Quote:
Originally Posted by OzEclipse
Hi Krishan,
It's great that you found the filter design so useful. I get between 150000 to 250000 pages viewed each year on my website. The DIY filter page is always in the top 3 accessed pages.
When making your filter Just make sure you cut the hole for the flange piece that presses over the lens hood so that it is a very tight firm fit. Undercut and then you can sand it if necessary. If you overcut, you can put a thick wide rubber band around the lens hood and push the flangepiece. On my bigger aperture filters, the tube flange is made of two pieces of self adhesive foamcore glued to each other.
You can remove the filter completely at totality. I usually just leave one springback clip in place and leave it hanging off one corner as long as there isn't too much wind.
If anywhere is going to have traffic issues, it will be the USA. My comments were based on the fact that I have never seen eclipse traffic jams anywhere and am always sceptical of doomsday predictions. People tend to pick their spot and stay there. They are really reluctant to move. Tour groups often find it difficult to move. They may have promised their groups catering, drinks, toilets and can't move.
In 2012, my group had 120 people and another 300 people who were making their own travel arrangements were going to use a field I leased from a farmer in Port Douglas and set up with portable toilets. They were also taking weather advice from me.
When the weather turned bad for the coast, I advised all 400 to abandon the coastal viewing site and move 3 hrs inland to some sites we had p[re surveyed. Some people, about 100, elected not to move. Remarkably, they still saw some totality but interrupted by clouds. A large number of these were tour groups who only had a bus booked to transport them to the field site and pick them up later. The bus was booked for other jobs and so 3hr destination changes could not be catered. But there were a significant number who could have moved and didn't.
Everyone who took the advice to move to the inland locations we chose saw clear totality. It was pretty apparent that inland was going to be clear and the coast would be cloudy, yet the roads were empty as we drove in during the early morning hours. I didn't experience any traffic driving back to Cairns via Port Douglas. I don't think many people moved inland.
While I would naturally expect a lot of people in their cars in the USA, I don't expect to see 300 million of them in hundred mile traffic jams. As I'll be isolated on a mountaintop, I will be very interested to hear about your experiences.
Feedback from other eclipse chasers receiving luke warm responses in the USA to their outreach presentations and activities indicates otherwise. American eclipse chasers I know are mostly arranging mini eclipse tours for their families. They booked accommodation in the path years ago and the whole family will be there for a week.
If you are worried about traffic, leave for your eclipse site at 3-4am, get where you're going then have a snooze in the car. People who are not enthusiast eclipse chasers generally won't get up at that time to drive to a site. Traffic should be light.
Enjoy your trip and the eclipse.
Joe
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Thanks for the advice Joe.
I received my Depron so i will be making all my filters this weekend. I actually want to modify your design a bit, and i will have a small bolt in one corner, so that the filter simply drops out of the way once i release the clips. Saves using two hands, one to support the filter and one on the clips and speeds things up. Ill see how that concept goes.
How much warning did you get regards to impending cloud cover forecast?
One thing that greatly surprises me is the lack of swearing and general rage at the cloud cover on the youtube videos of the malaysia (and other clouded eclipses) eclipses
. Perhaps they came to accept the cloud situation. I will be quite devestated if i get random clouds in my way
Time will tell on this one, but i will certainly report back here for you on the traffic situ. There are other concerns too around wildfires, running out of cell network capacity, it will be interesting to see if they come to fruition.