April 8 2024 - Blog Posts

April 8th, 2024 - Pictures of the Eclipse and Totality from Ohio (taken from my shitty iPhone)

reminder to all of my whores viewing the eclipse today:

-wear eclipse glasses. i don’t care how strong you think your eyes are, you’re gonna hurt yourself

-Aztecs thought Quetzalcoatl, a giant ass serpent, are the sun so if you don’t like snakes you better watch out cuz your next

-Mexican legend says that any pregnant woman that sees the eclipse will inadvertently cause her child’s face to get eaten by a jaguar later in life so, yknow, maybe close your eyes if superstition is your thing.

-please make sure you are aware of your surroundings. staring at the sky with dark glasses leaves you kinda vulnerable, so be by people you trust in a safe environment.

-eclipses can be seen as culturally bad, but really they are transformative. do something new, go see a friend, go on a date, buy a cake or something.

-go leave a flower on your loved ones grave or something. some Native American tradition calls this a time of mourning, so pay attention little live for those who can’t be with you to see the eclipse.

-no, this is not the end of the world. it’s just really cool.

-if your really worried that you like contracted a space disease then go and take a bath after. and if you’re not, take one just to relax. bathes are fun.

-you don’t need to have money to enjoy it. if you don’t have glasses then use something from here: https://www.statesman.com/story/news/state/2024/04/08/watch-solar-eclipse-safely-without-glasses-alternative-tree-leaves-colander-pinhole-projector-box/73242785007/#. i’ve used a colander to watch a partial eclipse and it was still awesome.

drink some water, grab your glasses, head to your lawn and enjoy the view. if you’re not in the path of totality or just won’t be seeing it at all, then enjoy the experience of knowing that’s somewhere on this planet something monumental is happening and you are alive for it.

April 8 2024

Frisco, Texas

Video I took of the total solar eclipse at college.

April 8th, 2024

Frisco, Texas

Here’s a photo I took of the total solar eclipse while at college. The video I took didn’t cooperate when I tried posting this earlier.

Here are some more photos

I must say, it's pretty poetic that I've gotten to season 6 of Vampire Diaries right before another solar eclipse happens in America. I certainly didn't plan it, but it does feel like my timing is very appropriate with this one. I do have questions about the accuracy of the eclipse portrayal in the show, though. I mean, a solar eclipse did in fact happen on May 10, 1994, and it was visible across much of the country, so that much is accurate. But I don't think Mystic Falls would've had quite as good of a view as they show it having. For reference, here's a map of the May 1994 eclipse path (credit: timeanddate.com):

And, if you'll remember, Mystic Falls is like two hours from my old hometown just a stone's throw north of Lynchburg, Virginia, as seen on the locator spell map (this one's all over tumblr, forgive me for not remembering what blog I grabbed it from):

So if you zoom in on the timeanddate map and pick somewhere closeish to there:

It looks like Mystic Falls would be getting a little over 77% coverage or so. It's also worth noting that the '94 eclipse was an annular eclipse, not a total eclipse like tomorrow's eclipse. That still means that the moon went directly in front of the sun, but it does mean that it was small enough/far enough from earth that you didn't quite get full coverage of the sun (thanks to weather.gov for the nifty graphic):

So, I'm not positive whether it would've looked quite as dark as was shown in the show:

Although, I must admit, in this video I found on youtube of the '94 eclipse, (part of me is shocked to find footage from then but I know I shouldn't be like yes they had cameras in the 90s) it actually looks more similar than I expected it to look, but I imagine it was most likely filmed within the path of totality:

But also, when Kai takes Bonnie to Portland, don't they see the eclipse again there? I couldn't find that clip on youtube just now, but Portland barely had any eclipse--only 42-43% coverage, so it would've been way milder of a visual effect, barely any dimming in the sky noticeable without eclipse glasses.

The funny thing is, the area where I live is going to be sitting right around 80% coverage tomorrow. I was lucky enough to get to travel to Missouri for the 2017 eclipse to get into the path of totality, but I'm afraid that it hasn't worked out for me to do so this year, which is immensely disappointing to me as an astronomy enjoyer, but I do still plan to go to an eclipse party and I'm going to start saving to try and get to Spain for the next total eclipse in 2026, which is going to be right around my 30th birthday (screaming). Anyways, it isn't great, but here's my best picture from the '17 eclipse:

I didn't even have a smartphone yet then, because despite it being 2017, I was somewhat of a luddite, so I had the purple flip phone I so stubbornly clung to and a point-and-click Nikon, but I still think this picture is pretty cool for what it is. Here's the zoom in so you can really see that ring of fire (and my shaking hands doubling the image):

Obviously you can find thousands of better eclipse pictures online, but that one's still special to me because it's mine. Anyways, I'll report back with smart phone pictures from whatever I see of the 80% total eclipse tomorrow to compare and contrast with Mystic Falls's 70% annular eclipse of the 90s, because from what I've heard it's going to be much less impressive than full totality was, but I've yet to watch a partial solar eclipse, so I'll just have to find out. Also, if you happen to have any vampiric loved ones trapped in a magical prison dimension who you need help freeing during the eclipse tomorrow, let me know and I'll see what I can do! ;) Hahaha. Anyways, happy eclipse everyone, and may we all possess sufficient self restraint to avoid eye damage (says the woman who has looked at the sun unprotected so many times and is probably going to go blind because of it some day. I know what I've done lol. Don't be me.)