I was going to wait a bit before writing this, but I see that lots of folks are putting up posts about the total solar eclipse next year. So now is the time to bring this up. There will be a total eclipse of the sun visible over a portion of the US for the first time since 1979.
(The path of that eclipse took it over the Stoneage Replica in Washington state. Isaac Bonewits was there. There’s a picture of him at that ritual, standing next to Morning Glory Zell, on the cover of the first edition of Drawing Down the Moon.)
Would anyone be interested in getting together for a group trip to view the eclipse? We have to start talking about this now. The reason why is that, with all the attention suddenly being paid to the event, places to stay are going to fill up fast. They might have already filled up with amateur astronomers and eclipse fans who know how to plan ahead.
Some possibilities (the links point to eclipse maps):
– Nashville TN is the biggest city in the path of the eclipse. (You’ve been to Princeton NJ. Why not visit Princeton TN?)
– The path of totality passes only a short way south of Portland OR. We got peeps in Portland. (You’ve visited Salem MA. Why not visit Salem OR?)
– I’m not a cartographer (there are always issues of map projection), but it looks like the closest eclipse totality point to New York City is in South Carolina (drive south on I-95 for 11 hours).
Does any place sound likely to you? Let me know.
I should add: Thanks to the wonders of planetary motion, we don’t have to wait 38 years before the next eclipse. There will be another one on April 8, 2024. The path of totality will just clip the western point of New York state (about where Camp Brushwood is) and track through Vermont. But I don’t know who’s going to be around in nine years, so we may want to take advantage of the 2017 eclipse.