Official 21-Aug-2017 Solar Eclipse Thread

[sunnydog]

Hey Everybody! So maybe being a year out front for planning to see a total solar eclipse is too uptight for some of you baywindow owners, but here's a representative headline from my neck of the woods:

Madras, Oregon: 25,000 visitors expected to converge -- all hotel rooms in town already booked! Japanese tourists book all 132 rooms at a nearby resort hotel.
http://www.bendbulletin.com/localstate/4456288-151...rer=fpblob

We bus owners have an advantage: we are not tied to hotel rooms, but can set up camp anywhere. Here's an Oregon State Parks webpage that shows all the campgrounds in the path of totality:
http://oregonstateparks.org/index.cfm?do=v.page&id=60

Here's a key link for all you United Statesers, showing the path through the USA and state-by-state maps. For most people, it's not more than a day's drive.
http://www.eclipse2017.org/2017/path_through_the_US.htm

And a general map:

Are you planning a trip to see the 2 minutes and 40.2 seconds of totality? You should! the next solar eclipse in the US isn't until 2024...Use this thread to post photos and text about your trip preparations here!
Then post eclipse photos with buses in them!
sunnydog
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'71 Westy w/ a 1776 singleport, 34P3 & 205Q. Points.

[notchboy]

Cant we all just camp in your yard?
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[aerosurfer]

That's my half birthday next year! Actually every year that day, but still at least I have something to really look forward too
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Rebuild your own FI Harness..My Harness

77 Westy 2.0L Rockin and Rolling Resto!

72 Sportsmobile (sold)
79 Tran$porter... Parts car money machine (gone)

[Xevin]

Alright, I would love to see how many buses we could jam into Sunnydogs farm. You're right Madras will have to many tourist. Thanks for the invite
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Keep on Busin'

[sunnydog]

Wait, what?
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'71 Westy w/ a 1776 singleport, 34P3 & 205Q. Points.

[sunnydog]

Yes it's not a baywindow, but here's a solar eclipse story from 1954 with a classic VW bus photo. What are your plans for 21-Aug-2017 and what will you load on your roof??

Charles H. Smiley was a professor of Astronomy and director of Ladd Observatory at Brown University from 1938 -70. During his career, he led fourteen solar eclipse expeditions to far flung locations around the world. Many of these expeditions are documented in scrapbooks and can be viewed in the Brown Digital Repository. The scrapbooks serve as part astronomical log recording scientific data, part photo album, and part travelogue. The Smileys, along with their good friends and colleagues, the Reeds, were fastidious in their collecting of materials for inclusion in the scrapbooks. Everything from cocktail receipts to diplomatic correspondence were carefully pasted into place.

One scrapbook documents an astronomical expedition to record the total eclipse of the sun on June 30, 1954. Brown University sent teams to Canada, Pakistan, and Sweden to record the eclipse. An Eastman Kodak executive and two Brown students made up the Canadian team. Charles H. Smiley traveled to Pakistan with Brown Grad student Lt. Somachai Chansuvan, while Smiley’s wife Margaret, along with Mary Quirk ’22, Constance Herlihy Reed ’34, and Donald S. Reed traveled to Sweden, the key point for observations. The scrapbook tells the chronological tale of the trip through ephemera, photographs, postcards, Swedish and American newspaper clippings, letters, and reports on the expedition, all providing a portrait of mid-century travel to Sweden.

The expedition team arrived in Gothenburg on May 21st, where they spent some time sightseeing. In early June, the party departed from their lodgings at The Palace Hotel, after loading all matter of astronomical equipment onto the roof of a red VW bus, and traveled inland to Småland.

The group stayed at Sunds Herrgard, a lake country estate, and searched for the best site to observe the eclipse. Once the site, in a nearby rye field, was decided upon, local farmers helped to construct a cement pier and platform on which to mount the photo-theodolite (an optical tracking instrument consisting of a camera and theodolite a single tripod).

An emergency trip to Jönköping was made for parts when it was discovered that the theodolite had sustained damage during the transatlantic crossing. Sadly, on June 30th bands of clouds crossed the blue skies and the team were unable to capture any images of the eclipse. Mrs. Smiley’s cablegram to the public relations director at Brown summed up the expedition’s observations in one word…”clouds”. The islands of Öland and Gotland turned out to be the best Swedish observation points. For the Canadian team, and back in Providence, the whole event was hidden under cloud cover. All was not lost, however; Charles Smiley’s cablegram from Pakistan cheerfully read “Complete success. Cloudless skies. Photos to be developed soon. Prime Minister Present.”
Once the eclipse was over, the Swedish group once again became tourists and headed to Stockholm and environs, visiting Gamla Stan, glass blowing facilities, medieval castles, the open air museum Skansen, and the Saltsjöbaden Observatory, naturligtvis.

Excerpted from the Curio blog entry at Brown University Library, 17-July-2013, at http://library.brown.edu/dps/curio/tag/solar-eclipse/
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'71 Westy w/ a 1776 singleport, 34P3 & 205Q. Points.

[tristessa]

I got ahold of deschutestrout last week and AT THE TIME he said that they still had campground space over in Maupin and if we wanted to put a group together and give him a headcount he'd try to make sure there's some room for a bunch of VW's ..

Maupin is about three miles north of the totality zone.

[notchboy]

[sunnydog]

Yes! Plan and schedule up those events! The internet says obscuration at Sunnydog's forest farm will be only 98%... so dark, but not fully occluded. Besides, do I really want both Notch and Xevin drinking gin at my place at 10 in the morning? I guess somebody might see some kinda blackout...

How may Bus Pilots are in Boise? I just drove from Boise to McCall and back last weekend. Everyone in the entire Boise region is probably gonna take the 55 to Smith's Ferry. Maybe some folks will head over to Stanley, population 63? Which is better?
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'71 Westy w/ a 1776 singleport, 34P3 & 205Q. Points.

[tristessa]

Just need a headcount for now, but things are filling up FAST -- every hotel in Madras was booked solid back in June.

[sunnydog]

Now it's even appearing in Craig'slist advertising...

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'71 Westy w/ a 1776 singleport, 34P3 & 205Q. Points.

[TomWesty]

If you follow its trajectory, the path runs right through my hometown. My band is already booked for a festival with an eclipse theme. Otherwise I'd be PNW bound!
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If you haven't bled on them, you haven't worked on them.
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[vwwestyman]

Sounds fun.

The eclipse path follows closely the path I'd take to drive up there! It goes through my grandpa's town in Nebraska that is only a couple hours away, but I wouldn't mind an excuse to head to that part of the country either.

Put me as a Maybe.
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Dave Cook

President, Wild Westerner Club

1978 Champagne Edition Westy, repowered to '97 Jetta TDI
1973 Wild Westerner
My Thing

[Xevin]

[tristessa]

I messaged a rough headcount but didn't hear anything back yet. Might just try calling over there tomorrow if I have time...

[sunnydog]

[sunnydog]

I found an online vendor that is having a sale on 9" x 12" magnetic signs. Depending on quantity, they'll get down to only $3 to $4 each . For example, 30 magnets that size (for the tailgate?) would only be $110. If I scrimp down into 30 mil material instead of 45mil, they get even cheaper and 50 signs would still only be $137... That is completely do-able!

Bigger signs are not on sale and cost more, so they'd be up over $250.
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'71 Westy w/ a 1776 singleport, 34P3 & 205Q. Points.

[notchboy]

Id be down to camp in that ring as well as buy 2 signs.
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[Xevin]

[chabanais]

What about a total eclipse of the heart?
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"I spud therefore I yam."