My daughter is begging me to take her to see the eclipse. Being in southern Indiana, it's not that far of a drive. Hotels are all fully booked in the area, so we'd have to plan a day trip.

The catch? It's Monday, a school day. Should I call my daugher in sick to school or tell them that she is "going on a science field trip"? Also, my work supervisor has been loading me with work and would frown on my taking a day off just for this. Again, call in sick or tell my boss I'm taking my family on a field trip?

I've seen one. It was pretty anticlimactic. And solar eclipses are real short. But even with the 2-3 minutes viewing time, you can really damage your (or her) retinas. IMO, you shouldn't look at it unless you have a high quality solar filter, or a welder's lens, those homemade (cardboard slits, etc) devices are pretty dangerous.

By the way, you will be able to see it from where you are if the sky is clear. The path of the total eclipse is narrower, but the partial eclipse can be seen from most parts of the US. However, as far as retinal damage is concerned, a partial eclipse is more dangerous since more of the sun is exposed.

I would think that the partial eclipse would satisfy her, and the expense of traveling and spending the night wouldn't be justified, but you are pretty close, so maybe for you it would be ok. Check the weather if you decide to go, you do need clear skies.

Your enjoyment will be based on how much your daughter is taken with it. And it sounds like she may really enjoy it. I would try and not build it up too much though, she might be expecting too much and be let down if you advertise it as the biggest thing ever to happen to mankind, or something like that. I kinda walked away thinking "is that all there is to it?"

It is something to say you've seen. Take a picture. Except don't look thru the viewer.

LAST EDITED ON 07-31-17 AT 03:34 PM (EST)

Closest place to us along the solar eclipse path is around Hopkinsville, KY, a 3 hour drive, so it would be a 6-hour round trip.

Solar eclipses might last only 2+ minutes in totality, but the partial eclipse leading into it and following it last much longer. The anticipation seeing the partial leading into the total eclipse is pretty exciting.

I've seen one total eclipse (sort of, which I'll get to) in Malaysia. At the time, I was living in Malaysia and was in the Genting Highlands when the eclipse occured. However, given the weather in the highlands, there was a lot of cloud cover, so I didn't actually see the moon slide over the sun, but the darkness that fell was spooky... the highland jungle around the resort went nuts with all kinds of weird noises, as if the animals, birds and insects in the jungle got all confused with what seemed like an untimely nightfall.

Here's a dandy interactive animation of the eclipse as you would see it from where you live (enter your zip code).

From where I live, 93.7% of the sun gets blocked out at 2:25 EDT.