Incredible solar eclipse footage from flight

[Cassiopeia]

http://earthsky.org/space/incredible-solar-eclipse-footage-from-flight?utm_source=EarthSky+News&utm_campaign=6f057919ce-EarthSky_News&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_c643945d79-6f057919ce-394533365

Alaska Airlines was good enough to redirect Flight #870 from Anchorage to Honolulu last Tuesday (March 8, 2016) so that passengers could enjoy a view of a total solar eclipse from 35,000 feet in the air. The result was spectacular, as you can see from the video above, which is by Mike Kentrianakis of the American Astronomical Society. Notice the beginning of the video, when the moon’s shadow is moving across the cloudtops, toward the camera!

The change in flight plans started a year ago, when astronomer Joe Rao – associate astronomer at the American Museum of Natural History’s Hayden Planetarium – realized that the eclipse’s path would intersect with his flight path — almost half an hour before his flight arrived, according to Alaska Airlines blog.

Rao called the airline, and officials decided to adjust the flight so passengers could experience the eclipse from the air.

The flight held about a dozen astronomers and eclipse chasers, along with about 150 other passengers.