Yesterday, the Eastern Hemisphere got to witness a total solar eclipse, a fight between the Sun god Ra and the Moon God Khonsu for control of the light that comes from the land above the land. Or some shit. Ancient people were stupid.
The eclipse, as all eclipses are, was dope as hell. but it’s even more crazy when witnessed from 35,000 feet. An Alaskan Airline flight from Anchorage to Honolulu caught this spectacular sight, after a passenger asked the pilot to delay their flight.
No. For reals. I love space and I think I’d still be pissed.
The request came from passenger Joe Rao, an astronomer who had calculated that the flight would intercept the eclipse’s “path of totality”, the area on Earth from which the total eclipse could be viewed. The problem was that the flight would depart 25 minutes too early to view the eclipse. So Alaska Airlines agreed to his request to delay the flight.
Apparently space folks do this, and more than 10 other people were on the flight just so they could see the elicipse from the heavens. That’s cool, but also a waste of money. I’m happy viewing it online days later, and I’m sure you are, too.
[Via CNET]