Topic: Total solar eclipse: first day of Spring 2015 (3/20)
Robert Pearlman Editor
Posts: 42981 From: Houston, TX Registered: Nov 1999
posted 03-20-2015 09:16 AM
Today (March 20), the first day of spring in the northern hemisphere, featured a rare total eclipse of the sun. Totality was only visible from a small swath of Europe (Denmark's Faroe Islands and Norway's Svalbard Islands) but there were others with an even better view...
Our own Ben Cooper caught the eclipse from a 737 plane at 35,000 feet over the far north Atlantic and Norwegian Sea:
A bit higher up, ESA astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti aboard the International Space Station witnessed the eclipse during an orbital sunrise. She also saw the moon's shadow fall over the Earth below:
I think this is it: the umbra. Looking aft on our flightpath around maximum obscuration time.
Even farther out, ESA's Sun-watching Proba-2 minisatellite used its SWAP imager to capture the Moon passing in front of the Sun. SWAP views the solar disc at extreme ultraviolet wavelengths to capture the turbulent surface of the Sun and its swirling corona.
Jurg Bolli Member
Posts: 977 From: Albuquerque, NM Registered: Nov 2000
posted 03-20-2015 01:24 PM
Wonderful pictures!
Blackarrow Member
Posts: 3118 From: Belfast, United Kingdom Registered: Feb 2002
posted 03-26-2015 10:10 PM
It would have been far cheaper to operate this type of flight from either Belfast International or Glasgow International Airports. The round-trip time would have been much less. 18 months ago I made multiple attempts to persuade local newspapers and tour companies to organise an eclipse flight. Nobody was interested.
However, by an interesting coincidence there was a scheduled flight from Belfast International to Reykjavik, departing 8.30am on Friday 20th March. Flight time was two hours approximately, and as far as I can work out, the flight must have passed fairly close to the centre line of the eclipse at around the time of totality. I considered booking a seat, but the sun would have been more or less behind the aircraft in the sky, and after my earlier experience, I had no faith in Easyjet seeking permission to fly a few 360 degree manoeuvres to allow the passengers to see the eclipse. I don't suppose anyone knows anything about this flight or whether they did any manoeuvres to see the eclipse?
I just stayed at home. From my back garden the eclipse was 93% and intermittently visible through patchy cloud. Very spectacular, but I still regret the missed opportunities.
posted 03-20-2015 09:16 AM
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