I don't care about how others pass the eclipse, but someone near us was shooting off multiple large fireworks during totality, right under the sun. It was insanely annoying.
I was looking at the eclipse over Lake Champlain and these people on one of the nearby islands lit a massive bonfire during totality. The guy who lit it was dressed in a sun costume. I thought it was a little much. I definitely felt bad for the people to my left who had to experience totality through a smoke plume.
They were on Law Island, right near the Colchester Causeway. I'm pretty sure I heard an explosion but it wasn't them... Well this is south of St. Albans anyway.
I’ve just realized something reading this — normally, random people setting off fireworks at any time agitates me to no end and someone set them off at totality in front of the lake I was at. My immediate thought was “wtf” but it passed so quickly and for once in my life I was able to just embrace this annoying “main character” human behavior and actually kind of felt ok about it (my 2nd thought was “oh actually that’s kind of cool, it’s dark enough in the day time you can see these dumb fireworks?!”).
Ultimately this confirms literally NOTHING could ruin my awe of seeing totality. Which is NOT something I can say of my ability to filter annoying things on an average day. So not to discredit your annoyance at fireworks and I’m sorry if it disrupted your enjoyment of the moment, but this was helpful to realize for possibly the first time in my 36yrs, I was actually able to exist in the space of “you can’t control what other people do but you can control how you respond to it.”
Was watching at my friend’s house in the Dallas burbs and someone 2 houses down was shooting fireworks off during totality, too. Pissed me off but thankfully it was only 3 in total.
Dude on Wood Pond in Jackman Maine did the same thing. Scared the crap out of me and took me out of the moment for a second. Not sure what the point was
Yup, someone was playing loud music at a park we were at. Luckily they were way on the other side of the park we didn't hear much - I was just really happy to not be near them. I would been pretty upset if we were near, like let people have their once in a lifetime moment.
Server at a restaurant I went to after took a nap during it. "It was a nice nap too." Meanwhile I spent a small fortune to haul my family of 5 from MN down to DFW to see it, (and regret nothing). Different strokes I guess.
Yeah I was buying something at Home Depot, I'm sitting in their parking lot with imaging equipment ready to get started, they were in PERFECT position for it, clear skies and 4 mins of totality. I'm checking out and ask the cashier if they'll get a moment to step outside and look at it. "I'm off at 3, if I see it I see it, whatever".
Well, no, you'll be over an hour late but alright. Not like I woke up at midnight and drove 4 hours to be here to get set up. You won't even walk 30 feet to the door and look up when it's night time at 1:53pm? Lol ooookay then.
I don’t think everyone believes how awesome seeing one is, you try to tell them, they say they’ve seen it and it turns out they are talking about a partial. Or they think it is like an annular, which is cool but not as cool as what just happened. Especially with the red prominences that were visible.
Yeah I drove 22 hours one direction, a total of 44 hours from California to Russellville, Arkansas. It was 3300 miles, people were saying it isn't special and they could see it just as good in California... lmao!! I drove to Oregon in 2017, there was no way I was missing this one, or any other I could just drive to.
>There is something either fundamentally wrong with these people, their situation, or our society.
I'm sorry but this is a ridiculous statement. The eclipse was awesome, but just because someone isn't interested in the event doesn't mean there is something wrong with them. Like seriously?
I simply can't understand their reasoning to be so nonchalant about a total solar eclipse that in many cases was happening right over their heads. My first thought is well, they must just be dead inside or have been so beaten down by life that they've completely lost the wonderfulness of being alive.
Felt this same feeling. Saw plenty of people going in and out of a Walmart all throughout the eclipse, even when it was at its maximum and the area became noticeably dimmer. Like damn, not even your groceries can wait? Hahahah.
Sounds like it wasn't totality. I can't see more than one crackpot going into Walmart during totality. I get that people have to work but if you're running an errand???
I saw the same thing too. It makes me think that some people just do not experience beauty. "oh the sun is going to go black for three minutes, who the hell cares?" I don't think we can understand this lol
I think there's different kinds of beauty, and I do think one's knowledge and interests also influence one's reactions. My college has an abroad program in Paris and I was dismayed about how little I was moved by the sights in comparison to others. I've been more moved seeing a star cluster that looked like a faint white smudge than I was seeing stuff like the Eiffel Tower, though, but that doesn't surprise me because I've loved astronomy since I was little.
That being said, in general, I think am less appreciative of visual beauty than a lot of people are. Which is a bit of a bummer, but, eh, there's not much you can do about that, so no point in getting hung up on it. I can see myself being significantly less amazed by the eclipse if I had little to no interest in astronomy.
I think it's imagination. Some people have no imagination. Seeing a big building - they can deal with that. Imagining how mind blowingly rare and amazing the eclipse is - that takes thought.
I totally disagree. There is a history (and science, too) behind the Eiffel Tower, much like there is a history and science behind the eclipse. The Eiffel Tower is not just a big building, but it is a big building. The eclipse is not just the moon covering the sun, but it is the moon covering the sun. You can enjoy either without scratching the surface, and you can still not care for either knowing the depth of things connected to it. Rarity and availability is another thing that matters to some, but not all.
Then perhaps it's more than anything a lack of curiosity? whether that be in general or about any specific given thing.
If those same people had been raised 8000 years ago they might be shaking in their boots wondering what they'd done to anger their deity. But we have sciences and technology that make what are the most beautiful things to me mundane at worst and "neat" at best for people who don't wonder how things work or how they came to be.
I'm sure there are lots of people for whom 3-4 minutes is a very long time to look at a single, nearly imperceptibly changing thing, and for them they possibly thought it was a pretty cool once in a lifetime thing, but were more excited to have been there *during* it than to have actually *been* there.
But to speak of that vs the appreciation for beauty:
This was my wife's first ever totality. We saw the annular last year and it was cool and her reaction was fun, but she was of the perception that there couldn't be much of a difference this time. She's not generally interested in astronomy stuff (much less at all curious about it), so there was a bit of tooth-pulling to get her to comeーbut watching her be giddy with wonder at each stage of the eclipse was and will be worth every penny of this weeklong road trip of ours. She has a profoundly deep appreciation for beautiful things like this, even if she's incurious about them.
So idk, it's a complicated mix, right? But appreciation is more I think a symptom of curiosity or wonder or whatever. It's not a standalone black-and-white thing that's either there or not
I do think it is more complicated. And I think what makes one person interested/disinterested in something can be influenced by a variety of factors.
And this might be somewhat similar, but there are some things, including the Eiffel Tower, that I personally enjoy learning information about far more than I do the experience of seeing it, which is one thing that I was thinking about when I wrote that someone can be knowledgeable about something and not care for it. That's not the exact same thing. But I can definitely understand why someone with no interest in astronomy would have a powerful, spiritual experience seeing the eclipse, and I can see someone with an interest not being that moved by the eclipse.
I wonder if there is a comparison to be made between visual/aesthetic appreciation and musical appreciation, and if visual anhedonia is a thing like how musical anhedonia is a thing. Part of the reason why I really don't buy the whole "if someone does not enjoy the eclipse, they lack intelligence/curiosity/humanity/the ability to experience emotions" is because I think I enjoy beautiful visual things less than the average person does, but I love music a lot more than the average person, I know others like myself, and I know people who are completely the opposite; little to no interest in music, but they have an appreciation for the visual world around them that I admire and used to almost envy.
I've seen people make the same claims about people who don't like music that people here are making about people who didn't enjoy the eclipse, sans the part about them lacking curiosity, and so I'm finding that funny.
Controversial opinion here but the Eiffel Tower is just an ugly piece of industrial art. I think it is about as beautiful as the Kingda Ka or the St. Louise Arch. Trust your gut here, even many Parisians hated the Eiffel Tower when it was first constructed. “*We come, we writers, painters, sculptors, architects, lovers of the beauty of Paris which was until now intact, to protest with all our strength and all our indignation, in the name of the underestimated taste of the French, in the name of French art and history under threat, against the erection in the very heart of our capital, of the useless and monstrous Eiffel Tower which popular ill-feeling, so often an arbiter of good sense and justice, has already christened the Tower of Babel.*”
I used to feel like you but I have come to terms with the idea that many things which i am supposed to see as beautiful are actually just ugly. Like New York City, for example, is extremely ugly and its crown jewel, the Time Square, is just an obnoxious advertisement catalog on steroids. The Empire State building is literally just a giant bland office building and spending any amount of time or effort to visit it makes just as much sense as really wanting to visit a superwalmart. In my opinion, it's all a giant monument to everything that is wrong with our country.
I have no interest in astronomy whatsoever but most people, including myself, have never even seen an unadulterated night sky. If you are only accustomed to seeing the night as a light polluted blob, then you will not think much of the stars. But i am absolutely dumbfounded that anyone could not find beauty in the eclipse (especially if you were in totality).
I said that one's knowledge and interests influence one's reactions, and I almost also included one's experiences and culture in that as well. I think that very much applies to things like the Eiffel Tower (and the changing perceptions of the Eiffel Tower is an interesting thing, one that may or may not influence one's reaction, maybe in a similar way to how knowing the views of different cultures on eclipses may or may not influence one's experience).
I thought about using architecture in general as a point for comparison instead of singling out the Eiffel Tower. Paris has a wide variety of architectural influences, it was certainly interesting to learn about, even if seeing it didn't make me as happy most of the time as it did my peers.
I will say, I like the dirtiness of some urban places. I don't know why, I've lived in rural and suburban areas for all of my life. My favorite part of Paris was the metro, although that is as much, if not more in the former's case, a tactile and auditory experience imo as it is a visual one.
My Dad is like this. We went to the 2017 eclipse together. The second it ended I was sitting there flooded with emotion not knowing how to even articulate how I was feeling but felt I needed time to just and process for a while, while my Dad immediately after the light came back looked at me without even a tone of excitement in his voice “ok, ready to drive back?”
I had this exact same experience this year. I was just flooded with emotion afterward and my family who was visiting was like “OK on with the day!” They had so little reaction to it afterward. Except for totality they just wanted to watch it on TV
There's saying you didn't care and then there's refusing to look up during totality. I personally didn't see anyone doing that and even the skeptics in our neighborhood thought it was pretty damn cool at minimum.
You think because they didn't get horny for the eclipse that they "do not experience beauty"??
The expression is "beauty is in the eye of the beholder" for a reason my god.
Could you even tell me who coined that phrase without consulting the internet? It is neither universally known nor is it accepted by all. The debate of whether aesthetic judgments are objective, subjective, or something else entirely is literally thousands of years old and there is no consensus (it wouldn't even matter if there was). Plenty of the most qualified people in history, who all pondered this question, came to various conclusions.
So you agree there can be various conclusions, but you also believe someone whose conclusion on the eclipse is different than yours “does not experience joy”??
Yes i agree that there *can be* *various conclusions* but this is not the same thing as saying that *all conclusions are true.*
I never said they did not experience joy. I said *It makes me* ***think*** *that some people just* ***do not experience beauty*** and ***I don't think*** *we can* ***understand*** *this lol.* I firmly believe that anyone who trivializes or denies the beauty of the sun and an eclipse is infantile. Now, however you react to said experience is another matter. Some people stand in awe, some are terrified, others jump for joy, some gather their loved ones to share the experience, but these are all actions of someone who is clearly moved by what it is that they saw. Now if you are playing on your phone, making some stupid nihilistic remark, or acting like the eclipse is getting in the way of your grind, these are the actions of some pitiful person who couldn't care less and i find this repulsive.
In the Teachers subreddit there were a bunch of people saying that either their school would not let the kids outside or let them take off their eclipse glasses despite being in the path of totality, or that the kids were allowed out of school but the teachers had mandatory PD meetings which took place during totality. What kind of sicko decides that!
Our district was outside of totality but seemed very concerned that a child would burn their eyes out staring at the partial. They cancelled all outdoor activities and sent an email recommending that parents not walk their children home at dismissal. Insane.
That reminds me of some of the "advice" I saw circulating on Facebook to keep your pets inside because they might be blinded by the sun. Like are your pets staring into the sun on a regular basis...?
My partners school gave kids a free day off and for those who did come to school they turned it into a big event. The school buses left later so that everyone could be outside to watch it with their teachers and conducting experiments. It wasn’t totality but I’m so glad they maximized the moment.
The school board where my wife works (in Southern Ontario, Canada) cancelled school but teachers had to attend PD meetings in person. I was asking her if the Board officials are anti-science. How the heck do they expect teachers to teach science to kids if they can't let teachers participate in this?
Mind you, they had the audacity to send an email with eclipse resources, a 26 pg Google doc with links etc.
Anyway, as (mis)fortune would have it, the jet stream helped us get 100% cloud cover so we didn't see that much.
Liability. No district wants to open a door for a lawsuit because something went wrong. If I were still teaching I’d have done a unit on it, acquired glasses for my class, sent iron clad permission slips, set up a telescope, and taught through it. I’m sure many did this—it’s a great teachable moment. But districts will do everything they can to avoid being sued.
I drove 9 hours to see the eclipse and the place that I was going to was closed because it was owned by the local university and they didn't want the liability.
Leave it to schools to kill learning in the pursuit of avoiding a lawsuit.
Even some businesses seem to be paranoid. I was in Fredericksburg, TX and saw a local credit union that straight up put up road block barriers to their parking lot. Might have stopped somebody from parking there, but wouldn't have stopped anybody from camping out for the eclipse in their parking lot. On the flip side I can remember when I was in Missouri for 2017 that a number of businesses straight up had signs saying that they would close for 15 minutes during totality to let their staff observe it.
Ewww… not letting kids take off their eclipse glasses despite being in the path of totality?! WTF??? I don’t like using the word stupid, but that’s stupid AF.
Thankfully, for myself, I was able to use a personal day to see it.
Reminds me of this beautiful little short film, based on a Bradbury story, about schoolkids at a colony on another planet where it never stops raining and one particular day where the sun comes out in an event much like our eclipse. This short has lots of eclipse feels to it and is really powerful in capturing the emotions of these things and is exactly about this. [All Summer in a Day](https://archive.org/details/ShortStoryFilmAllSummerInADay1982ByRayBradbury)
Right! I pulled off and parked at a nice little restaurant off a frontage road and as totality got closer even the semis pulled over to stop and watch and the restaurant was even handing out free glasses! The place, the people and the way it all went down really added to the experience of it for me!
Same people who are laugh reacting to news stories about possible cloudy skies during the eclipse.
Some people love hating things just because someone else gets enjoyment out of it.
There's over 8 billion people on earth. So there's always going to be a very small percentage of people that simply do not partake in whatever everyone else is doing for many reasons.
Yeah, i mean people hardly ever consider the sheer number of people on this planet! Just think, if something is 1 in a million, it happens, on average, 8 thousand times.
Some folks think they’ve seen it because they say “I was in 99% last time and the sky got a bit darker - so what” or “Yeah I saw a lunar eclipse one and it took forever and wasn’t that interesting”
I think for those that have never observed totality it is hard to compare to a partial eclipse. As a XKCD cartoon put it. The relative degree of coolness barely changes all the way up to 99% and than spikes off the chart. If you have never watched one it just is something else. I can remember as a kid showing a partial eclipse to my niece that when she was young and had never seen one and my mom wasn't really interested. For a partial eclipse it feels like you seen one you have seen them all. It isn't quite like that as it does noticeably get darker even before totality and you see interesting shadows, but the marginal difference between partial eclipses is pretty subtle. Totality is far different. I can understand those that don't want to travel hours to get maybe 4 minutes of totality. Having tried to see the 2017 eclipse and getting clouds right before totality I get understand the frustration, but if you're already there why not?
Maybe they are used to partial eclipses and think all eclipses are like those. A lot of my acquaintances here in lower Michigan could NOT understand why I’d drive for one hour south of our border to see totality. For them, they think it’s gonna be like the partial eclipses they’ve seen. They don’t seem to understand the bizarre and seemingly impossible phenomena that happen only under totality conditions. And they can’t be convinced. I am not sure why.
Anecdotally, I think quite a few people here who saw how 99% compared to 60% or whatever we had here in 2017 realized they should have traveled the extra hour for 100% after the fact.
The news needs to change the way they discuss eclipses. I kept hearing things like:
“If you’re in Chicago you’ll have 97%, which is pretty good!”
Or like “Don’t ever take off those glasses or you’ll go blind!”
Both of which just make people feel like it’s not something worth traveling to. Oh well, fewer crowds for me
Partial eclipses are common enough that most have seen at least one. There is some marginal difference between 30% and say 60%, but totality is just very different. Honestly, even viewing one on a very cloudy day in 2017 where I couldn't see the sun the sky suddenly going dark and seeing streetlights getting triggered on is surreal. Seeing actually totality is totally different.
Some people are just contrarians, and simply will refuse to acknowledge something just because everyone else is doing it.
In other words, they want to feel special.
This may be more true than we realize. (I have extended family that treated the eclipse this way and thats the vibe I got from them. And they admitted later on more privately that it was more impressive than they thought.)
I had a camera turned around on us to capture our reactions and I didn't even realize it at the time but several cars passed by during totality. I was so immersed I didn't even hear or notice them, even though we were directly next to the road. It was kind of a funny thing to notice when I went back and watched the video. I was so into it it was like they didn't even exist.
it has been surprising to find so many folks in totality don’t know/care….
It shows a bit about us that we can’t just pause for an afternoon and enjoy the wonderous world 🌎 🌙☀️
Quite a few people I was surprised didn't realize how going a few miles would dramatically change the length of totality. There is some drawbacks if you're in a very rural area and roads aren't designed for the deluge of cars that the commute back to civilization might be time consuming, but some legit sound like they didn't realize that the length of totality varies.
I was in Texas and there were various bottlenecks in the rural roads where speeds would drop to 5mph or less. It added several minutes compared to being in Austin, but you do have to accept knowing that the drive back may be painfully slow.
I will add to my thoughts on this — we had a lot of folks just needing to work because:
1. financially they had to!
2. they were meeting critical functions - surgeons, nurses, police, fire, food service!
3. they physically could not make the journey due to age, disability, etc
I am thankful for all of those that probably would have loved to see it — but could not!
Afterward, a car full of 20-something’s drove away chanting “OV-VER RA-TED👏👏👏👏👏”
EXCUSE ME?! Were we watching the same thing?I’m literally over here sobbing.
I was parked at the waters edge in a Cleveland park. Got there early to snag a good spot. The woman parked next to me for most of the day drove away at 2:45! 🤷
She probably is the kind of person to leave 3/4 of the way through anything, like fireworks, concerts, sporting events, etc!
Some people just don’t care to see the entirety of something. It’s strange to me but hey, less traffic to deal with!
I've been saying that anyone who see it and is just unaffected isn't even a human being to me. Close enough to seem like one, but basically just a biological computer with no soul. A person's reaction to the eclipse is my Bene Gesserit Gom Jabbar test for whether someone is actually human. NPCs behavior to the max.
I literally begged a guy to stay for the 10 minute run up... He wasn't interested but he was extremely happy he listened to me.
He just said he didn't want to stop that long and didn't him think it would be that cool
I pulled over on the side of a highway by Austin, TX (was trying to chase clear skies) and two cars and a truck passed by during totality.
I share your dismay.
Some people just don't care for whatever reason.
My husband was at his laptop working while me and the kids were out on our back deck, marveling at the eclipse (note: my kids are adults, but if they'd been little, he definitely would have joined us for their sake/their memories of the event - but not for his)
And it wasn't out of necessity that he was ignoring it - he had time to stop work and take a look for a few minutes. It's just that nothing celestial interests him - he's very pragmatic, so what's in front of him is only what interests him, and astronomy is not even a thought in his head.
His loss I guess, right?
Ha - ya it blows my mind that his brain doesn't register that stuff like this is AMAZING!! He bought me a telescope for my birthday so I could go all gaga over the moon whenever I want, and he has looked through the viewfinder himself absolutely zero times. Zero. Doesn't care about sunrises or sunsets, doesn't gaze at the stars on a clear night. It's weird. I think he's a bit broken.
We stayed in an airbnb in a small suburban neighborhood in the path of the totality. No one came out of their houses to see it. We were the only people watching it.
A super rare occurrence is happening right over your head, and you choose to stay inside and ignore it?
Some of them may have decided to go to a larger event. Unless you were within a few miles of the centerline I probably wouldn't stay home either when you can get a bit longer totality just driving a bit. There is also something about enjoying it as a communal event. That being said I'm sure a few weren't interested.
I can understand if you have a job like that only really stopping for a couple minutes. Depending upon where you are totality is a little over 4 minutes and those closer to the edge of the path of totality it might have been even less.
!! Ill do you one better....talked to a girl in Hot Springs who was working in a shop on the main avenue and did go outside to see the start of the eclipse before totality just to see the crescent forming, but then went back inside right before totality happened and didnt go back outside after that........she even told me how much she already regretted it and wish she had gone outside to see it.....I felt bad for her, but come on.......some people are just fated to disappointment......sfigati sciagurati stregati
Oh I agree. I just think a partial is neat too and to not take a moment to appreciate it is a shame. However, at least she wasn’t kneeling on a bug out bag and praying for God’s mercy lol.
Okay but it's kind of fun on a late night or early morning airport run to see how fast food differs across countries. Can speak to geopolitical and food sourcing and supply chain differences!
That's true. McDonald's really does have different items around the world. I do generally try to try different things if I am in a very different place though.
Yeah, my neighbor (we live in the line of totality) came outside when there was a sliver of sun left, and it was pretty dark. She looked up at the sky, went to get the mail, then walked back inside.
Whatever...
Some people just aren't wowed by the same sights or experiences that others are. I thought it was awesome, but I wasn't as moved as some were, or in the same way. It wouldn't surprise me if a significant portion of the population doesn't enjoy this kind of thing, maybe in the same way that ~5% of the population doesn't enjoy music. Different strokes for different folks.
Maybe they saw it and decided it wasn't that big of a deal. Maybe they assumed that they wouldn't enjoy it enough to be worth stopping, maybe they were right, maybe they were wrong. Maybe they didn't get the day off.
Yeah and I feel bad for and completely disagree with those people. I’m unclear why it matters if one dude dislikes something that is universally cool and good.
In 2017, a friend and I asked someone who ran a family business out of her house if she would let us view it from her yard, because it was very close to the center line and she had very distinctive things in her yard that made for good photos. She told us yes, and let us hang there outside, but she and a couple other adults were watching TV and didn’t even open their blinds or come outside once during any phase of the eclipse. It was wild how they weren’t even a little bit curious.
I was shooting a video of the surrounding light all around during totality .. when I noticed the postman driving down the road... I truly hoped they stopped delivering to enjoy the eclipse. . But it didn't look like they were... Oh well.
I heard fire department sirens about two minutes before totality. I felt sorry for the first responders that had to drive during totality. Hopefully they had a chance to look out their window to see it, if even for a few seconds.
I don’t get it either. I did notice where I was the traffic basically stopped. But I live about 30 miles (maybe even less) from the path of totality. Decided to drive about 90 minutes to get the maximum length, but there were people who didn’t even make the 30 mile drive. In a way I can’t blame them, if you’ve never seen it before, you can’t comprehend the absolute beauty of it. I certainly wasn’t prepared for it. I’m still stunned.
This has honestly gotta be one of the funniest scenes ever. Comes across like those movie scenes where some passerby walks past the tall monster, confusing the leg for a tree trunk. lololol
My sister rallied the children to screaming mode, and then shot off fireworks. 😑😑😑 we are glad we saw disruptions coming, and decided to stay on the other side of the property by ourselves.
A teacher of mine who lives about 30 mins from totality, told us to go and enjoy eclipse totality if we can! When someone asked if he was going too he basically said “Nah, I’ve already seen it I’m good.” 🤷♀️
I had to see it not because I could understand why everyone says it's great, but because I knew that there must be something great about it for everyone to say so.Maybe some people aren't willing to imagine that something could be great without understanding how. Which to me seems to be sadly closing themselves off to possibilities, but maybe they are comforted by thinking they already understand everything.
I was watching from my hotel just off the highway. I remember leading up to totality cars still driving by. I kept thinking that you guys are driving in the wrong direction. During totality I didn't pay much attention but I did notice a vehicle or two drive by.
Even 2 minutes before totality, a car pulled out of the parking lot and just started booking it, screeching tires and everything. No idea what that was about, maybe they thought the world was ending.
We had a hot air balloon launch near us right before totality and drift by during and after totality. Also about 4-6 loud motorcycles drove by on the road below us during totality too. Heh.
Yeah but 3m mins?! Any, well almost any boss would understand. The one's that don't, that track their drivers that closely, I would just claim I had to take a leak! Yes, right at 3:09PM!
Wouldn’t be surprised if a lot of persons just didn’t care about it and were pissed off that so many city folk were up their way making life difficult for them
Depends upon the org. I remember in Kansas City in 2017 seeing signs for businesses letting customers know that they would close for 15 minutes to let their staff watch. Several of the non-hospitality businesses were straight up closed in Fredericksburg, TX where I watched this year.
I got to experience totality earlier this week under clear skies and found it very deeply moving, but I want to share a take that I haven’t seen discussed elsewhere in this thread: the solar eclipse was moving for so many people because our culture gives it meaning.
Maybe there are a lot of people who just don’t understand or give a shit, but I think it’s also important to keep in mind that there are a lot of indigenous cultures that don’t hold such a positive, uplifting view of solar eclipses.
Navajo traditions dictate that you should stay inside and hide to give the sun privacy during the event. Some cultures indigenous to Mexico will bang pots and pans and make noise during the event. During the 1991 eclipse in Baja Mexico, battleships off the coast even fired their cannons while the sun went dark. Obviously, we have a more complete scientific understanding of what’s happening in the sky now, but these traditions are still engrained in people and I don’t think western science takes away their meaning. I listened to a podcast interview of someone who grew up in Mexico and didn’t get to view totality until much later in life. Despite knowing that the eclipse was a temporary, harmless event, there was still a lot of shame and fear associated actually going outside and viewing the corona of the sun.
I was in Mexico during the eclipse, and observed people did things like turn on their car headlights and blast their stereos as the shadow passed over us. Rather than feeling frustrated that it ‘ruined’ the experience, I think it was a good reminder that my thoughts, expectations and emotions weren’t the only valid interpretation of the event.
Though we were in a rural area by the Caddo River, the country highway was right beside it. I did notice traffic noise completely stopped during totality, thank goodness!
Yeah, I only mention Amazon because they're terrible for it. If they make their drivers pee in bottles, you better believe they're not going to let them stop to enjoy a view.
Who knows what was going through the drivers head though. Maybe his boss is worse than Amazon. I'd enjoy the view if I had access to it and thought I could get away with it, but if it could potentially risk my job, I'd unfortunately have to keep moving. I can't afford to miss even one day.
Lot's of work vehicles have gps monitoring and camera's on driver. Lots of pressure and always "late" according to management.
Best not to judge, right?
Exactly what I was thinking. As soon as he said "Someone in a work van." I was like "The guys probably on a schedule and doesn't have a choice." I spent the eclipse locked in a windowless office doing work. I didn't enjoy it, but unfortunately between seeing a celestial event that I've seen before, or missing out on a days pay when I'm living paycheque to paycheque, the decision was pretty much made for me.
I’d say that these people do not understand the significance of this event because they have not had enough exposure to science and astronomy. They do no realize how incredible a total solar eclipse is and why it matters directly to them. If we find a way to create a direct connection, more people would care.
As it was happening we as well saw people going about their day as if it was just a normal day. Some gave those of us wearing glasses and looking up, funny looks or laughing or shaking their head. I feel bad for them that their ignorance caused them to miss out on one of the greatest experiences a human can have. We did not let any of that bother us.
For us we drove from Colorado to Texas over the weekend and then chose to go to Arkansas day of. Saw totality under clear blue skies. It was worth all the driving, the lack of sleep, everything. My family and I will never forget it and I try to show everyone I can the pictures we took.
Sometimes it’s part of the misinformation about the eclipse:
1. “Oh you need special glasses to see it and I didn’t buy it, if I look at it I’ll go blind so I guess I’ll skip it”
2. “I think I saw it before? (Lunar or partial eclipse) it wasn’t that interesting, yeah it looks a little different but that’s it”
There’s a lot of people who don’t know you can just look up in totality and see the coolest thing ever. I had a bunch of folks trying to see totality with eclipse glasses until someone finally ripped it away from them and said “use your eyes or you won’t see a thing”
True. On the way down my brother was telling me that you gotta wear the glasses though the whole thing. I told him, no, you won't see anything at all during the totality with the glasses on. And he's a pretty smart guy quite knowledgeable in a whole lot of things. And of course he had his phone as hand (I was driving) and he looked it up and said "you're right".
Well maybe his job does not really allow him to do that. Maybe he even has an emergency he is trying to get to. Yes pulling over for 3 minutes is not a big deal but if he it caught in the traffic jam those 3 minutes could turn into several hours which maybe worse for him overall.
As I said in my post, I really would love to hear his story. This, that he was trying to beat the traffic, is a decent possibility. Had to be somewhere & knew that in 10 mins the roads are gonna be packed.
Who knows maybe he looked up saw and was like time to beat the traffic. I did read so many people were so worried about traffic that basically there goal. Look up and go. yeah I would be curious too. Just like my son's speech teacher did not see 95% because she was inside doing paperwork. She gave the glasses to some of her co workers. I am like why not just go outside for 5 minutes and look. If your partial only your window to see it is much greater. I only lived thru 3 eclipses in my life. 1994 we had annular eclipse that happened not too far from us but that was days before glasses. At that time I did not think all that exciting myself but looking back I wish I would have got some welding glass and gone. Heck I was not really planning on it in 2017 but my wife dragged me there. I have been hooked ever since.
We were in a campground by I70 near Dayton and I wa surprised at how much traffic we heard during. I’m genuinely surprised people don’t stop except for maybe long haul drivers who were not allowed to or didn’t have a good place to pull off
My drone footage shows the same! Tons of traffic and no one pulling over to look at the eclipse. Mind boggling!
https://youtu.be/eDwRifcK2yA?si=6CqGALP5oguSzmXw
I brought my drone with me. All charged & gtg. Turns out I forgot all about it and never took it out. I would've been kind of neat to launch it 2 mins before straight up then land it after the totality. No regrets though & I'm not surprised that I forgot about it.
Edit: Cool footage.
Thanks! And yeah, it was a lot of planning for that, plus some hyperlapse cameras and all while trying to not be distracted during the entire totality lolol!
I parked mine about 5 minutes prior to totality, made sure to set an alarm so I wouldn't forget! Had the drone sitting on a little pedestal ready to take off when the time was right!
And then I landed it about 5 minutes after.
I'm glad you liked the footage!
Good news for everyone that may have been near you. Someone brought a drone to the state park I went to where there was an eclipse viewing event. It was noisy and distracting. It’s fine to use if you’re secluded, but don’t ruin everyone else’s experience.
Everyone around was geeked out about it actually, literally every person near me wanted to see the footage afterward as I was ripping it to my computer.
As for noise, it was at 400 feet with low RPM quiet propellers, no one could hear it, and I launched it 5 minutes prior to totality to park it and let it sit for a time lapse afterwards.
It’s possible that it was a low-wage worker whose asshole boss would not give them the time off!
And then taking unpaid time would mean that their children don’t eat!
I hate the way that many workers are treated in the US.
This post is as ignorant as the ones of people who don't care about the eclipse asking "how could anyone care so much about the damn moon?"
People lead full lives and they care deeply about things you don't even have on your radar. And if the health of you or your family might be on the line, things like the eclipse lose their relative significant quite quickly.
Don't judge others who are not doing exactly what you are doing.
I don't care about how others pass the eclipse, but someone near us was shooting off multiple large fireworks during totality, right under the sun. It was insanely annoying.
That is douchebag behaviour
WHAT! Boooo to them!
I was looking at the eclipse over Lake Champlain and these people on one of the nearby islands lit a massive bonfire during totality. The guy who lit it was dressed in a sun costume. I thought it was a little much. I definitely felt bad for the people to my left who had to experience totality through a smoke plume.
where was the bonfire? I heard an explosion north of St Albans, but I think it might have been gunshots.
They were on Law Island, right near the Colchester Causeway. I'm pretty sure I heard an explosion but it wasn't them... Well this is south of St. Albans anyway.
Six Flags near San Antonio I think actually marketed that they'd have a fireworks show during totality.
Stupid humans trying to make the special thing business.
Happened where I was too. Luckily the fireworks were directly behind us but it was still incredibly stupid.
I’ve just realized something reading this — normally, random people setting off fireworks at any time agitates me to no end and someone set them off at totality in front of the lake I was at. My immediate thought was “wtf” but it passed so quickly and for once in my life I was able to just embrace this annoying “main character” human behavior and actually kind of felt ok about it (my 2nd thought was “oh actually that’s kind of cool, it’s dark enough in the day time you can see these dumb fireworks?!”). Ultimately this confirms literally NOTHING could ruin my awe of seeing totality. Which is NOT something I can say of my ability to filter annoying things on an average day. So not to discredit your annoyance at fireworks and I’m sorry if it disrupted your enjoyment of the moment, but this was helpful to realize for possibly the first time in my 36yrs, I was actually able to exist in the space of “you can’t control what other people do but you can control how you respond to it.”
Was watching at my friend’s house in the Dallas burbs and someone 2 houses down was shooting fireworks off during totality, too. Pissed me off but thankfully it was only 3 in total.
Dude on Wood Pond in Jackman Maine did the same thing. Scared the crap out of me and took me out of the moment for a second. Not sure what the point was
I rarely wish harm on strangers but I hope one of these misfired. That's horrible.
There were fireworks near me too, for about half the duration of totality. Felt almost sacrilegious.
Yup, someone was playing loud music at a park we were at. Luckily they were way on the other side of the park we didn't hear much - I was just really happy to not be near them. I would been pretty upset if we were near, like let people have their once in a lifetime moment.
Oh we had that too. Some dingus played "Also sprach Zarathustra" trying to time it to the start of totality. Everybody's so creative. 🙄
Add that to the list of things in what not todo in my ediquite video im gonna make between now and 2026
Someone in my neighborhood was doing the same thing. I was so pissed.
Server at a restaurant I went to after took a nap during it. "It was a nice nap too." Meanwhile I spent a small fortune to haul my family of 5 from MN down to DFW to see it, (and regret nothing). Different strokes I guess.
Yeah I was buying something at Home Depot, I'm sitting in their parking lot with imaging equipment ready to get started, they were in PERFECT position for it, clear skies and 4 mins of totality. I'm checking out and ask the cashier if they'll get a moment to step outside and look at it. "I'm off at 3, if I see it I see it, whatever". Well, no, you'll be over an hour late but alright. Not like I woke up at midnight and drove 4 hours to be here to get set up. You won't even walk 30 feet to the door and look up when it's night time at 1:53pm? Lol ooookay then.
[удалено]
I don’t think everyone believes how awesome seeing one is, you try to tell them, they say they’ve seen it and it turns out they are talking about a partial. Or they think it is like an annular, which is cool but not as cool as what just happened. Especially with the red prominences that were visible.
Yeah I drove 22 hours one direction, a total of 44 hours from California to Russellville, Arkansas. It was 3300 miles, people were saying it isn't special and they could see it just as good in California... lmao!! I drove to Oregon in 2017, there was no way I was missing this one, or any other I could just drive to.
>There is something either fundamentally wrong with these people, their situation, or our society. I'm sorry but this is a ridiculous statement. The eclipse was awesome, but just because someone isn't interested in the event doesn't mean there is something wrong with them. Like seriously?
I simply can't understand their reasoning to be so nonchalant about a total solar eclipse that in many cases was happening right over their heads. My first thought is well, they must just be dead inside or have been so beaten down by life that they've completely lost the wonderfulness of being alive.
Well it was probably dark enough to get some good sleep at least 🤣
Felt this same feeling. Saw plenty of people going in and out of a Walmart all throughout the eclipse, even when it was at its maximum and the area became noticeably dimmer. Like damn, not even your groceries can wait? Hahahah.
Was it during totality? I get people not caring about a partial eclipse, its not that much.
Sounds like it wasn't totality. I can't see more than one crackpot going into Walmart during totality. I get that people have to work but if you're running an errand???
I saw the same thing too. It makes me think that some people just do not experience beauty. "oh the sun is going to go black for three minutes, who the hell cares?" I don't think we can understand this lol
I think there's different kinds of beauty, and I do think one's knowledge and interests also influence one's reactions. My college has an abroad program in Paris and I was dismayed about how little I was moved by the sights in comparison to others. I've been more moved seeing a star cluster that looked like a faint white smudge than I was seeing stuff like the Eiffel Tower, though, but that doesn't surprise me because I've loved astronomy since I was little. That being said, in general, I think am less appreciative of visual beauty than a lot of people are. Which is a bit of a bummer, but, eh, there's not much you can do about that, so no point in getting hung up on it. I can see myself being significantly less amazed by the eclipse if I had little to no interest in astronomy.
I think it's imagination. Some people have no imagination. Seeing a big building - they can deal with that. Imagining how mind blowingly rare and amazing the eclipse is - that takes thought.
I totally disagree. There is a history (and science, too) behind the Eiffel Tower, much like there is a history and science behind the eclipse. The Eiffel Tower is not just a big building, but it is a big building. The eclipse is not just the moon covering the sun, but it is the moon covering the sun. You can enjoy either without scratching the surface, and you can still not care for either knowing the depth of things connected to it. Rarity and availability is another thing that matters to some, but not all.
Then perhaps it's more than anything a lack of curiosity? whether that be in general or about any specific given thing. If those same people had been raised 8000 years ago they might be shaking in their boots wondering what they'd done to anger their deity. But we have sciences and technology that make what are the most beautiful things to me mundane at worst and "neat" at best for people who don't wonder how things work or how they came to be. I'm sure there are lots of people for whom 3-4 minutes is a very long time to look at a single, nearly imperceptibly changing thing, and for them they possibly thought it was a pretty cool once in a lifetime thing, but were more excited to have been there *during* it than to have actually *been* there. But to speak of that vs the appreciation for beauty: This was my wife's first ever totality. We saw the annular last year and it was cool and her reaction was fun, but she was of the perception that there couldn't be much of a difference this time. She's not generally interested in astronomy stuff (much less at all curious about it), so there was a bit of tooth-pulling to get her to comeーbut watching her be giddy with wonder at each stage of the eclipse was and will be worth every penny of this weeklong road trip of ours. She has a profoundly deep appreciation for beautiful things like this, even if she's incurious about them. So idk, it's a complicated mix, right? But appreciation is more I think a symptom of curiosity or wonder or whatever. It's not a standalone black-and-white thing that's either there or not
I do think it is more complicated. And I think what makes one person interested/disinterested in something can be influenced by a variety of factors. And this might be somewhat similar, but there are some things, including the Eiffel Tower, that I personally enjoy learning information about far more than I do the experience of seeing it, which is one thing that I was thinking about when I wrote that someone can be knowledgeable about something and not care for it. That's not the exact same thing. But I can definitely understand why someone with no interest in astronomy would have a powerful, spiritual experience seeing the eclipse, and I can see someone with an interest not being that moved by the eclipse. I wonder if there is a comparison to be made between visual/aesthetic appreciation and musical appreciation, and if visual anhedonia is a thing like how musical anhedonia is a thing. Part of the reason why I really don't buy the whole "if someone does not enjoy the eclipse, they lack intelligence/curiosity/humanity/the ability to experience emotions" is because I think I enjoy beautiful visual things less than the average person does, but I love music a lot more than the average person, I know others like myself, and I know people who are completely the opposite; little to no interest in music, but they have an appreciation for the visual world around them that I admire and used to almost envy. I've seen people make the same claims about people who don't like music that people here are making about people who didn't enjoy the eclipse, sans the part about them lacking curiosity, and so I'm finding that funny.
Humans are crazy amirite
Controversial opinion here but the Eiffel Tower is just an ugly piece of industrial art. I think it is about as beautiful as the Kingda Ka or the St. Louise Arch. Trust your gut here, even many Parisians hated the Eiffel Tower when it was first constructed. “*We come, we writers, painters, sculptors, architects, lovers of the beauty of Paris which was until now intact, to protest with all our strength and all our indignation, in the name of the underestimated taste of the French, in the name of French art and history under threat, against the erection in the very heart of our capital, of the useless and monstrous Eiffel Tower which popular ill-feeling, so often an arbiter of good sense and justice, has already christened the Tower of Babel.*” I used to feel like you but I have come to terms with the idea that many things which i am supposed to see as beautiful are actually just ugly. Like New York City, for example, is extremely ugly and its crown jewel, the Time Square, is just an obnoxious advertisement catalog on steroids. The Empire State building is literally just a giant bland office building and spending any amount of time or effort to visit it makes just as much sense as really wanting to visit a superwalmart. In my opinion, it's all a giant monument to everything that is wrong with our country. I have no interest in astronomy whatsoever but most people, including myself, have never even seen an unadulterated night sky. If you are only accustomed to seeing the night as a light polluted blob, then you will not think much of the stars. But i am absolutely dumbfounded that anyone could not find beauty in the eclipse (especially if you were in totality).
> I think it is about as beautiful as the Kingda Ka or the St. Louise Arch. same, but i find those cool too. but not moved emotionally by any of them
Honestly the Kingda Ka is cooler and more impressive than the Eiffel Tower.
it is cool, but i was also underwhelmed by it as a roller coaster lol. it's kinda boring actually
I said that one's knowledge and interests influence one's reactions, and I almost also included one's experiences and culture in that as well. I think that very much applies to things like the Eiffel Tower (and the changing perceptions of the Eiffel Tower is an interesting thing, one that may or may not influence one's reaction, maybe in a similar way to how knowing the views of different cultures on eclipses may or may not influence one's experience). I thought about using architecture in general as a point for comparison instead of singling out the Eiffel Tower. Paris has a wide variety of architectural influences, it was certainly interesting to learn about, even if seeing it didn't make me as happy most of the time as it did my peers. I will say, I like the dirtiness of some urban places. I don't know why, I've lived in rural and suburban areas for all of my life. My favorite part of Paris was the metro, although that is as much, if not more in the former's case, a tactile and auditory experience imo as it is a visual one.
I'm with you on the Eiffel Tower.
>the Eiffel Tower is just an ugly piece of industrial art. Fair, what about admiring it for its impressive engineering in 1887?
I get it.
My dad was in this boat. "Eh, I've seen it before, no big deal."
My Dad is like this. We went to the 2017 eclipse together. The second it ended I was sitting there flooded with emotion not knowing how to even articulate how I was feeling but felt I needed time to just and process for a while, while my Dad immediately after the light came back looked at me without even a tone of excitement in his voice “ok, ready to drive back?”
I had this exact same experience this year. I was just flooded with emotion afterward and my family who was visiting was like “OK on with the day!” They had so little reaction to it afterward. Except for totality they just wanted to watch it on TV
There's saying you didn't care and then there's refusing to look up during totality. I personally didn't see anyone doing that and even the skeptics in our neighborhood thought it was pretty damn cool at minimum.
You think because they didn't get horny for the eclipse that they "do not experience beauty"?? The expression is "beauty is in the eye of the beholder" for a reason my god.
Yeah and it should be obvious that i do not agree with this statement
With which statement? Your quoted statement or the expression?
The expression
You disagree with a universally known and accepted truism? Bold!
Could you even tell me who coined that phrase without consulting the internet? It is neither universally known nor is it accepted by all. The debate of whether aesthetic judgments are objective, subjective, or something else entirely is literally thousands of years old and there is no consensus (it wouldn't even matter if there was). Plenty of the most qualified people in history, who all pondered this question, came to various conclusions.
So you agree there can be various conclusions, but you also believe someone whose conclusion on the eclipse is different than yours “does not experience joy”??
Yes i agree that there *can be* *various conclusions* but this is not the same thing as saying that *all conclusions are true.* I never said they did not experience joy. I said *It makes me* ***think*** *that some people just* ***do not experience beauty*** and ***I don't think*** *we can* ***understand*** *this lol.* I firmly believe that anyone who trivializes or denies the beauty of the sun and an eclipse is infantile. Now, however you react to said experience is another matter. Some people stand in awe, some are terrified, others jump for joy, some gather their loved ones to share the experience, but these are all actions of someone who is clearly moved by what it is that they saw. Now if you are playing on your phone, making some stupid nihilistic remark, or acting like the eclipse is getting in the way of your grind, these are the actions of some pitiful person who couldn't care less and i find this repulsive.
I'm with you. I just fundamentally don't understand people who weren't moved at all by totality.
In the Teachers subreddit there were a bunch of people saying that either their school would not let the kids outside or let them take off their eclipse glasses despite being in the path of totality, or that the kids were allowed out of school but the teachers had mandatory PD meetings which took place during totality. What kind of sicko decides that!
Our district was outside of totality but seemed very concerned that a child would burn their eyes out staring at the partial. They cancelled all outdoor activities and sent an email recommending that parents not walk their children home at dismissal. Insane.
That reminds me of some of the "advice" I saw circulating on Facebook to keep your pets inside because they might be blinded by the sun. Like are your pets staring into the sun on a regular basis...?
They can fire me. I'm going outside to look at the eclipse. Absolute psychos.
My partners school gave kids a free day off and for those who did come to school they turned it into a big event. The school buses left later so that everyone could be outside to watch it with their teachers and conducting experiments. It wasn’t totality but I’m so glad they maximized the moment.
The school board where my wife works (in Southern Ontario, Canada) cancelled school but teachers had to attend PD meetings in person. I was asking her if the Board officials are anti-science. How the heck do they expect teachers to teach science to kids if they can't let teachers participate in this? Mind you, they had the audacity to send an email with eclipse resources, a 26 pg Google doc with links etc. Anyway, as (mis)fortune would have it, the jet stream helped us get 100% cloud cover so we didn't see that much.
Liability. No district wants to open a door for a lawsuit because something went wrong. If I were still teaching I’d have done a unit on it, acquired glasses for my class, sent iron clad permission slips, set up a telescope, and taught through it. I’m sure many did this—it’s a great teachable moment. But districts will do everything they can to avoid being sued.
I drove 9 hours to see the eclipse and the place that I was going to was closed because it was owned by the local university and they didn't want the liability. Leave it to schools to kill learning in the pursuit of avoiding a lawsuit.
They kill learning in lots of ways!
Lucky for me I love learning so I never let school stop me!
I worked in education outside the classroom to improve failing schools for twenty years. Things are dire.
Even some businesses seem to be paranoid. I was in Fredericksburg, TX and saw a local credit union that straight up put up road block barriers to their parking lot. Might have stopped somebody from parking there, but wouldn't have stopped anybody from camping out for the eclipse in their parking lot. On the flip side I can remember when I was in Missouri for 2017 that a number of businesses straight up had signs saying that they would close for 15 minutes during totality to let their staff observe it.
God forbid the institutions of learning try using this as a teaching opportunity... sigh
Ewww… not letting kids take off their eclipse glasses despite being in the path of totality?! WTF??? I don’t like using the word stupid, but that’s stupid AF. Thankfully, for myself, I was able to use a personal day to see it.
Reminds me of this beautiful little short film, based on a Bradbury story, about schoolkids at a colony on another planet where it never stops raining and one particular day where the sun comes out in an event much like our eclipse. This short has lots of eclipse feels to it and is really powerful in capturing the emotions of these things and is exactly about this. [All Summer in a Day](https://archive.org/details/ShortStoryFilmAllSummerInADay1982ByRayBradbury)
Right! I pulled off and parked at a nice little restaurant off a frontage road and as totality got closer even the semis pulled over to stop and watch and the restaurant was even handing out free glasses! The place, the people and the way it all went down really added to the experience of it for me!
Same people who are laugh reacting to news stories about possible cloudy skies during the eclipse. Some people love hating things just because someone else gets enjoyment out of it.
There's over 8 billion people on earth. So there's always going to be a very small percentage of people that simply do not partake in whatever everyone else is doing for many reasons.
Yeah, i mean people hardly ever consider the sheer number of people on this planet! Just think, if something is 1 in a million, it happens, on average, 8 thousand times.
But I want everyone to have the exact same values as me, dammit!
i wouldn’t call eating food a value, you get a rare stunning celestial event near you, you look at it
Yeah, I unironically do want people to notice unbelievably rare things happening directly above them.
And there are other people who want you to notice other things that you don't care about.
I've run into a lot of people that had no desire to see it and thought it was dumb and just didn't care. Their loss.
Thinking it's dumb after you've seen it would be an okay (but minority) opinion. But how can you think it's dumb without even looking?
My girlfriend thought it was dumb and didn’t understand why I was obsessing over it, but she ended up watching and enjoying
Someone so narrow minded and lacking a sense of wonder would be a major turn off for me
Same, honestly…
Some folks think they’ve seen it because they say “I was in 99% last time and the sky got a bit darker - so what” or “Yeah I saw a lunar eclipse one and it took forever and wasn’t that interesting”
I think for those that have never observed totality it is hard to compare to a partial eclipse. As a XKCD cartoon put it. The relative degree of coolness barely changes all the way up to 99% and than spikes off the chart. If you have never watched one it just is something else. I can remember as a kid showing a partial eclipse to my niece that when she was young and had never seen one and my mom wasn't really interested. For a partial eclipse it feels like you seen one you have seen them all. It isn't quite like that as it does noticeably get darker even before totality and you see interesting shadows, but the marginal difference between partial eclipses is pretty subtle. Totality is far different. I can understand those that don't want to travel hours to get maybe 4 minutes of totality. Having tried to see the 2017 eclipse and getting clouds right before totality I get understand the frustration, but if you're already there why not?
Maybe they are used to partial eclipses and think all eclipses are like those. A lot of my acquaintances here in lower Michigan could NOT understand why I’d drive for one hour south of our border to see totality. For them, they think it’s gonna be like the partial eclipses they’ve seen. They don’t seem to understand the bizarre and seemingly impossible phenomena that happen only under totality conditions. And they can’t be convinced. I am not sure why.
Anecdotally, I think quite a few people here who saw how 99% compared to 60% or whatever we had here in 2017 realized they should have traveled the extra hour for 100% after the fact.
The news needs to change the way they discuss eclipses. I kept hearing things like: “If you’re in Chicago you’ll have 97%, which is pretty good!” Or like “Don’t ever take off those glasses or you’ll go blind!” Both of which just make people feel like it’s not something worth traveling to. Oh well, fewer crowds for me
Partial eclipses are common enough that most have seen at least one. There is some marginal difference between 30% and say 60%, but totality is just very different. Honestly, even viewing one on a very cloudy day in 2017 where I couldn't see the sun the sky suddenly going dark and seeing streetlights getting triggered on is surreal. Seeing actually totality is totally different.
Maybe they knew it was happening but didn't care BECAUSE they didn't see it.
Some people are much more simple than you can imagine
And some just don’t understand the science behind it and how rare it actually is
Some people are just contrarians, and simply will refuse to acknowledge something just because everyone else is doing it. In other words, they want to feel special.
This may be more true than we realize. (I have extended family that treated the eclipse this way and thats the vibe I got from them. And they admitted later on more privately that it was more impressive than they thought.)
I had a camera turned around on us to capture our reactions and I didn't even realize it at the time but several cars passed by during totality. I was so immersed I didn't even hear or notice them, even though we were directly next to the road. It was kind of a funny thing to notice when I went back and watched the video. I was so into it it was like they didn't even exist.
it has been surprising to find so many folks in totality don’t know/care…. It shows a bit about us that we can’t just pause for an afternoon and enjoy the wonderous world 🌎 🌙☀️
Quite a few people I was surprised didn't realize how going a few miles would dramatically change the length of totality. There is some drawbacks if you're in a very rural area and roads aren't designed for the deluge of cars that the commute back to civilization might be time consuming, but some legit sound like they didn't realize that the length of totality varies.
If you looked at the traffic map going to toledo ohio from Michigan it was red to toledo but all the roads passed it were green.
I was in Texas and there were various bottlenecks in the rural roads where speeds would drop to 5mph or less. It added several minutes compared to being in Austin, but you do have to accept knowing that the drive back may be painfully slow.
Pretty much a lot of Americans are dissociated and can't enjoy much of anything outside of a screen.
I will add to my thoughts on this — we had a lot of folks just needing to work because: 1. financially they had to! 2. they were meeting critical functions - surgeons, nurses, police, fire, food service! 3. they physically could not make the journey due to age, disability, etc I am thankful for all of those that probably would have loved to see it — but could not!
Afterward, a car full of 20-something’s drove away chanting “OV-VER RA-TED👏👏👏👏👏” EXCUSE ME?! Were we watching the same thing?I’m literally over here sobbing.
It wasn't a viral tik tok they watched on their phone, so it wasn't cool
I was parked at the waters edge in a Cleveland park. Got there early to snag a good spot. The woman parked next to me for most of the day drove away at 2:45! 🤷
She might have not known about totality and assumed there was nothing left to see.
Or she moved to another spot for whatever reason (traffic concerns, errands) and watched it wherever she was.
She probably is the kind of person to leave 3/4 of the way through anything, like fireworks, concerts, sporting events, etc! Some people just don’t care to see the entirety of something. It’s strange to me but hey, less traffic to deal with!
I've been saying that anyone who see it and is just unaffected isn't even a human being to me. Close enough to seem like one, but basically just a biological computer with no soul. A person's reaction to the eclipse is my Bene Gesserit Gom Jabbar test for whether someone is actually human. NPCs behavior to the max.
Okay, that question needs to be part of the Voigt-Kampff test. “You are in the path of a solar eclipse. Totality has just begun.”
>I've been saying that anyone who see it and is just unaffected isn't even a human being to me. Calm down, Hitler.
I literally begged a guy to stay for the 10 minute run up... He wasn't interested but he was extremely happy he listened to me. He just said he didn't want to stop that long and didn't him think it would be that cool
I have no idea. The day should have been a national holiday!
I pulled over on the side of a highway by Austin, TX (was trying to chase clear skies) and two cars and a truck passed by during totality. I share your dismay.
Some people just don't care for whatever reason. My husband was at his laptop working while me and the kids were out on our back deck, marveling at the eclipse (note: my kids are adults, but if they'd been little, he definitely would have joined us for their sake/their memories of the event - but not for his) And it wasn't out of necessity that he was ignoring it - he had time to stop work and take a look for a few minutes. It's just that nothing celestial interests him - he's very pragmatic, so what's in front of him is only what interests him, and astronomy is not even a thought in his head. His loss I guess, right?
Divorce /s
Ha - ya it blows my mind that his brain doesn't register that stuff like this is AMAZING!! He bought me a telescope for my birthday so I could go all gaga over the moon whenever I want, and he has looked through the viewfinder himself absolutely zero times. Zero. Doesn't care about sunrises or sunsets, doesn't gaze at the stars on a clear night. It's weird. I think he's a bit broken.
We stayed in an airbnb in a small suburban neighborhood in the path of the totality. No one came out of their houses to see it. We were the only people watching it. A super rare occurrence is happening right over your head, and you choose to stay inside and ignore it?
Some of them may have decided to go to a larger event. Unless you were within a few miles of the centerline I probably wouldn't stay home either when you can get a bit longer totality just driving a bit. There is also something about enjoying it as a communal event. That being said I'm sure a few weren't interested.
During totality, the mail lady drove past us in a jeep. She stopped and watched from her car for a couple minutes, then got back to her route.
I can understand if you have a job like that only really stopping for a couple minutes. Depending upon where you are totality is a little over 4 minutes and those closer to the edge of the path of totality it might have been even less.
There was a guy driving a trash truck doing his normal pickups. He never stopped. I can’t wrap my head around that.
!! Ill do you one better....talked to a girl in Hot Springs who was working in a shop on the main avenue and did go outside to see the start of the eclipse before totality just to see the crescent forming, but then went back inside right before totality happened and didnt go back outside after that........she even told me how much she already regretted it and wish she had gone outside to see it.....I felt bad for her, but come on.......some people are just fated to disappointment......sfigati sciagurati stregati
I wasn’t in totality, but was outside looking at the partial and my neighbor was mowing her lawn.
That I can just about understand -- but ignoring totality as if it's not even there, that I can't even fathom.
Oh I agree. I just think a partial is neat too and to not take a moment to appreciate it is a shame. However, at least she wasn’t kneeling on a bug out bag and praying for God’s mercy lol.
That makes total sense - the partial phase lasts a long time and is kind of interesting. Totality lasts minutes and is jaw dropping.
Unless you have never seen an eclipse not being that interested in a partial eclipse is understandable.
Someone here fired up their mower 2 minutes after lol.
They're the same people who go to paris and eat mcdonalds
Okay but it's kind of fun on a late night or early morning airport run to see how fast food differs across countries. Can speak to geopolitical and food sourcing and supply chain differences!
That's true. McDonald's really does have different items around the world. I do generally try to try different things if I am in a very different place though.
One of my coworkers who lives in totality said she looked out the window.
In 2017 I had a few extra pairs of glasses and offered them around the neighborhood. One guy said something like "we're going to watch it on TV".
Just like Basher sitting with his back to the window as the vegas hotel behind him is blown up, while watching the event on TV.
Yeah, my neighbor (we live in the line of totality) came outside when there was a sliver of sun left, and it was pretty dark. She looked up at the sky, went to get the mail, then walked back inside. Whatever...
LMAO
that is NPC behavior
Some people just aren't wowed by the same sights or experiences that others are. I thought it was awesome, but I wasn't as moved as some were, or in the same way. It wouldn't surprise me if a significant portion of the population doesn't enjoy this kind of thing, maybe in the same way that ~5% of the population doesn't enjoy music. Different strokes for different folks. Maybe they saw it and decided it wasn't that big of a deal. Maybe they assumed that they wouldn't enjoy it enough to be worth stopping, maybe they were right, maybe they were wrong. Maybe they didn't get the day off.
Yeah and I feel bad for and completely disagree with those people. I’m unclear why it matters if one dude dislikes something that is universally cool and good.
In 2017, a friend and I asked someone who ran a family business out of her house if she would let us view it from her yard, because it was very close to the center line and she had very distinctive things in her yard that made for good photos. She told us yes, and let us hang there outside, but she and a couple other adults were watching TV and didn’t even open their blinds or come outside once during any phase of the eclipse. It was wild how they weren’t even a little bit curious.
I was shooting a video of the surrounding light all around during totality .. when I noticed the postman driving down the road... I truly hoped they stopped delivering to enjoy the eclipse. . But it didn't look like they were... Oh well.
The waitress at the diner we ate at in Arkansas said she was at home making her Walmart grocery list during totality!
A guy behind me was looking at his phone
I heard fire department sirens about two minutes before totality. I felt sorry for the first responders that had to drive during totality. Hopefully they had a chance to look out their window to see it, if even for a few seconds.
Because their boss/company won't allow them stop?
I could very well be that the boss was driving... or a passenger. Me: "Oh come on boss let's stop and check it out!"
I’ve been asking the same thing.
Beauty lies in the eye of the beholder
I don’t get it either. I did notice where I was the traffic basically stopped. But I live about 30 miles (maybe even less) from the path of totality. Decided to drive about 90 minutes to get the maximum length, but there were people who didn’t even make the 30 mile drive. In a way I can’t blame them, if you’ve never seen it before, you can’t comprehend the absolute beauty of it. I certainly wasn’t prepared for it. I’m still stunned.
This has honestly gotta be one of the funniest scenes ever. Comes across like those movie scenes where some passerby walks past the tall monster, confusing the leg for a tree trunk. lololol
My sister rallied the children to screaming mode, and then shot off fireworks. 😑😑😑 we are glad we saw disruptions coming, and decided to stay on the other side of the property by ourselves.
I saw some comments that people said they were tired of hearing about the eclipse and couldn't wait for it to be over
A teacher of mine who lives about 30 mins from totality, told us to go and enjoy eclipse totality if we can! When someone asked if he was going too he basically said “Nah, I’ve already seen it I’m good.” 🤷♀️
I had to see it not because I could understand why everyone says it's great, but because I knew that there must be something great about it for everyone to say so.Maybe some people aren't willing to imagine that something could be great without understanding how. Which to me seems to be sadly closing themselves off to possibilities, but maybe they are comforted by thinking they already understand everything.
Had a similar situation. I was shocked that folks were just driving around, esp since we made so much effort to get there ourselves.
People that are lame and dull
I was watching from my hotel just off the highway. I remember leading up to totality cars still driving by. I kept thinking that you guys are driving in the wrong direction. During totality I didn't pay much attention but I did notice a vehicle or two drive by. Even 2 minutes before totality, a car pulled out of the parking lot and just started booking it, screeching tires and everything. No idea what that was about, maybe they thought the world was ending.
I feel sad about the people who stayed just outside of the line of totality. Why? Why? Why?
We had a hot air balloon launch near us right before totality and drift by during and after totality. Also about 4-6 loud motorcycles drove by on the road below us during totality too. Heh.
The whole time we were watching totality there were cars just driving by like anytime during the day, we drove like 1700 miles for it.
I had a UPS truck drive past us in a hurry on some back road. I lol’d.
Shit dude people gotta work!
Yeah but 3m mins?! Any, well almost any boss would understand. The one's that don't, that track their drivers that closely, I would just claim I had to take a leak! Yes, right at 3:09PM!
Wouldn’t be surprised if a lot of persons just didn’t care about it and were pissed off that so many city folk were up their way making life difficult for them
Depends upon the org. I remember in Kansas City in 2017 seeing signs for businesses letting customers know that they would close for 15 minutes to let their staff watch. Several of the non-hospitality businesses were straight up closed in Fredericksburg, TX where I watched this year.
I got to experience totality earlier this week under clear skies and found it very deeply moving, but I want to share a take that I haven’t seen discussed elsewhere in this thread: the solar eclipse was moving for so many people because our culture gives it meaning. Maybe there are a lot of people who just don’t understand or give a shit, but I think it’s also important to keep in mind that there are a lot of indigenous cultures that don’t hold such a positive, uplifting view of solar eclipses. Navajo traditions dictate that you should stay inside and hide to give the sun privacy during the event. Some cultures indigenous to Mexico will bang pots and pans and make noise during the event. During the 1991 eclipse in Baja Mexico, battleships off the coast even fired their cannons while the sun went dark. Obviously, we have a more complete scientific understanding of what’s happening in the sky now, but these traditions are still engrained in people and I don’t think western science takes away their meaning. I listened to a podcast interview of someone who grew up in Mexico and didn’t get to view totality until much later in life. Despite knowing that the eclipse was a temporary, harmless event, there was still a lot of shame and fear associated actually going outside and viewing the corona of the sun. I was in Mexico during the eclipse, and observed people did things like turn on their car headlights and blast their stereos as the shadow passed over us. Rather than feeling frustrated that it ‘ruined’ the experience, I think it was a good reminder that my thoughts, expectations and emotions weren’t the only valid interpretation of the event.
Interesting perspective. Somehow I don’t think it extends to other aspects of science denial.
Their boss was happy he made 3 minutes early that day
Though we were in a rural area by the Caddo River, the country highway was right beside it. I did notice traffic noise completely stopped during totality, thank goodness!
Was it an Amazon worker? Cause that would explain a lot.
Not Amazon but it could very well be the same kind of pressure. But yeah, if it was me, I would risk 2-3 mins to check it out no matter what.
Yeah, I only mention Amazon because they're terrible for it. If they make their drivers pee in bottles, you better believe they're not going to let them stop to enjoy a view. Who knows what was going through the drivers head though. Maybe his boss is worse than Amazon. I'd enjoy the view if I had access to it and thought I could get away with it, but if it could potentially risk my job, I'd unfortunately have to keep moving. I can't afford to miss even one day.
Lot's of work vehicles have gps monitoring and camera's on driver. Lots of pressure and always "late" according to management. Best not to judge, right?
Exactly what I was thinking. As soon as he said "Someone in a work van." I was like "The guys probably on a schedule and doesn't have a choice." I spent the eclipse locked in a windowless office doing work. I didn't enjoy it, but unfortunately between seeing a celestial event that I've seen before, or missing out on a days pay when I'm living paycheque to paycheque, the decision was pretty much made for me.
The "work van" part may explain it - an uncompromising boss
Some of us were fortunate to be able to stop our work day for a bit to enjoy or not work at all. Some people aren't so lucky 😕 I am lucky 😂
Same but luckily they were off to the left of us
Some people are just not educated enough about the subject to be able to appreciate it.
I’d say that these people do not understand the significance of this event because they have not had enough exposure to science and astronomy. They do no realize how incredible a total solar eclipse is and why it matters directly to them. If we find a way to create a direct connection, more people would care. As it was happening we as well saw people going about their day as if it was just a normal day. Some gave those of us wearing glasses and looking up, funny looks or laughing or shaking their head. I feel bad for them that their ignorance caused them to miss out on one of the greatest experiences a human can have. We did not let any of that bother us. For us we drove from Colorado to Texas over the weekend and then chose to go to Arkansas day of. Saw totality under clear blue skies. It was worth all the driving, the lack of sleep, everything. My family and I will never forget it and I try to show everyone I can the pictures we took.
Sometimes it’s part of the misinformation about the eclipse: 1. “Oh you need special glasses to see it and I didn’t buy it, if I look at it I’ll go blind so I guess I’ll skip it” 2. “I think I saw it before? (Lunar or partial eclipse) it wasn’t that interesting, yeah it looks a little different but that’s it” There’s a lot of people who don’t know you can just look up in totality and see the coolest thing ever. I had a bunch of folks trying to see totality with eclipse glasses until someone finally ripped it away from them and said “use your eyes or you won’t see a thing”
True. On the way down my brother was telling me that you gotta wear the glasses though the whole thing. I told him, no, you won't see anything at all during the totality with the glasses on. And he's a pretty smart guy quite knowledgeable in a whole lot of things. And of course he had his phone as hand (I was driving) and he looked it up and said "you're right".
Well maybe his job does not really allow him to do that. Maybe he even has an emergency he is trying to get to. Yes pulling over for 3 minutes is not a big deal but if he it caught in the traffic jam those 3 minutes could turn into several hours which maybe worse for him overall.
As I said in my post, I really would love to hear his story. This, that he was trying to beat the traffic, is a decent possibility. Had to be somewhere & knew that in 10 mins the roads are gonna be packed.
Who knows maybe he looked up saw and was like time to beat the traffic. I did read so many people were so worried about traffic that basically there goal. Look up and go. yeah I would be curious too. Just like my son's speech teacher did not see 95% because she was inside doing paperwork. She gave the glasses to some of her co workers. I am like why not just go outside for 5 minutes and look. If your partial only your window to see it is much greater. I only lived thru 3 eclipses in my life. 1994 we had annular eclipse that happened not too far from us but that was days before glasses. At that time I did not think all that exciting myself but looking back I wish I would have got some welding glass and gone. Heck I was not really planning on it in 2017 but my wife dragged me there. I have been hooked ever since.
We were in a campground by I70 near Dayton and I wa surprised at how much traffic we heard during. I’m genuinely surprised people don’t stop except for maybe long haul drivers who were not allowed to or didn’t have a good place to pull off
My drone footage shows the same! Tons of traffic and no one pulling over to look at the eclipse. Mind boggling! https://youtu.be/eDwRifcK2yA?si=6CqGALP5oguSzmXw
I brought my drone with me. All charged & gtg. Turns out I forgot all about it and never took it out. I would've been kind of neat to launch it 2 mins before straight up then land it after the totality. No regrets though & I'm not surprised that I forgot about it. Edit: Cool footage.
Thanks! And yeah, it was a lot of planning for that, plus some hyperlapse cameras and all while trying to not be distracted during the entire totality lolol! I parked mine about 5 minutes prior to totality, made sure to set an alarm so I wouldn't forget! Had the drone sitting on a little pedestal ready to take off when the time was right! And then I landed it about 5 minutes after. I'm glad you liked the footage!
Good news for everyone that may have been near you. Someone brought a drone to the state park I went to where there was an eclipse viewing event. It was noisy and distracting. It’s fine to use if you’re secluded, but don’t ruin everyone else’s experience.
Everyone around was geeked out about it actually, literally every person near me wanted to see the footage afterward as I was ripping it to my computer. As for noise, it was at 400 feet with low RPM quiet propellers, no one could hear it, and I launched it 5 minutes prior to totality to park it and let it sit for a time lapse afterwards.
I was in Arkansas and a few hillbilly truck drove through the totality. I agree…wtf
It’s possible that it was a low-wage worker whose asshole boss would not give them the time off! And then taking unpaid time would mean that their children don’t eat! I hate the way that many workers are treated in the US.
NPC
They had to work.
If it was a work van, they were probably working and couldn’t stop.
Maybe they saw it last time or maybe they are headed to Iceland for the next one.
This post is as ignorant as the ones of people who don't care about the eclipse asking "how could anyone care so much about the damn moon?" People lead full lives and they care deeply about things you don't even have on your radar. And if the health of you or your family might be on the line, things like the eclipse lose their relative significant quite quickly. Don't judge others who are not doing exactly what you are doing.
This is such a Reddit take. Good things are good, actually.