The Great American Eclipse - 21st August 2017

Hey guys.   If you desire seeing a total solar eclipse at least once in your lifetime, then the one exclusively delivered to the Americans on August 21st 2017 might be the best opportunity to see one, as most other total eclipses seem to occur in more remote parts of the world.

 

 

Which is why I decided to book accommodation right now for a 5 day trip to Casper, Wyoming.

 

And if you want to do the same (if you havent already)...you have to act now as accommodation for areas of totality and least cloud cover rate percentage are all fully booked!  I wish I acted earlier because I was aiming for Madras in Oregon where it appears to be the ideal city with the lowest cloud cover rate on the ecliptic path but bloody hell, everywhere was completely booked.  However, Casper, Wyoming was a good alternative...if not potentially better as totality is half a minute longer and almost peak duration (max: 2mins 40sec), has very low cloud coverage rate too but I got lucky with booking as just two b&bs were still available.

 

But the eclipse spans east to west coast slicing North America in half, so there are plenty of locations to choose.  Its just about finding a good location with reasonably low average rate of August cloud cover.  I was initially going for Charleston, South Carolina but I remembered that August is the peak of the hurricane season and it also it has the worst cloud coverage rate of 80%!

 

January Astronomy Now magazine had an excellent in depth guide.  These are the info sites I've used to plan:

 

http://xjubier.free.fr/en/site_pages/solar_eclipses/TSE_2017_GoogleMapFull.html

(Excellent eclipse info overlay on google maps, just click on any location and it pops up with the eclipse stats)

 

https://weatherspark.com/averages/29955/8/Casper-Wyoming-United-States

Overall details of the eclipse itself with animations too.

 

 

https://weatherspark.com/averages/29955/8/Casper-Wyoming-United-States

For weather average rates for all town and cities.

 

Airbnb is highly worth considering to find accommodation with home owners who are not listed as b&b or hotels.

 

If any of you think we can make a group trip of this at a location with enough rooms available (doesnt have to be on the elliptical line as we can make road trips to the eclipse, I can sacrifice my deposit on what I booked and join you.

 

Flights to the western regions of America (Oregon, Idaho etc) range from £600 to £750 for cheapest flights from London during the August month.   However, flight bookings for that far in advance are available yet, I think have to wait 7 months before they are bookable?

 

Just to really rub it into us, Brits, America gets another total solar eclipse in 2026!  But 2017 will be the better one apparantly in terms of its altitude coverage.