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Does anyone have a recommendation for the easiest way to see the eclipse if I haven’t started planning until now, from California? Flights to Mezatlan are basic

Does anyone have a recommendation for the easiest way to see the eclipse if I haven’t started planning until now, from California? Flights to Mezatlan are basically full so it would involve a bunch of connections. Optimizing for being able to fly Saturday, and back Monday, with minimal hassle (eg connections or long drives) and hopefully a city that has more than a few seconds of totality. Thanks in advance for any tips

et-al 3y ago
There's plenty of cities in the US where you can experience totality. The bottleneck will probably be renting a car from the airport. 1. Check the Clear Sky Charts map fghorow shared (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39807463 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39807463) 2. Look up flights to major cities in the path 3. Check rental car availability
- tzs 3y ago
  There are major cities where the airport is well into the path of totality, so you could skip #3 and watch from the airport.
  - ssl-3 3y ago
    Airports are never very dark unless you have misplaced your car in long-term parking.
SamBam 3y ago
How bad do you want to see it? LA to Dallas by car is about 20 hours. You could do that in two or three days...
- zamalek 3y ago
  Having seem 5 at this point (mostly pure luck), I would spend 20 hours driving to see one. I'm doing 8 and at least I'll get a neat camping trip out of it if the weather decides to be a nuisance.
ssl-3 3y ago
Find a number of good spots on the map that seem likely to have clear weather, take good notes on each one of them, and get your plane tickets and other things in order as late as you dare in case the weather might change? A fellow HN person put this map together, which I've found to be particularly useful: https://celestialprogramming.com/apps/SolarEclipseViewer/viewer.html https://celestialprogramming.com/apps/SolarEclipseViewer/vie... (My job is much easier, here in Ohio, but I've already got a few hours invested in surveying and weighing different viewing locations.)

et-al 3y ago

There's plenty of cities in the US where you can experience totality. The bottleneck will probably be renting a car from the airport. 1. Check the Clear Sky Charts map fghorow shared (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39807463 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39807463) 2. Look up flights to major cities in the path 3. Check rental car availability

tzs 3y ago
There are major cities where the airport is well into the path of totality, so you could skip #3 and watch from the airport.
- ssl-3 3y ago
  Airports are never very dark unless you have misplaced your car in long-term parking.

SamBam 3y ago

How bad do you want to see it? LA to Dallas by car is about 20 hours. You could do that in two or three days...

zamalek 3y ago
Having seem 5 at this point (mostly pure luck), I would spend 20 hours driving to see one. I'm doing 8 and at least I'll get a neat camping trip out of it if the weather decides to be a nuisance.

ssl-3 3y ago

Find a number of good spots on the map that seem likely to have clear weather, take good notes on each one of them, and get your plane tickets and other things in order as late as you dare in case the weather might change? A fellow HN person put this map together, which I've found to be particularly useful: https://celestialprogramming.com/apps/SolarEclipseViewer/viewer.html https://celestialprogramming.com/apps/SolarEclipseViewer/vie... (My job is much easier, here in Ohio, but I've already got a few hours invested in surveying and weighing different viewing locations.)