11 July 2010   Total Solar Eclipse

Glenn Schneider (Steward Observatory, University of  Arizona) and Joel Moskowitz
(in a collaboration with Jay Pasachoff, Williams College)

9 minutes and 23 seconds of Totality @ 39,000 ft. !!!

Longitude: 126° 09.2' W, Latitude: 18° 10.8'S, Mid-Eclipse: 19:20:00 UT

FOR A PICTORIAL RETROSPECTIVE OVERVIEW --> CLICK HERE


THE SHADOW COMETH

The umbra approaches.  Cloud tops earlier seen at 19:02 UT extending all the way to the 400 km distant horizon
disappeared as an umbral  veil of gray darkness drew cover over the ocean  below and sky above
(seen here at 19:09:40 UT) with chromospheric light aglow above the 3.5° depressed astronomical horizon.

Click >HERE<  for a wide-angle view of totality by Fred Espenak.

TSE 2010 CORONA -- A VERY FIRST LOOK (Cavet Emptor)

A "first look" image of the TSE 2010 corona (above) from EFLIGHT 2010 -- a 5-frame "quick and dirty" composite from
five of  212 images acquired from the flight deck of our Skytraders Antarctic Solutions A319 LR/CJ aircraft (bottom of page).
Click on the above image for larger versions.

RAMP UP/DOWN CORONAL IMAGING CENTERED ON MID-ECLIPSE (19:20 UT)

A sampling of the raw images of totality taken with a Nikon DX3 camera and VR 80-400 mm lens (provided by Jay Pasachoff;
used at 400 mm f/5.6 ISO 200) as shown below. Image annotation: UTC - upper left, Exposure time in seconds lower right.
Click on the above image for larger version.

CORONAL STREAMERS (but also...)

A second "quick look" composite image show coronal streamers extending to appx 6 solar radii.
Unfortunately, light-scattering by the flight deck window produced artifacts (blue structures radially tangent to the lunar limb)
that are superimposed upon (and conflated with) the coronal structure.  Additional work will be needed to
mitigate the degrading effects of this artifact.
Click on the above image for larger version.

POST-TOTALITY -- BACK ON THE GROUND

Airborne umbraphiles all smiles and back on the ground at after a historic 7-hour
round trip flight centrally intercepting the moon's umbral shadow at (ground speed) 942 km/hr.
Click on the above image for larger version.

WHO'S WHO ON EFLIGHT 2010
Click on the image below for larger version (without ID key)

ORGANIZERS	13. Robyn Small	30. Pat Espenak
1. Glenn Schneider Flight Planning, Organization, Operations	14. Stanfield Hill	31. John Beattie
2. Rick Brown Ground Arrangements, Logistics, Implementation	15. Stephen Kolodny	32. Sophean Bo
	16. Charlene Larson	33. Charles Cooper
FLIGHT AND CABIN CREW Skytraders Antarctic Solutions	17. David Hill	34. Phos Heng
3. Cpt. Rex Booth Pilot in Command	18. Murray Larsen	35. Bernard Rickenbacker
4. F/O Dan Colborne - First Officer	19. Joel Moskowitz	36. Janice Brown
5. Cpt. Terry Vickers - Skytraders Chief Pilot	20. George Sieg	37. Mark Margolis
6. Jason Mifsud - Avionics Engineer	21. Michael Maunder	38. Valeria Bain
7. Steve Maden - Airframe Engineer	22. Olav Andrade	39. Moshe Bain
8. Felicity Rossiter - Flight Attendant	23 Wendy Maunder (RIP)
9. Annalise Stanway - Flight Attendant	24. Derryl Russell	FRENCH POLYNESIAN GOV'MT REPRESENTATIVES
	25. Jay Friedland	40. Hon. Steeve Hamblin Minister of Tourism and Air Transport
UMBRAPHILES	26. Derald Nye	41. Mrs. Tong Sang - First Lady of F.P.
10. Craig Small	27. Roland Burley	42. Mrs. Hamblin
11. Alan Kopp	28. Karl Handelsman	43. Mme. Thea - Minister of Research
12. Mrs. Teipotemarama Rickenbacker	29. Fred Espenak

AND... At Night the Southern Sky was Spectacular!

I didn't know where to look first!