How to Enjoy the 2017 Solar Eclipse

If you are in the continental United States, you may be interested in enjoying the Solar Eclipse. It doesn't happen very often. I am pleased to announce an addon for BackCountry Navigator that will help. You can find this in the menu Purchasing Addons.

Refer to NASA's instructions about safety.

https://eclipse2017.nasa.gov/safety

Besides these, take precautions to make sure you can be self sufficient for the days surrounding the eclipse. Have stock of food, water, and toiletpaper. Don't count on reliable cell or internet service - they could all be jammed with everyone live tweeting their eclipse experience.

Your town, big or small, could be overwhelmed by the sheer number of people if you are in the path of the eclipse. Many of you will be away from home in a town or wilderness area that isn't used to that much traffic, either. Don't count on making a quick trip to the store.

First, take a look at where you are in relation to the Eclipse.

If you are in Spokane, you can see you are in range of a 90% eclipse. In Calgary, in contrast, you will find that you are closer to 75%.

If 90% isn't good enough for you, you may be planning to find somewhere to stay within the green lines - called the path of totality.

Sorry to break this to you, but you won't be the first one to think of this. In fact, last December, you might have found everything possible already booked, from hotels to campgrounds to storage lockers.   

But suppose you succeeded in nabbing that luxury accommodation in someone's woodshed for only $1000 per night. Or perhaps you are staying in your own woodshed because you could rent out the house for $2000. Now you will want to find out those crucial 1-2 minutes when the darkest shadow of the moon will be passing over you.

Fortunately you can find these jagged purple shapes on the map that show the shape of the umbra for each minute in time, all the way across the continental United States.

Seeing the point on the map where your woodshed is located, you can now determine that the shadow will be directly over you at 10:17. Your time will not always be at an exact minute, but you can get a good idea based on the shapes around you.

To find out more about each shape, click the placemark button in the lower right to look at some details:

I do not know what all of these fields mean, but it is saying that the duration (at the center) will be 120 seconds. The duration will be less at the edges, which you can guess by the shape of the shadows.

What makes this all possible is some great data from NASA and a tireless effort by me.

You can find this in BackCountry Navigator (the paid version) as an addon.

You go the menu and choose Purchasing Addons. You will now see the "Eclipse 2017 Overlay" as a choice.

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