Is there a way to fly & see the full eclipse? From the Philly/Balt area?
August 12, 2017 7:57 AM Subscribe
Can fly out of Philly or Baltimore - the eclipse is happening on a milestone birthday of mine. Mrs. Filmgeek said - yeah, I should fly somewhere and see it (taking a little filmgeek too.)
Is there an airport I can fly into in the morning, see the eclipse and fly back? It doesn't have to be a beautiful field. Is Nashville the best bet? Some other city?
So you just want to fly into an airport and view it from the airport?
Charleston International looks like it will be smack dab in the middle of the path of totality, but I've never been to the airport so don't know if you can get a good view from the parking lot or whatever.
The Columbia Regional Airport in MO is also in the path. Or you could fly to St Louis, rent a car, and drive ~30 miles south and be right in it. Then drive back, fly home.
posted by dis_integration at 8:07 AM on August 12, 2017
Charleston International looks like it will be smack dab in the middle of the path of totality, but I've never been to the airport so don't know if you can get a good view from the parking lot or whatever.
The Columbia Regional Airport in MO is also in the path. Or you could fly to St Louis, rent a car, and drive ~30 miles south and be right in it. Then drive back, fly home.
posted by dis_integration at 8:07 AM on August 12, 2017
Charleston will be the furthest east in the US that you can see it, and so the latest in the day, so it's a good bet if you're worried about timing.
posted by dis_integration at 8:08 AM on August 12, 2017
posted by dis_integration at 8:08 AM on August 12, 2017
Charleston feels like a good idea but it doesn't look like you can get out of Charleston same-day after the eclipse for under a grand. Same with Nashville.
If you take an early flight into Atlanta and a late flight out, and drive up from Atlanta, that might work. This depends on how bad traffic will be, since the eclipse is about two hours from ATL airport (without traffic!), but from a bit of playing around with Google flights it looks feasible. For example I'm seeing a round-trip on Delta out of PHL, arriving Atlanta 9:30 am and leaving 10:27 pm, for $459. It would be a long day but it's worth considering just because there are more flights PHL-ATL than to any airport that's closer to totality.
posted by madcaptenor at 8:31 AM on August 12, 2017
If you take an early flight into Atlanta and a late flight out, and drive up from Atlanta, that might work. This depends on how bad traffic will be, since the eclipse is about two hours from ATL airport (without traffic!), but from a bit of playing around with Google flights it looks feasible. For example I'm seeing a round-trip on Delta out of PHL, arriving Atlanta 9:30 am and leaving 10:27 pm, for $459. It would be a long day but it's worth considering just because there are more flights PHL-ATL than to any airport that's closer to totality.
posted by madcaptenor at 8:31 AM on August 12, 2017
There are some ragingly pricy options into GSP and CAE.
I'm worried that highways are going to be completely impassable that day. I could easily be wrong.
posted by ftm at 8:35 AM on August 12, 2017
I'm worried that highways are going to be completely impassable that day. I could easily be wrong.
posted by ftm at 8:35 AM on August 12, 2017
Here is NASA's map of the eclipse path. Nashville, Columbia SC and Charleston SC are all in the path of totality and a short flight away if direct flights are available. The sun will be pretty high in the sky so the eclipse will be visible from any location (McDonald's parking lot, a softball field, a park...) that's not under trees and tall buildings.
The big variable is going to be cloud cover. It's still way too early to get a reliable cloud forecast for the 21st. For example the Weather Channel's extended forecast for Nashville calls for mostly sunny skies but AccuWeather is saying partial sunshine and a chance of showers or thunderstorms.
posted by plastic_animals at 8:43 AM on August 12, 2017 [1 favorite]
The big variable is going to be cloud cover. It's still way too early to get a reliable cloud forecast for the 21st. For example the Weather Channel's extended forecast for Nashville calls for mostly sunny skies but AccuWeather is saying partial sunshine and a chance of showers or thunderstorms.
posted by plastic_animals at 8:43 AM on August 12, 2017 [1 favorite]
St. Louis
posted by sulaine at 8:48 AM on August 12, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by sulaine at 8:48 AM on August 12, 2017 [1 favorite]
Capital Weather Gang has been doing forecasts for eclipse day, but it's too far out for any confident predictions. Here's the latest map (forecast confidence: low), and they'll have post their next update on Monday.
posted by amarynth at 10:39 AM on August 12, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by amarynth at 10:39 AM on August 12, 2017 [1 favorite]
Fly to Nashville, take a cab to Waffle House or literally anywhere near the airport, look up, fly back. Easy peasy.
posted by Huffy Puffy at 1:20 PM on August 12, 2017
posted by Huffy Puffy at 1:20 PM on August 12, 2017
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posted by filmgeek at 8:06 AM on August 12, 2017