expand...

About a week ago, I got these:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00V75S784/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I see they are now out of stock though.
 
Fast Eddie B said:
An online lecture on the eclipse said many libraries are distributing eclipse glasses.

Saw them at Lowes in Murphy, NC a couple days ago.

We got ours on Amazon about a month ago.
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We have four planes full flying from home (KFAY) to Triple Tree in South Carolina. 7000'x400' grass strip, large flying starting the day before with lots of space for camping, food on site, etc.

I'll fly one of the clubs 172s with 2 of the pre-solo students aboard. I have a 5" MacCass with a solar filter installed. It's on a goto lat/lon mount so it will track accurately enough for the duration of the eclipse. I have a cool little cell phone mount, so I'll just use the excellent camera on the iPhone to take video and lift stills from it.

If the weather isn't good at Triple Tree, we may have to load back up and head your way, or just climb above it all and see it from the air.
 
sarge said:
We have four planes full flying from home (KFAY) to Triple Tree in South Carolina. 7000'x400' grass strip, large flying starting the day before with lots of space for camping, food on site, etc.

I'll fly one of the clubs 172s with 2 of the pre-solo students aboard. I have a 5" MacCass with a solar filter installed. It's on a goto lat/lon mount so it will track accurately enough for the duration of the eclipse. I have a cool little cell phone mount, so I'll just use the excellent camera on the iPhone to take video and lift stills from it.

If the weather isn't good at Triple Tree, we may have to load back up and head your way, or just climb above it all and see it from the air.
Click to expand...

Nice to have those options.
 
I got two pair of paper eclipse glasses and two pair of cheap binoculars (5X) with built-in solar filters for $13.82 total including tax at Toys R Us yesterday. They had a ton in stock and they were on sale for half off. Look in the seasonals section if you go, the staff didn't know where they were. I bought the binocs even though I have small binoculars with wielder's glass filters. Figured I could share them with people.
 
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Delvo said:
Celestron, a company which makes various kinds of optical equipment & lenses, offers not just eclipse glasses but also some solar-filtered binocular & such with various degrees of magnification, and filters you can attach to whatever gizmos you already have.

https://www.celestron.com/collections/eclipsmart-solar-safe-products
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I bought a pair of their 10 x 25 solar binoculars a couple weeks ago. I've been looking at the sun with them (on those rare recent occasions when the sun has actually been visible from my locale) and they work great. Anything silhouetted by the sun's disk, such as tree branches (or, hopefully, the moon!), is also visible through the binoculars crystal clear. In silhouette only, of course.

What I don't understand is why they also sell a 10 x 42 version of the solar binoculars. They're the same magnification (10) but a larger aperture (42 mm instead if 25). Why??!!?!?!!? That means the objective lenses gather more light, which is just what you need if you're trying to see something dim or at high magnification, but the sun is about the least dim thing you can look at (unless you're working with high-power lasers) and the magnification is the same. So in this case it just means the image has to be filtered more to compensate. So you can have bigger, heavier, more expensive binoculars that are not better in any way I can imagine.

All I can think of is that they expect users, after the eclipse, to dismantle the binoculars and remove the solar filters, and with the 10 x 42 you'd end up with a better pair for low-light viewing.
 
Late yesterday evening I noticed the moon is getting close to full. It's full on the 7th.

When it empties again, that's the eclipse!
 
Myriad said:
What I don't understand is why they also sell a 10 x 42 version of the solar binoculars.
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That is indeed rather humorous. I also bought the other ones.

We've had reservations in Portland for months, with the intention of driving south first thing in the morning. I've become sufficiently terrified of the probable traffic that we may just stay in Portland and watch it partial.
 
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