I live in Cayce, SC.

I might have to drive to Columbia SC.

I'm in the Midwest, and right now the moon is in the western sky, lining up on it's final approach for the eclipse 8/21.


All indicators are GO, we are cleared for ECLIPSE, final trajectory thingy locked in, F-A-B !!!

I went to a funeral in Sylva once. I used to live in Highlands.

(August 12, 2017 at 11:14 am)vorlon13 Wrote: I'm in the Midwest, and right now the moon is in the western sky, lining up on it's final approach for the eclipse 8/21.


All indicators are GO, we are cleared for ECLIPSE, final trajectory thingy locked in, F-A-B !!!

If the moon misses, we would have other problems.

With the laser range finding experiments, the position of the moon is literally known to an accuracy of inches.

A sudden discrepancy would definitely be brown trousers time.

IIRC, due to ice movements and weather related shifts in where the rain is, the precise location of the earth's surface intercepting the moon's shadow is less precisely knowable than where the moon is relative to the center of mass of the earth.

(August 12, 2017 at 11:29 am)vorlon13 Wrote: With the laser range finding experiments, the position of the moon is literally known to an accuracy of inches.

A sudden discrepancy would definitely be brown trousers time.

A surprise change in the universal gravitational constant would be a bummer.

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(August 12, 2017 at 11:31 am)vorlon13 Wrote: IIRC, due to ice movements and weather related shifts in where the rain is, the precise location of the earth's surface intercepting the moon's shadow is less precisely knowable than where the moon is relative to the center of mass of the earth.

Yes, meters rather than centimeters

Computing when historical eclipses have occurred is easy, computing precisely where they were visible gets harder the further back you go.

Even the 2011 Japan earthquake would change things, IIRC the distance between Japan and the US changed by 11 feet, and that is way bigger than the accuracy to which the position of the moon is known.

(August 12, 2017 at 9:27 am)vorlon13 Wrote: Fucking Amazon.

Nebraska is serious about hiways that day.  Construction projects have been suspended, no lane closures, and oversize loads prohibited.  It will help a little, but maybe they should be stressing carpooling ??

Went to the leading retinal/glaucoma MD's office this morning. They were giving away glasses earlier but had run out. Suppose to get 3000 in this next week so I'm on their waiting list. Not going to hold my breath.

Menards has a $50 welding helmet that will do in a pinch. 

Gonna keep searching.