Eclipse!

Eclipse Update! Due to overwhelming demand, the National Science Foundation has RESCHEDULED the eclipse for Saturday, April 6th, so that more people can see it on a day off.
eclipse

10 Likes

4 Likes

Looking “partly cloudy” for where I’ll be, so hoping for the best. One good thing is that the path follows I-71 sorta close, so we can go a hundred or so miles pretty quickly.

As for future eclipses, I might be tempted to try to catch one of the ones in Australia; first up is in 2028, and goes right through Sydney. And then there’s the “Star Wars” eclipse in 2027, which goes right over the site in Tunisia that was used in the first Star Wars movie. Yeah, I bet that place is gonna be crowded!

2 Likes

Maybe - depending upon what State does with the level of this Travel Advisory between now and then:

https: //travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/traveladvisories/traveladvisories/tunisia-travel-advisory.html

OK, this is a MY BAD, for some reason I have it in my head that it was this Wednesday the 3rd!

1 Like

image

6 Likes

I noticed several years ago that this eclipse would be a once in a millenia occasion: the Socorro islands ( AKA Revillagigedo Islands ) off of Mexico would be in the path of totality. ( For those non-divers reading this, the Socorro islands are one of the top dozen scuba diving sites on the planet. )

Seeing the behavior of of sharks and other fish during an eclipse would be a once in a lifetime chance.

I looked at the schedule for boats. But all of them that would be there at the proper time also would be there during my wife’s birthday. Grrr!
I know my priorities. We are going to be here in southern California during the eclipse.

3 Likes

You have the right priorities, to be sure.
I’m less sure about your wife’s priorities :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

3 Likes

Has anyone seen this thread on the NSFE? This guy buys half a million dollars worth of eclipse glasses and thinks he’s going to get rich selling them on Amazon. Send them in and Amazon says “Nope, I don’t think so”. Even if I had 500K I wouldn’t be gambling it on Amazon for this nonsense.

@papy if this doesn’t fit in the thread please move it where appropriate.

Original thread is here.

-Ana

6 Likes

Honestly they need a lawyer. But it’s already too late. Seriously they should be sold out by now, not just starting

5 Likes

@Best_Handmade_Soaps I think it fits here just fine :grin:

I can not imagine even thinking about going half-a-million in on any product on Amazon.

We have been approved to sell Solar Eclipse products

One true loss of the OSFE is the collective Seller remembrance of all the get-rich-quick sanitizer, mask, and glove Sellers and their many woes during pandemic times.

We learned (or were reminded) that being approved to sell in a category on Amazon in no way translates to any specific product or ASIN approval. It’s just the removal of one barrier but with zero guarantees or predictions about any other barriers.

Poor Seller, even if their entire inventory were suddenly available tomorrow, I find it unlikely that they would break even at this point. And that might well be devastating for their families, as they claimed. But it’s not Amazon’s fault.

By the way, no one at all has replied to OP, though they did tag NSFE mods.

4 Likes

Tunisia is NOT as bad as State Dept wants to paint it. Yes, there are terrorists in North Africa - that’s not news. Yes, the president has fired their parliament, and is drafting a “new constitution” but they have been at it since 2021, and it is one of those places that tourists rarely see, as they don’t speak a word of Arabic, don’t do their homework, so they never get to see Tunis or Djreba or any of the really ancient places NOT overrun by German (or worse, Chinese!) tourists.

Now if one is BLACK, one would be well advised to stay well clear, as the Tunisians have tired of refugees from Africa heading for Watan el Kibli peninsula to make a try at getting a boat or raft to Sicily, and thereby the EU. There has been violence.

But a blue-eyed, red haired, freckled Scott and his blonde Polish wife? We are clearly tourists, and they like tourists with US dollars to spend, as it is the hardest currency on the planet, and makes everyone smile.

Are they racists? Yes, they are, but no more so than the French.

4 Likes

And those who got product bottled found that they were facing a saturated market, and many simply abandoned pallets of sanitizer, leaving a mess for others to try to clean up. The Explosive Legacy of the Pandemic Hand Sanitizer Boom | WIRED

3 Likes

I think that was what he did last time there was an eclipse, watching it from a balcony at the WH, with no eye protection.

2 Likes

This is not the first poster on the NSFE stating that they sunk 6-digit figures into inventory for eclipse glasses. One of the first stated that she spend $300K, and with not being able to sell them, she won’t be able to feed her kids. I almost posted that I hope that CPS would take her kids away from her, if that gamble meant they could not be cared for.

Seems it would take only 3-4 of these sellers to totally saturate the market, being able to supply every single person wanting them; and that’s if there weren’t other places to buy them, free ones being handed out by museums, etc., and people who still have the ones from last time (yes, if you stored them properly, they’re still fine, but if scratched or folded, throw them out).

Frankly, after the fiasco in 2017, I’m surprised Amazon allowed even the first hint of any listings of these things. The ones I ordered were fake; thankfully I knew what to look for, and spotted the problem right away. I ended up being in touch with the president of the company making the real ones helping them track down some of the frauds. Yet despite having contacts at the highest level at one of the best companies making them, I wouldn’t touch selling them here or elsewhere with a 10’ pole.

And I wonder about how many were sold that will be returned next week with “no longer needed”…

6 Likes

Whozzit got glasses for both of us, even though our area is expecting only 60% eclipse. At least it will be sunny. I remember making the pinhole ones when I was a kid

2 Likes

Lets say said seller was able to sell, The return rate on them has to be STUPID!!!

3 Likes

Amazon Eclipse
:wink:

15 Likes

I don’t believe this is true. For one, someone with 500K isn’t that stupid. And buying “hundreds of thousands” of these glasses doesn’t cost 500K. These things are a piece of paper with a piece of plastic in them, they cost pennies per unit. If they paid a dollar each they got scammed big time.

Also, staring at the sun, glasses or not, is kind of a stupid idea. What if you get a defective pair and there’s a spot that’s lighter than it should be? It’s not that the sun’s stronger during an eclipse, it’s that you should NEVER be staring at the sun. You can look at the sun in regular sunglasses and be fine (since you’re only looking for a second or two), the problem is during an eclipse people are STARING at it for like an hour.

3 Likes

The same Seller posted a more recent topic on the same. Both topics tag NSFE mods.

And another Seller seemed to have spent 500k in some currency on the same a few months ago, with yet a third Seller chiming in “same” (paraphrased).

I mean…I guess it’s possible that Amazon is doing some sort of forum test with fake accounts and repetitive OPs? But that would imply interest on Amazon’s part in engagement testing or mod reply evaluations. :unamused:

3 Likes