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It was an amazing sight and enjoyed by all. Including the estimated 200-400 thousand people that came into this town for the event. We appreciate their business.

Now go home please.

They interviewed people on the local news who drove 2-3 days just to come here to Chattanooga and watch the eclipse at Coolidge Park.  Only problem is, we were just barely out of the path of totality.  If you're going to drive THAT far, why not take an extra half-hour and go up to Athens?  The difference between 100% and 99.4% (which is what we had here) is actually pretty big.

Lots of plates from NE states heading east on I40 on my afternoon commute.

It was a fun event, I was more fascinated by the semi- darkness than looking at the sun through the glasses.

Yeah, dusk at 2:30 pm was pretty cool.  Total darkness would've been better, but I wasn't willing to travel to see it.  If I had known how big the difference was, I might have. :dunno:

My plan now is to buy up every pair of eclipse glasses I can find tomorrow when they go on sale for a quarter apiece, and then turn around and sell them for 10 bucks when the next one hits in 2024. :biggrin:

Here we were in the 97% zone.......Forecast today here was SUNNY with 10% chance of rain and that was after 5pm. I was on the golf course with my group......20 minutes before eclipse time it clouded up after being 98% clear all morning....The sun came out 10 minutes before eclipse time.....4 minutes before eclipse time a BIG THUNDER HEAD cloud moved over the sun.......at PEAKE eclipse time it was COMING A FLOOD and it rained 1/2 inch in 30 minutes. Within 15 minutes after the eclipse was over the sun was shinning bright!

Sunny and 10% chance of rain my ass!

I went to Lake Hartwell South Carolina.  Nice state park by the lake, not too crowded.  The total darkness was a trip!  Well worth the effort to go see it.   :thumbup:

I sat on my back deck with my wife and youngest sun. I live in Blythewood, SC (just north of Columbia) and we were right on the centerline of the totality path. It was simply amazing, a lot more so than I had thought it would be

I was fortunate enough to see the eclipse at my family lake cabin on Watts Bar.  My uncle got this cabin back in '81 and he gave it to my brother and sister and me when he passed about 15 yrs ago.  My parents live in Athens and they take care of it for the family for the most part.  I try and help out on the upkeep as much as I can.  We've had family reunions on Watts Bar every summer since I can remember (no lie) and so, being able to watch this eclipse there was just extra special - hard to describe with words.  One thing that kind of sticks out in my memory of the event is the glow you could see all along the horizon when it got dark.  I guess that glow came from areas that were not in total eclipse.  It was also amazing to me how freaking bright the sun is even when only the slightest sliver of it is visible....just incredible to me.  But gazing at the total eclipse and seeing the corona with your naked eye - WoW.  That is something that will be forever burned into memory, and hopefully not my retina!  My brother in law's nephew took these pics using a 35mm with a telephoto lens.

(https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/0D0y8HlPLG7VvMZHtl6PiXtia52zEYCVWr8SpR1yINGqPP3GTtAQvmS2tyvQZV2DNBDnIO8SqLiR5Q5sue-3Pe5SptdVKl4K1wfUp9alG2X-Ap43PHujS35r-CxvzGiErDOCLocgh6ZXmrYjfKejZVcngPk-QAjI9eGv9SiQVjHK1jq7xXOSTZ-cR0M13RwSwMxerU-fsv3zzVi5HUbF32zoQVxaYXUxOQo9MlzauKwG-QIDKVMUtudWcycjnPSqr-CSjkJtzVb92I3eT_XTbL7uYXWfFE6F_NxV8GU7P1-GwSGbbZKIgsyeZ6oBuWoKIV3g5s9iOxhz1-lm-fVNsyKRq41enTqB7AR5L9xd0XKmceA42fMXH-veC0cu8iNImnEKDBMrPpbwgitg7u2QL-VUy0EItdDxSxSKCb4oLOrzwL7m2XhpVGE5jMD8FHZXmYbJAa4ojgaZZ_fy_9wW1iRqQ_UwbNw6AjiTcLgOSmm8qvTPkGpXeEet1sT7JZh96CR2qlImrr7Dfn_O56a-2dzLksmRUdwceIY-vIwNkmnyr9Tl3W7sqmBANTeGbhMYl6NQ__44tFT4Hd-qOeL_gxjoUDD-A4msIXbsNrQCrOiwZ2x73uPqKHNSGI57lFXzjNHPkoQoVCfmsQE3VKE5RZBJhuvaJ6bMmOG4iFdMdsHG1bM=s950-no)

(https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/EaMMD_J4arRbgs4BmhVtijhbTr_KYmmhmL2SdTa4QW8ekSb5yI3wVQEfJD_8rr19IPvU05lzddAFPtqOVN9jydVT0jqQ6u_G-JBsDzge25HayzOOSadl2Fuc3-1SS17nvTlAUSwO0TLmBK3hbQLLrC6GKdrJykKyiP9P-3sKWUdcNJNBFYTLjTyDrSkJpZiUX3G3QOkYPDynhTQVPyKMpC1_nRlVZKQzTS_EXV2EHJV3B_yWyXRdMS_oicxTx4WzmvalC28K3bJZJvtIP6xuzNdCtnfLFVnewC3Uaiewp38fYt-lvnmYdreJRq0dfqF8Ce4lVn-ET7PEALD8AuaO7qrABy8cqb2q6Pmfb2eE2FkfqpG3cJnr2SmSKzXtUE73qEaB2aQscgUMdl_dNxoqjN5_9FrXTOjkSPNbn9T5ALlu8Ike7SbqE_Y7bRj5xUt_v_JoWhYPTI8GroJXFYlCZBlGHaPlQew8f8D9nzOQYvPcqqNNrb90HCjTz-P3lAikKe4_cx00o6elkFdCQr0-LdBOSg3y0O_Imog-DnuD-RabpYs9ebkx3XP12ORBJwiLbctxzliGEX40OtbyVo2NTLZAjwIYO7-aH70Wa7h04TFWRVae8FIHGj-N4uGqBxAkjQsHdFF47FIGu2uP8KNNrTF50grP8TAP8mYuwwB-j1hFuWE=s950-no)

One other thing that I remember from seeing the eclipse that I have not heard anybody talk about - when you see a pic of the total eclipse, the monitor of your PC does the best it can to portray that round disk as black as it can - but it can't really display a truly black color.  I don't know if there is anything in our natural or artificial world that truly has a black color, other than closing your eyes in a very dark room or such.  But when the moon covered up the sun totally, it went BLACK, and I mean BLACK.  It was so black it was almost scary.  I don't think I have ever seen anything that black in the middle of light. 

We were at 99% obscuration of the sun, about 45 minutes outside the path of totality. I spent weeks trying to convince our residents that if they truly wanted to experience something special, they needed to make the drive into the path of totality. Most people didn't listen because they were convinced that there can't be any difference between 99.3% and 100%. But even at 99.99%, with only a tiny sliver of the sun showing, you don't get what you get when totality hits and the world goes dark. You can't really describe it and you really can't understand it unless you've seen it. I had experienced a partial eclipse but never a total eclipse. When everyone back home was griping because this eclipse was "overhyped" and "really nothing special," I told them they should've driven south with me. The best way I've seen it described is that it's like someone hitting a switch when that last bit of sun disappears behind the moon. After experiencing it, I truly understand why some folks travel the globe to experience eclipses. I'll definitely be heading west for the eclipse in 2024.

Around here we had a redneck eclipse.  :laugh:

(https://i.imgur.com/RF5Z5El.gif)