I have been asked to fly the Cirrus SR22 Turbo aircraft from Rotterdam to Newcastle in the UK, then onwards to Vagar on the Faroe Islands next week to experience the full solar eclipse. One of those joining the trip has seen an eclipse with a little more than 80% coverage in 1999, but thought that to be quite disappointing and would really want to see the 100% full eclipse this time.
As I used to be the chairman of the Dutch Astronomical Foundation Corona Borealis, I was immediately interested of course. I remember that some of the members of Corona Borealis travelled in previous years to Egypt and Mexico just to see and experience a full solar eclipse there. What an adventure for just a few minutes of darkness during the day!
This link explains quite well the upcoming solar eclipse. The picture below shows you where the total eclipse will be visible and for how long. The website with all this information can be found here.
The Faroe Islands, situated in between Scotland and Iceland, is the place to be for the March 2015 Solar Eclipse. In case there is good weather predicated, people can watch the total eclipse from the ground on the island. In case the weather is fogged up the won’t be able to experience it fully. We ourselves will remain airborne and try to out-climb the weather to fly on top. We can climb up to 25.000 feet in altitude, which in most cases is enough to out-climb the clouds unless there is a frontal system passing through.
The Faroe Islands have put together some information on the upcoming Solar Eclipse as well. You can find that information here.
The trip starts in Rotterdam on Thursday morning for an early morning departure to NewCastle in the UK. Then onwards towards the north of Scotland to Wick.
In Newcastle our British friend Ian is joining us for the flight that same day further on to Wick in the North of Scotland. The route points are not always in a straight line due to several reasons, but while airborne I always negotiate with air traffic control for a more direct route to our destination.
There we will be visiting the Old Pulteney Distillery before heading to the hotel for diner.
The next morning our flight will leave Wick very early at sunrise to fly to the Faroe Islands.
We will be flying over long stretches of water for several hours to reach or destination just west of the Faroe Islands. It is in that region that the total eclipse can be seen best. In case there is frontal weather passing through, we might not be able to climb above the clouds, but in case we can climb above, we will have the best view of the eclipse in the world.
We will be having a short visit to the Faroe Islands, but it is limited to only 1 hour. After that we will be heading back home again.
You can follow us using the satellite tracker found on the right hand side in the sidebar to this blogpost. The Inreach tracker is the one we are using for tracking the aircraft.