The great North American Solar Eclipse of 2024

[surferguy]

I want to see this. I’m miffed at myself for not going a few years back when it was in Northern Idaho. This time around I want to travel to watch it.

If you check out this link you can see the path that it takes across North America. It also has a listing of some towns to consider for this adventure.

https://www.astronomy.com/observing/...rican-eclipse/

What I need help with is figuring out the place with the best odds of clear skies.

My initial thought was eastern Canada - Kingston or Montreal area - but I’m worried about cloudy skies. East Texas seems doable? Maybe Mexico?

Anybody else planning on this trip?

Ever seen an eclipse?

Edit: Forgot to add the date - April 8, 2024

[CaptainYooh]

We went to see it in Idaho. Camped in a farmer's field overnight. Was totally worth it. Absolutely amazing, spectacular event. In the middle of a hot summer day, everything went dark and cold for a few minutes and the birds stopped chirping; total silence. It was really spooky.

[Street Pharmacist]

Originally Posted by surferguy

I want to see this. I’m miffed at myself for not going a few years back when it was in Northern Idaho. This time around I want to travel to watch it.

If you check out this link you can see the path that it takes across North America. It also has a listing of some towns to consider for this adventure.

https://www.astronomy.com/observing/...rican-eclipse/

What I need help with is figuring out the place with the best odds of clear skies.

My initial thought was eastern Canada - Kingston or Montreal area - but I’m worried about cloudy skies. East Texas seems doable? Maybe Mexico?

Anybody else planning on this trip?

Ever seen an eclipse?

Edit: Forgot to add the date - April 8, 2024

I saw an eclipse while working for a UK based self driving camping outfit in France in 1999. The owner of the campsite I was at was bat$#!% crazy. She believed wholeheartedly that the world was going to end with the eclipse so she had her whole family over. She was crying and wailing so loud you could hear it everywhere and then when it was over she was hugging her family and running around screaming. The eclipse was cool, but that nonsense is what sticks out most in my mind

[bizaro86]

I think there are 3 primary considerations.

1) likelihood of good weather
2) tourism capacity of the town/city
3) other stuff to do outside the eclipse

(1) is obvious. From Calgary probably the easiest place to go within the totality would be Niagara Falls: fly to Toronto and rent a car. But early April weather there is pretty iffy, with a good chance it'll be rainy. Texas/Mexico are better for this.

For (2), I'm mainly talking about not getting screwed by the accommodations and traffic. Last time there were quite a few reports of people who booked inexpensive hotel rooms in little towns getting canceled on at the last minute when prices ballooned. I think big cities are likely better for this, as there's more hotel supply so rates are less likely to jump so high. Also, a town with 1 traffic light and 5000 visitors is going to be totally overwhelmed. If you go somewhere like Austin or Mazatlan they're used to tons of tourists.

3) if I'm flying somewhere I want to do other stuff while I'm there, and I think Austin/Mazatlan are good for that also. BBQ/live music in one, beaches/Mexican food in the other.

[photon]

I was thinking about this too.. now is probably the time to get it all booked and yeah trying to stick with a larger centre seems like less chance to have things go wrong.

[powderjunkie]

Austin.

[Bigtime]

Having seen the last one down in Idaho Falls I'd strongly recommend any of the sites that give you totality for 4 minutes or more. If I recall we had about a minute and a half of totality. 4 minutes would be simply incredible.

[PepsiFree]

Always thought the Japanese one looked kind of lame so I can’t see this one being much better.

[D as in David]

I saw the one in Winnipeg in 1979 and it was pretty cool. But I didn't have any protective eyewear to view it so I was really only able to experience it by looking around at how it affected the light around us. We were up on top of our two-story house so we could view its impact on the neighbourhood.

[lambeburger]

Went down to Nashville in 2017 specifically to view the total eclipse (and to give the liver a workout at Tootsies). Was partly cloudy, but the clouds parted mere seconds before the total eclipse. Birds started going nuts in the sudden darkness, it was awesome. Highly recommend traveling to see it. However, if you don't you can always wait until 2044 when a total solar eclipse will be over Alberta

[surferguy]

I didn’t know about the one in Calgary in 20 years. Cool.

[Flacker]

We too went down to the Northern Idaho desert for the last close one. Being the desert it was a high chance of being clear, and it was well worth travelling to see. Both my girlfriend and I were gobsmacked, would be the best decription.

Duration matters in totality, I think Bigtime is right it was about 90 seconds on centerline in Idaho.

Highest durations are Mazatlán, MX area for the 2024 event, but being coastal you could miss it due to weather, which is a hazard of this kind of activity. Desert areas of southern Texas, are likely the best bet to get a clear, long duration view of the 2024 eclipse (over 4 minutes, 30 seconds, an exceptionally rare opportunity). This isn't secret information however, and the area will be an absolute gongshow I'm sure. That was the nice thing about Idaho, there aren't any big population centers close by. It wasn't that hard to find your own patch of dirt. Texas I would suggest the more remote the better, Waco is right on centerline, for example.

[Cowboy89]

I now live in the path of totality for this one and will be taking it in if the skies are clear!

[troutman]

“I'm just an unfrozen caveman in your cold, unforgiving world. When I see a solar eclipse, I think, "Oh no! Is the moon eating the sun?!"

[You Need a Thneed]

Originally Posted by lambeburger

Went down to Nashville in 2017 specifically to view the total eclipse (and to give the liver a workout at Tootsies). Was partly cloudy, but the clouds parted mere seconds before the total eclipse. Birds started going nuts in the sudden darkness, it was awesome. Highly recommend traveling to see it. However, if you don't you can always wait until 2044 when a total solar eclipse will be over Alberta

The 2044 one is with the sun lower in the sky.

We were in Spokane for the last one, and had thought of driving down another 4? Hours into eastern Oregon to see totality, but ended up not doing it. Still have some #16 ending helmet inserts.