Total Solar Eclipse, USA 2017

Okay not strictly to do with next year, but eclipse related.

www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2...nes-flight/81544816/

An astronomer realised a year in advance that a scheduled Alaskan airlines flight to Hawaii this week would be close to the eclipse shadow and got them to adjust their schedule

Hi all,

I've my accommodation booked now in Madras, Oregon for next year's eclipse. The city only has about 320 hotel beds and all are booked up but I had decided on camping anyway. There is a Solarfest festival organised for the eclipse by the local tourism board and up to 50,000 people are expected around eclipse day, August 21st. The festival will feature many events and NASA is coming on board to do the education/outreach aspect.

There's very little on the Solarfest web site at the moment ( oregonsolarfest.com/ ) but they will add info over the next few months. However, clicking a link on that site will allow you email an enquiry to the local team in Madras. Camping pitches are $150 from Thursday, August 17th to Tuesday, August 22nd. RV hook-ups are $500 for the same time period.

Besides Madras being one of the best locations weather wise to see the eclipse (it is amongst the highest cloud-free statistics along the track), I'm keen to see a bit more of the Pacific Northwest.

Hope to see you there!

John