Eclipse chasers to board passenger flight,catch longest solar eclipse

A special flight plan and alternatives have been planned to fly into the moon’s shadow and sight the total solar eclipse: the aircraft has large passenger windows to comfortably see entire scene. The large windows will also enable easy photography of the eclipse.

The sole dampener: India is expected to be in the thick of monsoon during the eclipse; the rains considerably reduce the probability of watching the phenomenon.

Eclipse Chasers Athenaeum is conducting the dedicated,non-stop,round-the-eclipse flight on July 22. The organisation is the eclipse sphere of SPACE,a registered society that works towards popularising science and organising events related to space science.

Amit Verma,CEO of Space Technology and Education Pvt Ltd,says,“We have studied weather data of the past few years and observed that Varanasi and Patna along the Ganga will have the lowest probability of clouds. Observing from a high altitude,the aircraft will provide the opportunity to get above the clouds and bad weather that might interfere with viewing the eclipse.”

The organisation has chartered a new Boeing 737-700 from Jet Airways with 21 ‘sun-side windows’ and as many ‘earth-side windows’. The eclipse flight will take off at 4.30 am and hold over Gaya till the time of the eclipse. Verma says the aircraft will intercept the middle of the eclipse shadow at exactly 6.26 am,at a height of 41,000 feet.

“Unless there is a furious storm building up,we expect to find clear sky at this altitude (41,000 feet),” he says.

Experts say India is the only likely place where such an observation of eclipse is possible. While a partial solar eclipse will be visible in the entire country,total eclipse will be visible on a 220-km path across the country’s breadth.

Fly to the sun

Want to go eclipse chasing?

Drop in a mail and contact details to info@stepl.org or call

011-45086320

Cost of the trip:

Sun side seats cost Rs 79,000

Middle seats at Rs 67,000

Aisle seats at Rs 59,000

Earth side seats cost

Rs 29,000

The Eclipse Chasers Athenaeum will give a discount of 10 per cent on those affiliated with Indian amateur astronomy organisations.