November 17, 2013 at 10:52 am

Picture of the Day: Solar Eclipse at 44,000 ft

by twistedsifter

 

SOLAR ECLIPSE AT 44,000 FT

 

solar eclipse from an airplane ben cooper

 

Recently featured as NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day, this amazing capture by Ben Cooper of LaunchPhotography.com shows the total solar eclipse that occurred on November 3, 2013, from 44,000 ft over the Atlantic.

Cooper was aboard a 12-person Dassault Falcon 900B jet chartered from Bermuda. The flight made a perpendicular crossing of the central shadow track. After only an instant of totality, this snapshot captured the lunar disk in silhouette. Rays of sunlight shining past peaks and valleys along the lunar limb created the fleeting appearance of a glistening diamond ring. [Source]

In a detailed blog post, Cooper goes in-depth on how he got this particular shot as well as documenting the whole trip, including more photos of this awesome phenomena.

Read the entire post here.

 

 

picture of the day button Picture of the Day: Solar Eclipse at 44,000 ft