Eclipse October 2023 USA

[Quattrohead]

There will be a Solar Eclipse today across the central USA. Will you see a difference on your PV production ?
Find out how cloudy it might be with a weather app like Ventusky and track the path on NASA

 

[timselectric]

I will only see a partial eclipse, in my area.
And it's expected to be cloudy by then. So, I probably won't even notice it.
But we will get a total eclipse in April. So, I'm looking forward to that one. Hopefully it will be a sunny day.

 

[Q-Dog]

Supposed to be 82% coverage of the sun at the peak here.

 

[chrisski]

I would bet less than 15% loss of production. Could be worst in the Southwest US only because it’s a cloudy day.

For a partial eclipse, to the eye I remember not even noticing any change in brightness.

This is what will be seen today at phoenix az




I was with an elementary class and we built the pin hole and paper observation technique for the 2017 event which was similar, and if I noticed anything at all it was like going from a bright summer day to a bright winter day.

I traveled to Albuquerque for this one, and at maximum, because it is annular with the moon smaller than the sun the stars will not be visible and you won’t see the corona and the sky will darken for about five minutes like a very cloudy day.

 

[Quattrohead]

I am around 55% coverage but it's looking rather cloudy today.
We will see at about 1:20 p.m. local time.

 

[HalfBaked]

Clear sky, but missing ⅓ of my watts.
Looks cool through these crappy paper glasses I've been holding since 2017

 

[chrisski]

Here is a picture at the maximum in the path.

Did not have a filter to get good picture of the moon and sun, but looks like a normal day.

Here’s the data for where I’m at again

 

[HalfBaked]

Taken through the lens of my crappy paper glasses

 

[MichaelK]

I had to shut off my well pump this morning! Today is scheduled irrigation day, so I was out at 8:00am to start watering my trees. Pump was drawing ~2000W, and everything was proceeding as normal. By the time watering was finished at ~9:15am I had the sense that it wasn't that bright. Checked and saw I wasn't wearing my sunglasses. Then I remembered the eclipse. Got out my welding shield and checked, and I was gettting about 75% coverage here in California.

Quickly checked the pump and saw that the solar input had dropped to about 800W, or ~40% of normal. Shut off the pump and waited. I tracked the progression of the eclipse with my welding shield, and saw only ~25% obstruction of the sun when I turned the pump back on, at about 9:45am.

Wish the welding glass was high enough quality to take some pictures, but it's a bit pitted, so no photos!

 

[wopachop]

Time for some space juice!!!!
My small solar that is normally around 4-6a is down at 3a currently.

 

[Quattrohead]

This is fascinating to watch. First of all I noticed that the clouds have cleared and we now have bright blue skies but it looked kind of dark, almost like looking through smoked glass.
I had read that you can use a kitchen colander to look at the Sun so I did and got some fantastic pictures of Pac-Man eating away at it. I will post them later when I get to a real PC.
Then I looked at my data in solar assistant and sure enough I am now getting about half the power from my array that I would expect, you could see it tailing off from about 11:00 a.m. just as the clouds cleared away.
I will capture some data and post it later but this really is quite amazing to see.

 

[Solarcabin Channel]

So overcast here I can't tell if the sun is even shining anyway

 

[Q-Dog]

Clear blue sky here but was definitely darker outside and the shadows on the ground had weird edges. Got out one of my welding helmets to view it directly right at the max. Just checked and my 1600 watt array was only making 200 watts at the peak of the eclipse when it normally makes about 1300 watts.

 

[ksmithaz1]

It is of course a typical cloud free day here in Phoenix:



One very smooth PV line with a solar eclipse trough.

 

[G00SE]

We had around 89% coverage. Looked pretty neat thru welding glasses. Couldn’t get my dang camera to focus thru it to snap a pic.
Family noticed it got very still and quiet outside. Was awesome.
Can’t wait for the total solar eclipse in April

 

[KITROBASKIN]

Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta enjoyed the sight. The sunlight surrounding the essentially centered moon was larger than I was expecting. The cast of light was not so much a darkening like dusk but as something one would experience when forest fire smoke tinges the skies. One opinion.

 

[Quattrohead]

PV1 is a 6s2p facing west.
PV2 is a 7s2p facing south.