Transcontinental Eclipse of ’17

Out early this morning, I was fortunate to see a beautiful thin old moon. I first saw it before 4:30, three quarters of an hour after it rose, and an hour and a quarter before sunrise. The moon should be an aid to navigation, but I found it quite a distraction working my way through the roads leaving Dulles airport. Its shadowed side was centered at 2:30 relative to the horizon, and Venus was at the moon’s 1 o’clock. They were also striking in a different way at 5:20, after the sky had begun dawning.

Seeing the moon two days before its new phase of course brought the thought, “Only two more orbits until the eclipse.” So, any plans to catch some shade under the path of totality? For myself, I will spend the weekend camped on the shore of Lake Greenwood in South Carolina, five miles south of the central line. Lake Greenwood is also twenty-five miles from I-26 which crosses the state on a bearing remarkably close to that of the eclipse’s path, so depending on cloud forecasts, we may set out Monday morning for the coast near Charleston or the other way toward Tennessee. Totality reaches South Carolina in the afternoon 2:36:10 and departs her coast at 2:49:01.

For any thinking about what they want to do on Monday, August 21, here is a link to NASA’s helpful webpage: link and alternate link.