Alaska Airline passengers in for quite a show during total eclipse
Mar 7, 2016, 8:07 PM | Updated: Mar 8, 2016, 5:56 am
Hope you booked ahead. It will take quite a trip to see the full eclipse on March 8. (NASA)
(NASA)
It’s a bit off course, but worth the view.
Last year Joe Rao approached Alaska Airlines after reviewing its regular Flight 870 between Anchorage, Alaska and Honolulu with a unique request. Rao, an astronomer at the American Museum of Natural History’s Hayden Planetarium, calculated that the flight could potentially be in position for prime eclipse viewing on March 8. But it would take a course alteration and a change to its normally scheduled departure.
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“Our fleet director, Brian Holme, reviewed the proposed flight path and a few possible changes, and we decided to do it. Because how often do you get to see a total eclipse from the window of an airplane?” said Alaska Airlines Spokesperson Halley Knigge.
Flight 870 will be at 37,000 feet, traveling at 530 miles per hour when it will fly into the moon’s shadow about 695 miles north of Hawaii. That shadow, oval in shape, will be about 68 miles wide, and 500 miles long. It will occur at about 5:35 p.m. local time when the plane crosses its path. The plane will be in the complete shadow of the moon for about 1 minute and 53 seconds.
The shadow of the full eclipse will begin in southeast Asia, then travel east and north, passing just north of Hawaii just before falling off the horizon. It will be the only total solar eclipse of 2016.
Rao is among a range of eclipse chasers who have booked seats on the flight that will intersect the path of the moon’s shadow. He slated to sit in seat 32F. Then there’s Mike Kentrianakis with the American Astronomical Society, who will be in 6F. Craig Small, a semi-retired astronomer at the Hayden Planetarium will be in 7F. Amateur astronomer Bob Stephens is in 15f. And Evan Zucker and his wife Paula Eisenhart at in 1F and 2F.
Dan McGlaun in seat 8F is bringing special filtered glasses to watch the event. He’s bringing an extra 200 pair for fellow passengers.
Other passengers on the flight may not be astronomers, but thanks to Rao’s ingenuity, they will be in for quite a show.
