Newcomb NY: a prime locale for 2024 eclipse views?
The track of totality will be about 125 miles wide and will sweep over locations in the US and Eastern Canada on April 8 2024. Totality will last for about 2 minutes 49 seconds in Newcomb starting at ~3:25 pm (partial start hour or so earlier). This compares with 3.5 minutes at Plattsburgh which is more central in the track. You should get a bit more time locally in Long Lake while Minerva is down at around 1.5 minutes. BTW: April 8 is a Monday in 2024 because its a leap year with the extra day in February.
Looking at the map images (click thumbnails to see full size) you have to be somewhat north of Glens Falls to see the sun totally blacked out. If you are on the Northway (I87) you have to at least be up past exit 27. Newcomb is a convenient location for viewing as a day trip from the NY Capital district and for overnight visits from a wider area – assuming you can figure out accommodations. Note: this isn’t a town page.
Viewing conditions in Newcomb areas for the 2024 eclipse
Its very early in spring at the start of April in Newcomb. I generally figure it greens up, with tree buds opening, around the second or third week in May. You can get a feel for conditions in a number of ways.
Folks note the date for the last ice leaving the Goodnow Flow, a private lake that my cabin abuts. This can range all through April and even into May some years. Snow is possible in early April in Newcomb.
There are weather data online. I pulled up some climate stats for Newcomb – on average its fifty-fifty for sunshine vs cloudy. I also have been doing time-lapse shots through the year and have pictures from around April 8. You can see lakeside images from early April 2020 and 2021 below, click the images for time-lapse videos following seasonal changes. You can see the one year was brighter than the other.
Visiting Newcomb in April 2024 for the total solar eclipse
I have some estimates for travel times to Newcomb on a general web page. The town has a page for its organized eclipse programming.
I’m sure there will be folk parked along 28N on the day, but there are open spaces with better parking. The best location is probably Overlook park which has some parking spaces and there is a bigger parking area behind the new visitors center across the road. There are bathrooms at Overlook park and at the town beach down the road at lake Harris however it will be early in the season and I doubt they would be open at the start of April in a normal year – this is something I’d guess the town might work as they do any eclipse planning.
As a lakeside lot owner I have to think about driveway access for April 2024 – from the lake daily shots you can see that most of the snow is gone in April but the problem is the berm of ice at the end of the driveway next to the plowed town road. I may need to get the driveway plowed for the winter of 2023 into 2024.
I have web pages on services in Newcomb. Those pages include some info on accommodation and you can also look at a town related page, however the number of rooms in the village are limited and again its early in the season, especially for camping options. There are a couple of places to eat and a gas pump that works with a credit card.
Viewing the 2024 solar eclipse
Never stare at the Sun! You can buy cheap viewing ‘glasses’ and its something to buy well ahead of the day, but still be careful when using them. I have done fogged multilayer X-ray film in the past but that stuff is going the way of the buggy whip, you can also look up pin hole viewer projectors. I’m thinking about how to stream the event from my IP cameras and this year I need to check the location of the sun in early afternoon. I have streamed live to YouTube where the content is also archived.
Visiting Newcomb
See the pages of GoodownNewcomb.online for more information about Newcomb. Sky Watchers: Newcomb is not part of the DarkSky initiative but its isolated with limited light ‘in town’ and you can camp in areas like the Essex chain which should be about as dark as it gets. The Overlook is in a sky-viewing list for the Adirondacks, it has a clear view though cars on the nearby road probably limit how dark adapted you can get.