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[Ed. addition] Please join in the comments with links to other sites that you have found. Also, what plans do you have, if any, for viewing the eclipse? Ignoring it? Getting together with friends? Traveling to get a better view? Would love to see comments with people's experiences of seeing the eclipse.
Also, I forgot where I'd seen it, but there was a suggestion to keep pets inside and away from windows, especially if you are where there is [nearly] total obscuration, as they may become confused and accidentally view the eclipse. I don't know about that. There seems to be quite a bit of wildlife that cannot go indoors during an eclipse and I'd never heard of large die-offs following an eclipse.
Maps for each of the United States showing the amount of obscuration at various points across the state and time of maximum obscuration.
Ars Technica story about what happens when you view an eclipse without protection.
The American Astronomical Society has a variety of resources at: https://eclipse.aas.org/
JAMA Ophthalmol journal article http://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamaophthalmology/fullarticle/2648904 (doi:10.1001/jamaophthalmol.2017.2936) explains damage that can come from viewing the sun directly:
Damage to the fovea in solar retinopathy (sometimes called photic retinopathy or solar retinitis) occurs in 2 ways and by 2 distinct physical mechanisms. The spectrum of sunlight contains a significant fraction of near-infrared radiation (700-1500 nm), which can cause direct thermal injury (burns) via heat. Because we cannot see this light, and the retina lacks nociceptive receptors to signal pain, damage can occur without our knowledge. However, the more pressing concern when viewing a solar eclipse is for visible light, which in excess causes photochemical toxicity through rapid accumulation of reactive oxygen species and free radicals. This is especially damaging to the retinal pigment epithelium and choroid, which contain an abundance of photoactive materials rife for oxidation: heme proteins, melanosomes, lipofuscin, and the like.
Sky & Telescope article http://www.skyandtelescope.com/2017-total-solar-eclipse/solar-partial-eclipse-rest/ general information on eclipses and some viewing suggestions.
Pinhole Astrophotography http://users.erols.com/njastro/barry/pages/pinhole.htm has a somewhat technical explanation of how you can design a device for projecting an image of the eclipsing sun. An example is provided where the author projected an image 24.1 cm in diameter at a distance of 25.9 meters from the tripod-mounted 5.9mm mirror 'pinhole'. (That's a BIG pin.)
[TMB Note]: One of the perks of living in Tennessee now is I'll be less than an hour's drive from the path of totality. The Roomie and I will be hauling some viewing glasses, five cameras, two phones, a cooler of water, and a pair of huge sammiches up to it to look for a good viewing/photographing spot in an hour or so. Expect at least a few good quality shots either this evening or by the morning, depending on how much offline life decides to keep me otherwise busy.
Any of you who beat me to the punch and can spare the bandwidth, feel free to post links to your own shots here. If you include a copyright release for us to do so, we may use them either in an update to this story or in a latter dedicated images story.
Enjoy the show and make sure not to burn your retinas out.
[Update]: Excuse the quality. My camera was confirmed to be a cheap piece of crap whilst The Roomie's was confirmed to be smarter than him. At least the auto-focus setting is smarter than him. And, lastly, excuse the lack of embedded video. It's been a long day and I can't be arsed to figure out how to get rehash to quit stripping the video tag out at the moment. Have a link to the video and be happy with it.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 21 2017, @04:37PM (3 children)
I saw the total eclipse in 1999, also in Germany. Smack bang in the middle of the umbra shadow, in a major city. Weather conditions weren't perfect for viewing, there was a slight overcast and haze.
As in your case, automatic streetlights came on. But also, the whole city went real quiet, even the animals. No birds chirping, no dogs barking. A few moments of total silence. It was a surreal experience. In a way, the less than perfect conditions were probably helping as people didn't let out the moronic Oohs and Aaahs you can usually except at such an event, but were instead trying to actually see shit.
Everyone was wearing the silly protective glasses sold around the country for some weeks prior. These were apparently made to stare into an exposed sun or arc welding equipment. With just a bit of haze in the air though, the eclipse was impossible to make out. After a few moments of nothingness, I took off the glasses and so was able to catch a few glimpses of something I will probably never again see in my lifetime. My eyes are fine BTW.
If you go see this one, I suggest having a fallback with regards to eye protection. Something less heavily tinted.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 21 2017, @07:33PM
I was in amsterdam during a world cup game awhile back, the situation was pretty much the same except when there was a goal you could hear the tv signal propagate through the city via the cheering. Also, it was interspersed by people running out of bars being chased by other people.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Monday August 21 2017, @11:00PM (1 child)
When the Sun is completely obscured by the Moon, then all you have for light is the Sun's corona. That can be viewed with the naked eye since it apparently is roughly the brightness of the full moon (with the Earth's atmosphere shielding us from the nastier EM components. It would of course be invisible in these glasses which are designed for viewing a light source a million times brighter. A lot of haze would not make a significant difference in making the solar eclipse harder to see.
(Score: 2) by hemocyanin on Monday August 21 2017, @11:54PM
I noticed that today. When totality hit, I suddenly couldn't see a thing through the filters. I stole a few glances during totality and I don't notice anything different about my (sucky to start with) vision.
I'm so glad I traveled to see it. I was amazed at how bright it was outside with just the thinnest sliver of the sun showing -- dusky but not dark. I never realized how ridiculously powerful the sun is till that moment. Then all of a sudden the stars came out and there wish a blue-white ring of fire in the sky. If I had been alive some thousands of years ago and saw that, well, I can totally understand people sacrificing virgins or burning up crop offerings or whatever. It's a really powerful experience when you know what is happening -- if you didn't, it would be easy to really freak out.