Total Solar Eclipse, 21-Aug-2017

[raven]

RJ said:

The sun will be a little south of due east, maybe 20 degrees from horizon, so you want to find a spot you can see that.

The eclipse is occurring at a latitude 45 degrees n of the equator. 9AM UT = 10AM PST implies sun at 45 degrees s of east; In mid-August the Sun is high, I'd guess over 45 degrees above the horizon when the eclipse starts. The west side of Jeff will be mostly in shade.

[adamschneider]

Park Ridge DOES have views to the north and south. Park Butte, at the end of a spur that extends south from Park Ridge, has some of the best views anywhere. If I was the only one who knew about the eclipse, that's where I'd go. (As it is, I'll be giving Jefferson Park a very wide berth.)

Non-eclipse panorama from Park Butte, taken in mid-August at 1:09 P.M.:

[retired jerry]

45 - okay - thanks - I just eyeballed my GPS

[raven]

Hi Jerry,

Didn't want to call you out, but I figured this thread has too any eyeballs to not have a good working estimate of the Sun's position.

Steve

[retired jerry]

no problem, thanks for the info

that must be my new trick for googling - post any old shit and then someone will put the correct info

[adamschneider]

No need for "estimates"... at Jefferson Park, at 10:20am, the sun will be 41° above the horizon and 29° south of east.

[raven]

Adam, where did you find that calculation? It might be a quite useful tool.

[pcg]

Here's the tool I've been using...
http://xjubier.free.fr/en/site_pages/so ... pFull.html

[adamschneider]

Adam, where did you find that calculation? It might be a quite useful tool.

An app on my phone. There are many out there that will calculate the sun and moon position, and some of them will also plot the vectors on a movable map so you can see what's on the horizon behind sunset, moonrise, etc.

But for simple "where will the sun be during the eclipse" info, the xjubier.free.fr site is the easiest and best.

[SWriverstone]

So...a few thoughts.

First (and this is admittedly a question) why are so many folks here planning to stick to the Cascades for the eclipse? Isn't there a better-than-even chance it'll be cloudy at 10am in the morning? (Seems like the safest bet is go farther east.)

Second, I keep hearing that literally every human being west of the Mississippi will be coming to Oregon—and every square inch of land in the path will be shoulder-to-shoulder packed. I'm thinking this is at least a bit exaggerated. I guess this doesn't make sense to me because the eclipse path isn't just in Oregon—it keeps going. (But maybe the view is gradually degraded the farther east you go?)

Third...in my mind, the $20,000 question is...will there be so many people in the path that even **all possibilities for dispersed camping on national forest or BLM land** will be filled?

If you look at the entire Ochoco NF and the region just to the north (encompassing the different John Day Fossil Beds NM sites), it seems to me that there are enough potential dispersed camping sites—and fabulous viewing spots—to accommodate 50,000 people or more.

Am I missing something? (And good point someone made about the heat-definitely important to consider!)

Scott