251 replies to this topic

[RoscoeD]

I have family in Arlington.  Free room and parking!

[Exnihilo]

I have a room for two nights in Killeen, which is near the centerline. At most I’ll just go maybe 5 miles west from there, depending on traffic, unless it’s going to be cloudy. I have a trip for work to Galveston for helicopter testing the week before, so will just come up from Galveston.  Driving the whole way. 

Edited by Exnihilo, 18 March 2024 - 10:04 PM.

[havieair]

I’ll be camping north of Uvalde in Camp Wood or at Lake Whitney near Hillsboro. Or neither, and end up somewhere in between depending on the weather. Crazy how long April 8th 2024 has been on my calendar and is now it’s less than a month away. This will be my first TSE…can’t wait!

[jrussell]

I’ll be camping north of Uvalde in Camp Wood or at Lake Whitney near Hillsboro. Or neither, and end up somewhere in between depending on the weather. Crazy how long April 8th 2024 has been on my calendar and is now it’s less than a month away. This will be my first TSE…can’t wait!

I'll be at Lake Whitney and it's my first TSE too!

[tzpasha]

I’ll be camping north of Uvalde in Camp Wood or at Lake Whitney near Hillsboro. Or neither, and end up somewhere in between depending on the weather. Crazy how long April 8th 2024 has been on my calendar and is now it’s less than a month away. This will be my first TSE…can’t wait!

 

I'll be at Lake Whitney and it's my first TSE too!

Traveling from southern VA to Forth Worth. On the day of eclipse, in the very early morning (prob around 6am) will start heading to Lake Whitney State Park where I was able to reserve a day pass on March 8th

 

After C4 I will slowly wrap up and move to nearest campsite (McCown Valley Horse Camp) where I got a camp spot reserved for the night stay.   

Edited by tzpasha, 19 March 2024 - 07:13 PM.

[nathantw]

I'm staying in San Angelo, 2 hr 15 mins NW of Kerrville, where I have a parking space reserved at a church.  I plan to get there around noon, totality is at 1:32.  The hotel room was $180, the parking space $20, so it's a pretty reasonable trip for me.  It will be interesting to see how Kerrville, a town of 25,000, handles the estimated 150,000-450,000 people that are expected to invade it. 

I'm hoping your plan isn't to get there an hour and a half before the eclipse. If you're just interested in observing it then it should be okay, but if you're taking pictures I'd think you'd want to watch it from beginning to end and that's an hour or two before the totality. As you probably know traffic will likely be at a standstill before and after. I was in Salem, OR at the 2017 eclipse and we literally sat in traffic for hours afterwards trying to make our way to Portland. I'd suggest to get there a day early or at least hours before the event. 

Edited by nathantw, 20 March 2024 - 11:30 AM.

[mtminnesota]

I'm hoping your plan isn't to get there an hour and a half before the eclipse. If you're just interested in observing it then it should be okay, but if you're taking pictures I'd think you'd want to watch it from beginning to end and that's an hour or two before the totality. As you probably know traffic will likely be at a standstill before and after. I was in Salem, OR at the 2017 eclipse and we literally sat in traffic for hours afterwards trying to make our way to Portland. I'd suggest to get there a day early or at least hours before the event.

That's good advice, but one thing is stopping me from arriving hours early. I'm leery of needing to use a bathroom, because I can't imagine there will be anywhere to go. Also I'm approaching Kerrville from the west/north while most people, living in San Antonio and Austin, will be coming and going from the east/south. I'm assuming that means I won't have as big a problem with traffic. Kerrville is going to be an incredibly crowded place, no matter how I slice it, so I'm just hoping for the best.

Edited by mtminnesota, 20 March 2024 - 03:08 PM.

[nathantw]

That's good advice, but one thing is stopping me from arriving hours early. I'm leery of needing to use a bathroom, because I can't imagine there will be anywhere to go. Also I'm approaching Kerrville from the west/north while most people, living in San Antonio and Austin, will be coming and going from the east/south. I'm assuming that means I won't have as big a problem with traffic. Kerrville is going to be an incredibly crowded place, no matter how I slice it, so I'm just hoping for the best.

I can definitely understand the restroom situation. I would think, hope, the church would be open for you to use their facility. My wife and I just booked a place and the hotel said there's a huge field that will have an event taking place next to a Walmart. I looked it up on Google Maps and the field is giant size. However, I think I'm going to ask the hotel if I could just set up my telescope and lens in their parking lot so we'd be close to a restroom and I won't need to lug my equipment from here to there, especially if it's a field with a lot of walking, and instead just shoot from the back of my SUV. We'll see though. 

Edited by nathantw, 20 March 2024 - 04:21 PM.

[bunyon]

I really hope these towns that are expecting hordes have put out some port-a-johns. Going to be a feedlot otherwise.

[DeanS]

Our group of 10 RV's will be at Buck Horn Lake RV resort in Kerrville from Friday thru Tuesday.  Reservations made over a year ago and all confirmed and paid for, which was not too unreasonable considering what I have seen.  Oh, and we are 320' off centerline

 

Not too concerned about traffic and supplies since we will get there early enough, however I need to be 900 miles away in St Louis on Wed evening so will make a couple long days driving.  Just hope traffic around Dallas has settled a bit by Tuesday early afternoon.

 

Hope everyone gets to see it.  I expect this one to be better than the last one.

 

Dean

[Messierthanwhat]

I'm staying in San Angelo, 2 hr 15 mins NW of Kerrville, where I have a parking space reserved at a church.  I plan to get there around noon, totality is at 1:32.  The hotel room was $180, the parking space $20, so it's a pretty reasonable trip for me.  It will be interesting to see how Kerrville, a town of 25,000, handles the estimated 150,000-450,000 people that are expected to invade it. 

Such estimates are best taken with a grain of salt. Cities and towns tend to view events like the eclipse as jackpot opportunities. They can apply for state or federal "emergency" funding in one form or another, to meet expenses like police overtime, extra paramedic runs, porta-potties, sewage backups, trash collection, barricade rentals, animal control costs, and anything else that can conceivably be related to the event. Needless to say, there is incentive to over-estimate how many visitors will be coming, and woe be to the grants coordinator who signs off on an estimate that turns out to be inadequate. The estimates in 2017 were often overstated by factors in double-digits. 

 

Michael Zeiler has compiled lots of data from a variety of sources to make informed estimates of the number of people who will be traveling from outside to inside the totality path. See https://www.greatame....com/visitation. His estimate for the entire Texas portion of the path is from 270,000 to 1,080,000. If 45% of those visitors will be in Kerrville, that'll be a good place to avoid, and great news for those of us who plan to be elsewhere.

[Octans]

Such estimates are best taken with a grain of salt. Cities and towns tend to view events like the eclipse as jackpot opportunities. They can apply for state or federal "emergency" funding in one form or another, to meet expenses like police overtime, extra paramedic runs, porta-potties, sewage backups, trash collection, barricade rentals, animal control costs, and anything else that can conceivably be related to the event. Needless to say, there is incentive to over-estimate how many visitors will be coming, and woe be to the grants coordinator who signs off on an estimate that turns out to be inadequate. The estimates in 2017 were often overstated by factors in double-digits. 

 

Michael Zeiler has compiled lots of data from a variety of sources to make informed estimates of the number of people who will be traveling from outside to inside the totality path. See https://www.greatame....com/visitation. His estimate for the entire Texas portion of the path is from 270,000 to 1,080,000. If 45% of those visitors will be in Kerrville, that'll be a good place to avoid, and great news for those of us who plan to be elsewhere.

That link says 122,000-488,000 in Kerrville, on the assumption everyone coming from San Antonio is going there.

[Astro Sky]

I plan going to Mount Pleasant, tx. Setup at Dellwood City Park.  100% total 4 min. Only 37 miles from home. Weather say 60% chance sunny.

[brendanteske]

Hey guys, I am booked and going to Austin (really Pflugerville) TX for the eclipse. My dad lives in Pflugerville and is seeing the eclipse around there for a totality of about 1.5 minutes. I wanted to get the maximum opportunity and chance to photograph (newbie photographer) the eclipse so I was planning to head somewhere near the 4.5 minute totality mark. My initial idea is to go to Lake Buchanan Dam. Anyone have thoughts about this? Is it a good place? I see they have a lighthouse there but haven't checked to see if its publicly available. I will be calling places today and next week around that area to see what I can expect there. I also know there are campgrounds but not sure how friendly they'll be to people just flocking to those areas for the day. Any advice would be greatly appreciated on this area. Thank you in advance!

[Cajundaddy]

All of the public parks and day use areas should be fully available on eclipse day.  They may charge $10 for special event parking and state parks require reservations but a grassy area with some shade and restrooms would be my target location.

https://www.highland...m/eclipse-2024/

Edited by Cajundaddy, 22 March 2024 - 11:51 AM.

[Keith Rivich]

If anyone is in the Leakey area feel free to swing by our observing site for some observing before and after eclipse day. We will have plenty of big scopes in use!

 

I'll be there from the 4th through the 10th. 

 

PM me for exact location.

[ABQJeff]

I made reservations 2 years ago at an RV park 35 minutes north of Uvalde.  After that, I’m going to work my way around New Mexico. My plan is for doing some Astro-landscape as well as deep space.

i have been looking around NM online and I found some cool places to visit.  I’ve been to Rusty’s a couple times.  I might go there for a dip in the hot tub.

These are places I may visit:

Cosmic Campground…………..DS

Valley of Dreams………………..AL

White Sands……………………..AL

Rusty’s……………………………DS/HT

Sunset Reef Campground……..DS

Trinity Site……………….………Tourist

Roswell………………………….Tourist

Hanksville Butte(?)……………..AL

 

Does anyone know any good places in Western TX or NM?

If you are heading to the North part of the state, El Morrow and El Malapais Natl Monuments are cool for History and geologic formations (respectively), both have camping, El Morrow’s camp site is darker BUT El Malpais non-camping parking spot at Lava Falls is darker than El Morrow’s campground.

 

For straight ‘touristing’ Bandelier National Monument.

[ABQJeff]

I rented a house in Camp Wood, Tx, 4min 20 sec or so totality, dark Bortle 3.  Sleeps 10, on the river, kayaks provided.   I could only find 3 others willing to go with me.  Maybe bc it is $2500 per night (staying Apr 7-9).

[Texas4runner]

I live here in Kerrville Tx. They plan on placing 200 portable restrooms around the city focusing on the parks and wherever else crowds will be. There is a video from police chief discussing street closures and routes here on Kerrvilletexascvb.com. Expecting a lot of traffic on I-10 coming from San Antonio that morning…

[lulu80918]

My original plan was to fly into Austin and go to Burnet, which is basically ground zero, and unfortunately for me has turned out to be a impending nightmare of chaos and states of emergency in surrounding counties. As such, I am flying into Dallas Love Field Saturday night and out Tuesday evening. My thinking was that I'd find a cool event in Dallas I am traveling alone by design because I can be much more mobile if I just have myself to worry about. I found the last affordable rental car, and have several free to cancel hotel rooms booked around the Dallas metroplex. I have a high tolerance for waiting out the traffic after the eclipse, because I have roughly 28 hours to get from wherever I end up watching to the airport Tuesday evening. i mean, I'm kind of a history nerd and would be inclined to swing by the GWB library for sh!ts and giggles, but Dallas isn't really my scene. I'm still trying to figure out a strategy regarding where to stay to set myself up for the best path to chase if needed. I'm also hell bent on seeing the thing if it means having to hit the road and drive to Mexico on Sunday morning, as I'm putting my job on the line to take time off as a teacher in April.

[lulu80918]

This is a good idea.  Use the time to get there instead of tossing and turning.

 

I'm bringing my much maligned motto of "sleep when you're dead" out from retirement for this event. 

[brendanteske]

Anyone seeing the 10-day? Showing showers ((( I am super anxious and sad about this news. I am visiting my father which will be nice, but of course one of the major reasons I was going this specific date was the eclipse! Can anyone tell me what local news is saying? I am in Chicago.

[Mike_78]

My plan A is taking the Amtrak to Temple, TX. With the current forecast I'm thinking of making it a road trip instead so I have my car.

[jrussell]

10 days out is still early. As we say here in Texas: If you don't like the weather, wait five minutes. Everyone with more weather knowledge than me are saying the middle of next week will be when the forecasts will start gelling into something usable.

[Diana N]

Anyone seeing the 10-day? Showing showers ((( I am super anxious and sad about this news. I am visiting my father which will be nice, but of course one of the major reasons I was going this specific date was the eclipse! Can anyone tell me what local news is saying? I am in Chicago.

The only forecast that matters is the one made on April 7.  Do you have the ability to relocate if the forecast for the area you are staying at looks bad?  If you do, driving (all night if necessary) to a location with a more favorable forecast may be an option.

 

Like everything else in astronomy, we're at the mercy of the weather for this one.  If you have a passport and the health and the financial means to do some international travel, there are total solar eclipses in 2026, 2027, 2028, and 2030 which you might be able to see; just plan them around something else in the area that is of interest.