Road Trip for the Great American Eclipse

I read this article earlier today (link below) and immediately decided that a long-weekend road trip is definitely in order in August! Carol & I are fortunate to be very close to the path of a significant astronomical event - The Great American Eclipse!

On Aug. 21, a total solar eclipse will be visible from the USA for the first time since 1979. The path of this eclipse will travel from coast to coast across the United States, with the moon's shadow racing from Oregon at 10:21 AM (local time) and exiting the US near Charleston, South Carolina 94 minutes later.

This is the first time a total solar eclipse has gone from one American coast to the other since 1918. It will also be the first time in U.S. history that a total solar eclipse will make landfall exclusively on U.S. soil, meaning it will not be visible from any other country.

Carol & I are happily very close to the path of this event as it slices across extreme northeast Georgia. From our home, we would be able to view the eclipse at about 98%, but if we drive a mere fifty miles northeast, we will be comfortably in the direct path of the eclipse at 2:34 PM on August 21 and have the once in a life-time experience of solar eclipse TOTALITY!

August 21 is a Monday which makes the timing perfect to plan a long weekend with the RV. I thought others of you might like to make similar plans, depending upon your location. The entire country will experience a partial eclipse that Monday, but if you can get to the 70-mile wide swath of totality, it should be well worth the effort.

The link below shares an excellent article that gives you state by state info about when and where to view this once in a lifetime event. What a great excuse to go camping! Let's pray for good weather!

http://www.space.com/35495-where-to-see-2017-total-solar-eclipse.html

One other note:  to commemorate this event, the US Postal Service is issuing a special "thermal" stamp with a release date of June 20.  When you press your finger on this stamp, it will react to your body heat and change from a picture of a total solar eclipse to a picture of the moon.  How cool is that?

http://www.theverge.com/tldr/2017/4/28/15467182/us-total-eclipse-august-21-commemorative-stamp

Design of new "heat-reactive" stamp due to be issued June 20, 2017