Cloud cover in Socorro during April / eclipse

[DazedAndConfuzed]

I will be taking a liveaboard to Socorro coinciding with the solar exclipse on Apr 8. It is being pushed as a rare opportunity (but that eclipse is traversing across America, even to the northeast, which is where I am). I am wondering what is the sky condition in the Socorro islands during the month in April? Is it mostly covered in clouds during that time? If it is, I might get a eclipse glasses and maybe a small binocular instead of lugging some camera bigger camera gear or scope.

Also, is 3mm+3mm shorty enough for Socoro in April? I would bring a 5mm, but travel partner wants to just bring the longie/shortie combo.

 

[davehicks]

I predict the conditions will be rocking and rolling. Probably not the best conditions for watching an eclipse.

 

[davehicks]

And no, a shorty is not a good option for Socorro. You will want a 5mm suit, and you'd be smart to bring a hooded vest as well for when you get cold at the end of the day and later in the trip. A >new< 3mm might be ok if you don't get very cold, but you will need the hooded vest for sure.

There are lots of rocks and urchin spines combined with heavy surge at some sites. Exposed skin in not a good idea.

 

[rongoodman]

It won’t be the rainy season. Last year was warmer than usual, but I would take a 5mm and a hooded vest too.

 

[DazedAndConfuzed]

We got hoods and booties. The issue is buddy wants to wear 3mm wetsuit + 3mm shortie, saying the 5mm semi-dry is too much an effort to put on. I got a 5mm hyperstretch that might be a size too big. We don't want to get new wetsuits just for this trip as we rarely ever go on colder water dives. Both of ours were from our last trip to Galapagos roughly a decade ago.

I would assume they would anchor the boat in a cove with calmer water since the sky would be pitch dark and all diving would cease. Thought of getting a gimble tripod head to compenstate for the boat rocking, but if there is generally cloud cover, bringing all that extra gear would be pointless.

 

[rongoodman]

Deleted.

 

[Ted Judah]

Wow. What a unique opportunity. Had I realized soon enough that the eclipse path was over Socorro I would have booked that trip! I'm headed to Dallas - Boo. As an astronomer, I'll say bring some eclipse glasses to monitor the partial phases. And, I would also bring some binoculars to view totality - 7x is ideal, 10x maximum magnification. Forget photography unless you just snap some phone shots with the boat and island for context. Clear skies! Please post a follow up post afterwards.

 

[DazedAndConfuzed]

Wow. What a unique opportunity. Had I realized soon enough that the eclipse path was over Socorro I would have booked that trip! I'm headed to Dallas - Boo. As an astronomer, I'll say bring some eclipse glasses to monitor the partial phases. And, I would also bring some binoculars to view totality - 7x is ideal, 10x maximum magnification. Forget photography unless you just snap some phone shots with the boat and island for context. Clear skies! Please post a follow up post afterwards.

I haven't seen my 10x50 in ages, just have my 7x26 around. Last time a partial eclipes passed by my area, I just projected the image from my scope's eyepiece onto a piece of paper, can't do that on a moving boat. Photo of totality is probably useless with a point and shoot or phone camera, unless I can get max zoom on it and take a picture of what would resemble the corona. I can't even bring my point and shoot that has the decent zoom since I might get taxed for bringing more than 1 camera (on top of my phone's camera). All this planning would be pointless if there is even a hint of cloud cover, which some websites suggests given its location in the open ocean.

 

[poliver319]

I'm going...April 6...been watching the satellite on Zoom Earth and there has been fairly constant clouds in the area, and if I had to guess Id say they are high Cirrus clouds. If you recall the "atmosphereic river" that dumped all that rain in SO Cal...it seems that has moved south.

 

[DazedAndConfuzed]

I will continously watch Zoom Earth to see how conditions are as it approaches those dates, but I haven't see consistent overcast in the past week, at roughly 12pam, the eclipse time.

High Cirrus clouds seems to be transluscent, so if that is the type of cloud, then there still could be hope to see something, instead of it looking like night time.