Total Solar Eclipse -20th March

Here is a link to some images I took from our flight over the Faroes.
www.facebook.com/michael.oconnell.3785/posts/10206016970161501
Corona was stunning with amazing streamers. Brilliant diamond rings, particularly at 3rd contact. Very smooth flight. All in all, it was a very well organised tour by Tim Todd and John Beattie. Great to have a few other Irish people on board too!

Fantastic shots Michael, it must feel a bit unusual to go to an eclipse and know with 100% confidence that you're not going to miss anything, Like you described, it looks like the third contact was the best
It looks like that no one onland in the Faroe's saw it, we had a weather front passing over during the eclipse, it was fine by the after noon , Svalbard as predicted saw it

You must have the eclipse bug again after that, I know I can feel it coming back, and that's from what was always going to be a partial eclipse for us !!!

Dave,
As you said, you are guaranteed with a plane view...or so we thought. Little did we expect that Lufthansa would go on strike. We were luck to make it to the departure point in Billund. Flights were cancelled on the previous and following days, so we only just got there. On top of that, our flight on Thursday from Dublin to Frankfurt was late so we missed our connection to Billund. We got the next (and last flight) later that night.
Observing from the plane has both advantages and disadvantages. It was the best option for this eclipse IMHO. If it was Arizona or North Africa or somewhere with very good weather prospects, then I would observe on land.
I kept equipment to a minimum - two eyes and an iPhone only. Kept things simple and allowed me to enjoy the view. With no equipment to fiddle with, the eclipse went quite slowly.
What was noticeable was how long the diamond ring lasted - helped by the fact that we were travelling in the same direction as the moon's shadow.

Below is a video which my wife Denise recorded.


Best see in a larger window in HD.

And here's a photo of totality.



You can see the multiple reflections of the sun due to the layers of glass in the window.
Also note the reflection off the wing!

Great video from Denise, Michael. And a great photo from yourself too.

I personally cannot remember a more luminous Corona. For the record Totality lasted 3 minutes 40 seconds. The plane turned to its scheduled right hand change of direction 2 minutes before 9.30 am. We saw a Crescent Sun almost immediately. I saw 1 short Diamond Ring at the start. Then Totality occurred at 9.42 (2nd contact). In my 9X63 Binoculars I counted 3 Solar Prominences and a massive 8 streamers all the way around the brilliant corona. Right near the end, I did observe a load of Baily's Beads. The chromosphere was blood red, and then the 2nd Diamond Ring at 3rd contact. The inner and outer corona were both effortlessly easy to see on eastern and western sides. I shall always remember this Total Solar Eclipse for its extra bright corona. Also observed were the 2 planets Venus which was -4 magnitude and Mercury which was -0.3.
The aeroplane was an McDonnell Douglas -83. This was my 9th TSE, and Valerie's 7th.

A great time had by all!!

Thank you for reading this report,

Aubrey.