India: Chartered Flights Offer Extended View of Solar Eclipse

In India, people have long considered solar eclipses to be bad omens. The belief that the sun is at the mercy of two evil planets, Rahu and Ketu causing the eclipse, still prevails among a large section of Indians, but there are others who can’t wait to book a chartered flight to watch the coming solar eclipse for as long as possible.

Air charter and tourist operators in India are seeing an overwhelming response to chartered flights to view the solar eclipse that will occur in two weeks. The July 22 event will be a total solar eclipse – the first in ten years. The next total solar eclipse won’t occur until 2034.

This eclipse is of particular interest to both scientists and the general public because its path of totality passes through thickly populated western, central, eastern and northeastern regions of India.

Travel agent Cox and Kings is chartering a Boeing-737 for the two-hour journey from Delhi to Gaya in Bihar so that passengers can follow the total solar eclipse, and seats are filling up fast.

[Nikhil Pawar, Space Technology and Education P/L]:English
“Well, we have got a very strong response. The airline that we are flying has 21 seats facing the sun and 21 more window seats, which are facing away from the sun, facing the earth. We call them the ’sun side seats‘ and the ‚earth side seats‘. The sun side seats, which will have direct view of the eclipse, cost about 79,000 rupees. We are actually getting a very strong response form the amateur astronomy circles in India, from the corporate world and a wide variety of audience.”

Taking one of these chartered flights lets passengers watch the eclipse for almost 10 times longer than those on the ground.

[Piyush Pandey, Director, Nehru Planetarium].English
„Theoretically the totality [of the eclipse] can only be 7 minutes 30 seconds. So that is the maximum you can get, if you are stationed at one place during that period. By chasing the moon shadow they [people in airplanes] increase the time to 74 minutes, which is almost ten times more than the theoretically maximum possible.“

In India, the eclipse will begin soon after sunrise and the partial phase of the eclipse will be visible throughout the country.

(NTDTV)