Excellent. I just looked back in here and noticed that some people have replied. Thank you.
Ormond:
Just so you know, Wyoming is also a very conservative place. Probably every one of those half million folks voted for The Dumpster...
I already looked it up, as part of my research into how to fit in with the natives. Over 80% apparently. I guess I'll stay clear of politics and stick to the whole wonders of nature thing, being sure to make it clear that it was God who made the Sun and Moon roughly the same angular size for the benefit of humans. But seriously, being country folks, I suspect people might be a lot more friendly than they are in more urban places.
A Poster He or I:
By the time you get here, Steve, Wyoming may be the safest place to be, given how quickly our new President is polarizing the population. Anyway, I'll be settling for a partial eclipse from Southern California. If your travels afterward take you towards the L.A. area, I'll treat you to a drink somewhere.
Poster! Long time no speak. I hope the art is going well.
I'll bear what you say in mind. Would like to take you up on that offer of a drink but it's quite a long way to Southern California and I have the kids in tow. Although I've heard, via the medium of song, that it never rains there (but I think that was a metaphor). Also, I have relatives who live in Orange County LA who I'd rather avoid, and if I went very close to them I wouldn't have an excuse to do so.
Greta:
Beauty in nature is generally what appears healthful, or looks like something that is usually healthful. So we find blue skies and waters more beautiful on Earth than we would find the red equivalents.
However...
You may be right about the threat aspect of eclipses. Obviously, before it was known exactly what they are, like comets, they were portents of great change in human affairs. Presumably the resulting prophesies were often self-fulling. So, in that sense, they really did cause those changes.
Poster:
Personally, what I find so uncanny about a total eclipse is that the combination of the moon's specific diameter and the moon's specific orbital distance from earth (except when at its apogee) are exactly what is needed to fully block the sun's disk but not its atmosphere (the corona). That is certainly something so unlikely as to make Design-believers salivate.
Yes, it is quite a coincidence, although if I was being pedantic I 'd point out that, as with an annular eclipse, in a total eclipse the moon doesn't
exactly fit the Sun's disc or else the totality would be instantaneous. It's slightly bigger. From the place where I'll be watching it will be about 2 1/2 minutes. I think the creator decided that was just long enough to give us a decent show and get some photos.