how dark did it get there??

I didn't have the glasses, so I just glanced up for a second like you would any other day. So I obviously couldn't see anything. I just thought it'd be a lot darker outside. That was an ordinary cloudy day.

yea i didn't think i'd see anything either since it was so cloudy, but when you looked through glasses you could see it

Sweet merciful crap I hope that's for realz.

edit: Apparently it is ... and here's a different photo so he must've done it at least twice.

Truly, the blind leading the blind.

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Power is always in the hands of the masses of men. What oppresses the masses is their own ignorance, their own short-sighted selfishness.
- Henry George

That's probably also his golden shower face.

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He can squint his way down to like twenty, thirty vision.

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You know me like that.

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jeesus christ that guy is one dumb mother fucker.

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the world will always the world. your entire existence is defined by your response.

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That was the coolest thing I've ever seen.
We ended up in Grand Island Nebraska... direct center of totality. Totality was probably just under 2 minutes.
I've seen a few partial eclipse before... the one I remember best was may 10 1994, an annular eclipse while I was in high school. Curiously enough that was the day they executed Gacy.
Anyway, I suppose I can understand why you might be underwhelmed seeing only a partial eclipse. Even at about 98% the sun was still too bright to look at and you really didn't see the shape of it.
But, watching thru eclipse glasses... as the last seconds of light passed by the sun, a tiny sliver of reddish orange remained, a bit of an odd colored flash then you take off your glasses.
There is a straight up black hole in the sky... black as coal surrounded by ethereal white whisper of light. The temperature dropped at least 12 degrees in seconds. 2 minutes of that amazing sight. DW noticed a flash of orange from the 4 o'clock of the disk and thought it was over but we learned later it was visible solar prominence jetting off the sun... a massive flare shooting hundreds of thousands of miles away from the Sun twisted by angry magnetic fields.
Although the crowd I was amongst was whooping and hollering, some oohs and ahs, it was oddly quiet. The loud conversations and sounds of the kids throwing around frisbees and football's and the mangled music from dozens of stereos silenced.
Then a pinprick of light, in 2 or 3 seconds almost already too bright to look at. The hushed tones of people anxiously anticipating the blocking out of the sun celebrated its return with genuine enthusiasm. Watching the moon draw away from the Sun was a fitting postscript, an epilogue worth it's own time enjoying.
I've never seen anything like this.
The wait for the next one. 2024, Indiana, Ohio anyone?

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"Play until it hurts, then play until it hurts to not play."
http://soundcloud.com/darkside124 HOF 2013, MM Champion 2014

This guy gets it.

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

Glad you enjoyed it Darko. I had wondered why you didn't post earlier but now I see.

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Elections have consequences.

That sounds neat.

Except the Nebraska part.

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Good description, Darkside.

And to think, Bryant's throw to Rizzo was even less time... breathtaking...

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Yeah I'm a bit underwhelmed by Nebraska.

The people are cool. Oddly they think were yanks which is funny to me.

I refused to take pictures. I had to just watch.
But here's a screenshot of where we ended up... I don't think we could have gotten any closer to the center of the path...



So... we ended up watching the weather and deciding to continue West for the clearest possible skies. I had heard that Lincoln, where we overnighted and on the fringe of the path anyway, was rained out totally.

So I found a Wal-Mart in Grand Island. Just drove 70 minutes West and it was a perfect spot located, naturally n on the edge of a massive cornfield and about 3 miles off 80.

The parking lot was pretty empty when we arrived around 9 but by 11 it was packed. Kinda felt like a tailgate. People grilling, kids playing with footballs, people walking around chatting and checking out whatever optical gear you wrangled out for the occasion.

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"Play until it hurts, then play until it hurts to not play."
http://soundcloud.com/darkside124 HOF 2013, MM Champion 2014

ummmm

Lol... photobucket does weird shit on hotel wifi...
Updated.

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"Play until it hurts, then play until it hurts to not play."
http://soundcloud.com/darkside124 HOF 2013, MM Champion 2014

Wife and kids said it was very cool. Kids were pumped even after the car ride home. I should have taken a sick day. After reading Darko's description, I really wish I would have.

We were down near Sullivan, Mo. it was dark. Like see a couple stars in sky dark. Wife had fired the car up to see temperature change and the auto headlights kicked on dark. I found it pretty neat how the nocturnal sounds started kicking off and temperature dropped significantly. The shadows were really cool as all the light that made it through tree leaves was crescent shaped.

We were basically by ourselves. I'll do it again in 7 years when the next one comes. Instead of eclipse glasses we used welding googles with 14 lenses.

I have a picture illustrating how dark it gets.
It's odd... the dark. When it starts getting dark at night time it's yellows and reds and oranges.
This was just a strange dimming. No sunset type colors. Just... dark.
Standby while I load some pics up to kind of illustrate as best I can.

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"Play until it hurts, then play until it hurts to not play."
http://soundcloud.com/darkside124 HOF 2013, MM Champion 2014

Also there were a few partridge pea plants that close leaves at night. They closed up for the duration of totality.

But yeah, a slick fade. I didn't see any crazy colors but we had very little cloud cover so I don't know if that would make a difference.

I heard 14s were a bit much and 12s were not enough and I can't for the life of me remember seeing 13s anywhere ever.

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"Play until it hurts, then play until it hurts to not play."
http://soundcloud.com/darkside124 HOF 2013, MM Champion 2014

This fucking WiFi is killing me.
I could upload pictures faster by faxing the frigging 1s and 0s to you.

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"Play until it hurts, then play until it hurts to not play."
http://soundcloud.com/darkside124 HOF 2013, MM Champion 2014

I don't think they were too much but who knows. If you weren't looking at the sun you were blind is all I know but you got a good view of sun. I just preferred them go the eclipse glasses as I knew my kids couldn't screw up and look around them. I heard of some people stacking lenses. Is there an 8? So like an 8 and a 5. I dunno.

Ok... so here's at about 90% totality...






And here is maybe 30 seconds before totality...





I didn't take any pics at totality... I just wanted to experience it.

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"Play until it hurts, then play until it hurts to not play."
http://soundcloud.com/darkside124 HOF 2013, MM Champion 2014

I believe ya.
Just relaying what I'd heard... you know more about it than I do.
If 14s work that's great... I have 14s. Didn't bring em because I got bad intel.

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"Play until it hurts, then play until it hurts to not play."
http://soundcloud.com/darkside124 HOF 2013, MM Champion 2014

Damn....we really missed out here. It was basically bright the entire time.

I used the eclipse glasses and the 14's. The 14's were definitely darker but I'm not sure how much of that wS the goggle affect of having your eyes completely incased. I think the view of the various stages was about the same.

It was a cool experience. My brother is all bummed because he couldn't go. Two young kids and 4 broken bones seem to be too much to overcome.