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Post Reopened by Albertus Magnus, David Bailey, gandalf61
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There is a total solar eclipse happening in North America in early April. People will be travelling long distances to see it, and towns near where I live are warning residents to buy gasoline in advance so they won't need to go out on the day (due to crowds) and warning visitors that parking and restaurants may all be full. Apparently a million people will visit Niagara Falls, which will have 3 minutes of totality.

This online map tells me I will have 99.55% obscuration at my rural home. This is a location where parking, food and drink etc are not issues, obviously. I now need to evaluate whether travelling an hour or two (due south of me the totality passes over Lake Ontario, so I need to get west or east quite a bit in order to reach a sufficiently southerly spot) will be "worth it" in terms of the experience.

I will do the "worth it" part but I really do not know the difference between 99.55% obscuration and totality. What should I expect? To be clear, while many of the current answers give me opinions on "worth it" I do not want those opinions. I want facts, for example "will it get dark at 99.55%?" and "can we see the corona at 99.55%?" -- the differences. I don't know all the possible differences so I can't ask about all of them specifically. But this is a physics question not a "tell me if I should go or not" question.

There is a total solar eclipse happening in North America in early April. People will be travelling long distances to see it, and towns near where I live are warning residents to buy gasoline in advance so they won't need to go out on the day (due to crowds) and warning visitors that parking and restaurants may all be full. Apparently a million people will visit Niagara Falls, which will have 3 minutes of totality.

This online map tells me I will have 99.55% obscuration at my rural home. This is a location where parking, food and drink etc are not issues, obviously. I now need to evaluate whether travelling an hour or two (due south of me the totality passes over Lake Ontario, so I need to get west or east quite a bit in order to reach a sufficiently southerly spot) will be "worth it" in terms of the experience.

I will do the "worth it" part but I really do not know the difference between 99.55% obscuration and totality. What should I expect?

There is a total solar eclipse happening in North America in early April. People will be travelling long distances to see it, and towns near where I live are warning residents to buy gasoline in advance so they won't need to go out on the day (due to crowds) and warning visitors that parking and restaurants may all be full. Apparently a million people will visit Niagara Falls, which will have 3 minutes of totality.

This online map tells me I will have 99.55% obscuration at my rural home. This is a location where parking, food and drink etc are not issues, obviously. I now need to evaluate whether travelling an hour or two (due south of me the totality passes over Lake Ontario, so I need to get west or east quite a bit in order to reach a sufficiently southerly spot) will be "worth it" in terms of the experience.

I will do the "worth it" part but I really do not know the difference between 99.55% obscuration and totality. What should I expect? To be clear, while many of the current answers give me opinions on "worth it" I do not want those opinions. I want facts, for example "will it get dark at 99.55%?" and "can we see the corona at 99.55%?" -- the differences. I don't know all the possible differences so I can't ask about all of them specifically. But this is a physics question not a "tell me if I should go or not" question.

Post Closed as "Opinion-based" by Hyperon, Vincent Thacker, hft
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How different is a 99.5% eclipse from a total eclipse?

There is a total solar eclipse happening in North America in early April. People will be travelling long distances to see it, and towns near where I live are warning residents to buy gasoline in advance so they won't need to go out on the day (due to crowds) and warning visitors that parking and restaurants may all be full. Apparently a million people will visit Niagara Falls, which will have 3 minutes of totality.

This online map tells me I will have 99.55% obscuration at my rural home. This is a location where parking, food and drink etc are not issues, obviously. I now need to evaluate whether travelling an hour or two (due south of me the totality passes over Lake Ontario, so I need to get west or east quite a bit in order to reach a sufficiently southerly spot) will be "worth it" in terms of the experience.

I will do the "worth it" part but I really do not know the difference between 99.55% obscuration and totality. What should I expect?