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posted by mrpg on Friday June 23 2017, @07:13AM   Printer-friendly
from the it's-in-two-months,-relax dept.

For the first time in almost a century the United States is preparing for a coast-to-coast solar eclipse, a rare celestial event millions of Americans, with caution, will be able to observe.

During the eclipse on August 21—the first of its kind since 1918—the moon will pass between the sun and Earth, casting a dark shadow and making visible the sun's normally obscured atmosphere, or solar corona, as well as bright stars and planets.

Observers will be able to see the moon's 70-mile (113-kilometer) wide shadow from Oregon in the west to South Carolina in the east over the course of more than two daylight hours, with two minutes of darkness engulfing 14 states.

Almost 12 million Americans live within this strip of the country, while some two-thirds of the nation's population reside within a day's car ride, said Martin Knopp of the Department of Transportation.

The US will be the only country to experience the total eclipse, and international visitors are expected to descend for the event.

Spacecraft, NASA aircraft, more than 50 high-altitude balloons and astronauts aboard the International Space Station will capture images.


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  • (Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 23 2017, @02:43PM (1 child)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 23 2017, @02:43PM (#530032)

    God help those who have to deal with you every day for the rest of the year as I am sure they will very quickly tire of your "I'm happy with my 70 percent coverage because I'M not going to travel down there. Am I right???"

    You seem to be a very confused. Most people I know have no desire to travel to US anymore. That used to be different. As for me traveling specially to see the eclipse, no, I'm happy with the 70% I get without traveling extra miles to potentially see full eclipse, or just clouds. So kind of a double reason as to why not to travel to Nebraska somewhere.

    Well, we'd rather keep you fucking terrorists from coming down and stabbing our security guards anyways,

    So your comments were about yourself, ok, so transference ;)

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 23 2017, @06:31PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 23 2017, @06:31PM (#530147)

    "...Most people I know have no desire to travel to US anymore..."

    Hey, that's great! Most people I know would be quite happy that you and the people you know would stay where you are. It's wonderful that we can agree on something! That's what we used to call "detente". :-)