Total Solar Eclipse, USA 2017

Hello all, been a while!

Has anyone made any plans as yet to catch the total solar eclipse in the USA in August 2017? I'm thinking of Oregon myself, but I'd be interested to hear of other people's plans and where in the States they might be heading for.

BTW, I notice that the Ecliptomaniacs.com link appears to be defunct.

Hi Paul,

I looked into accommodation in Madras, Oregon, and various sites don't allow booking that far in advance yet so I might need to contact a few places there directly. I did come across a note on a web site though which said the two hotels in Madras are booked out for the eclipse. It seems to be a small enough town (about 5,000 people) and they are expecting near 20,000 for the event.

Will keep you posted on how the bookings progress!

John

IFAS organised a very successful eclipse trip to Turkey in 2006. Is there any prospect of something similar for the 2017 one?

If not what is the best way to do it for flights/accomodation etc - through an established eclipse travel company or independently?

Personally, I'm planning to travel independently, as I want to build a 3-week family holiday in the Pacific west/north-west around the trip, but if a bunch of Irish eclipse-chasers are planning to view the eclipse in that part of the States, then I'd definitely be interested in hearing their plans and potentially hooking up for the eclipse.

Hi Neill,

Like Paul, I will try link up with any Irish eclipse chasers in Oregon. We found the area of Madras is very favorable for seeing the eclipse and has one of the lowest percentages of cloud cover along the eclipse track at that time of year. The Willamette Valley is east of the Cascade Mountains which means it is much drier than the Oregon coast itself. I believe some very well known eclipse chasers have decided on Madras as a viewing location so that's a positive sign.

I traveled with the San Francisco Amateur Astronomers in May 2012 to view the annular eclipse from Shasta in northern California (not far from the Oregon border) and will definitely hook up with them again to see what plans various members have.

www.eclipse2017.org/eclipse2017_main.htm
home.cc.umanitoba.ca/~jander/tot2017/tse17intro.htm (weather prospects)
eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/SEmono/TSE2017/TSE2017.html
www.greatamericaneclipse.com (seems to have either disappeared or is down, but they have a Facebook page)

John

Neill,

The prospect of an IFAS organised trip in 2017 was discussed at the Comittee meeting at COSMOS with the conclusion that there are so many options that assembling a package to addrees the wishes of everyone would be nigh on impossible, so there won't be a single organised trip.

Madras, Oregon seems to be a fabulous option climate wise, and a bit further east towards Idaho and into Wyoming looks good too. However it looks like accommodation costs reflect this - I have heard tales of prices going up four or five fold in good areas.