A quiet Maine county braces for the eclipse. ‘Where are 20,000 people going to pee?'

[DefiantMassRINO]

Where is one to whiz during a solar eclipse?

https://www.boston.com/news/local-news/2024/03/27/a-quiet-maine-county-braces-for-the-eclipse-where-are-20000-people-going-to-pee/?p1=hp_featurebox
A quiet Maine county braces for the eclipse. ‘Where are 20,000 people going to pee?’
Businesses and planning committees are eager for visitors, but some in remote Aroostook County are not sure how they feel about lying smack in the path of totality.

By Jenna Russell, New York Times Service
updated on March 27, 2024 | 10:49 AM

HOULTON, Maine — For generations, visitors to Maine have flocked east to the rocky coastline, with its lobster boats and crashing waves, or west to ski resorts, peaceful lakes and mountains. Few ever set foot in Aroostook County, a remote northern expanse where residents are prone to suspect — not without reason — that no one south of Bangor even knows that they exist.

So the news that “the County,” as it is known in Maine, would be smack in the path of totality for next month’s solar eclipse — making it a destination for potentially thousands of visitors — has generated mixed emotions in this proudly unpretentious place. Accustomed to ceding the spotlight to showy spots like Bar Harbor, some in the county are not sure how they feel about its fleeting status as the place to be.

“It’s a little new for us here, so it is stressful,” said Lindsay Anderson, manager of Brookside Bakery in Houlton, a town of 6,000 that borders Canada, where the plan for eclipse weekend includes baking 500 whoopie pies, Maine’s official “state treat.”

Next door at Market Square Antiques and Pawn, a compact shop watched over by several mounted deer heads, Tom Willard, a co-owner, had worries of his own.

“Where are 20,000 people going to pee?” he asked. ...

[GtHawk]

A quiet Maine county braces for the eclipse. ‘Where are 20,000 people going to pee?’

C'mon man! That's easy, in the sea, in the sea, in the beautiful sea. Or there's always the SanFranshitcan option

[mountaineer]

NASA to Launch Sounding Rockets into Moon’s Shadow During Solar Eclipse
Desiree Apodaca
Mar 25, 2024
NASA

NASA will launch three sounding rockets during the total solar eclipse on April 8, 2024, to study how Earth’s upper atmosphere is affected when sunlight momentarily dims over a portion of the planet.

The Atmospheric Perturbations around Eclipse Path (APEP) sounding rockets will launch from NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia to study the disturbances in the ionosphere created when the Moon eclipses the Sun. The sounding rockets had been previously launched and successfully recovered from White Sands Test Facility in New Mexico, during the October 2023 annular solar eclipse. They have been refurbished with new instrumentation and will be relaunched in April 2024. The mission is led by Aroh Barjatya, a professor of engineering physics at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Florida, where he directs the Space and Atmospheric Instrumentation Lab. ...

[deb]

We are actually on our way to Texas to see the eclipse, plus I have family down there. (Family is the main reason.)
The county that my sister resides in is expecting 1 million visitors. School is closed for the day.

[berdie]

We are actually on our way to Texas to see the eclipse, plus I have family down there. (Family is the main reason.)
The county that my sister resides in is expecting 1 million visitors. School is closed for the day.

Well, @deb what I am hoping is this is a non-event. Don't know where you are going, but my small county (60,000) has been preparing for about 6-8 months. BUT...the extended forecast says rain and overcast the whole week. I know they have called in extra first responders, etc. and schools are closed. They have told all us local yokels not  to travel unless necessary. Get prescriptions, groceries and gas prior to the "event". I swear, when they first started talking about this I thought they were koo-koo.  I had no idea that people traveled from all over the world for these events. (not you...your gonna see family)

I will say that I went to the Chamber of Commerce and got a pair of official eclipse glasses in case I decide to go out tn the front yard to see it.

[mountaineer]

Well, @deb what I am hoping is this is a non-event. Don't know where you are going, but my small county (60,000) has been preparing for about 6-8 months. BUT...the extended forecast says rain and overcast the whole week.

It occurred to me yesterday that the eclipse could be a big dud if the sky is overcast. I guess you don't need the special glasses in that case. 

[deb]

I’m way more excited to see family than the eclipse. My sister and I joked that she and I and the dogs would stay inside the house and the menfolk could go observe with the throngs. I really don’t like crowds.

[Sighlass]

I just don't get the big fuss folks make over this. I saw a few, it was ok, but nothing spectacular...

[mountaineer]

I just don't get the big fuss folks make over this. I saw a few, it was ok, but nothing spectacular...

Ditto. They're acting like this has never occurred before. So much hype.

[Wingnut]

If they burn their retina's out, who will they sue? 

Saw my 1st solar eclipse in 2nd grade.  In school All week leading up to the day we made viewing items to view it.  Cardboard boxes with a pinhole to allow the image to be projected on the inside of the box.  We fabricated eyeglasses with welders style tint. 

Afterwards we sacrificed a virgin to the sun gods.

[Gefn]

We are actually on our way to Texas to see the eclipse, plus I have family down there. (Family is the main reason.)
The county that my sister resides in is expecting 1 million visitors. School is closed for the day.

@deb

so jelly! I wanted to do the same thing but I should have made hotel reservations two years ago. I thought of New England also but no hotels.

I should be able to see it at 90 percent totality here at home , and I bought special glasses a month or so from a very reputable
store. Got glasses from there 7 years ago for that eclipse

[bigheadfred]

@Sighlass  @mountaineer

A TOTAL solar eclipse is completely different from a partial eclipse. Even the smallest bit of sun showing ruins the effect. Any filter washes out the corona. All the pictures I've seen don't do it justice.  I saw the last one. Perfect weather.  It happened around noon and when it went total and you could look at it without a filter with the corona blazing I have say it was the most spectacular (astronomical) event I have ever seen. The next closest event I've seen would be when there was a total lunar eclipse  on one side of the sky with Hale Bopp blazing on the other.

 This one is supposed to last longer than the last with a more active sun. If the total was happening within 200 miles of me I would drive to see it.

[cato potatoe]

The short period of totality is amazing, with a sudden twilight, black sky, and orange glow on every horizon.  I drove a couple of hours to watch the last one with friends in SC.  It was worthwhile, but I would not board a plane or book a hotel. 

[bigheadfred]

The short period of totality is amazing, with a sudden twilight, black sky, and orange glow on every horizon.  I drove a couple of hours to watch the last one with friends in SC.  It was worthwhile, but I would not board a plane or book a hotel.

I wonder how much time of day changes it? When I saw it there was the weird twilight.  But the sky was a deeper blue and no orange glow. It was like looking at a giant pupil and iris.

[mountaineer]

It would be about a 3-4 hour drive for me, e.g., Cleveland, to be in its path to witness it.