
Catching the Great American Eclipse at 35,000 Feet - kylebarron
https://blog.alaskaair.com/alaska-airlines/solar-eclipse/
======
limeblack
This is nothing new from Alaska Air. I congratulate them for this! In fact
this happened near Hawaii [https://blog.alaskaair.com/alaska-
airlines/news/eclipse-flig...](https://blog.alaskaair.com/alaska-
airlines/news/eclipse-flight/) in 2015.

~~~
kyleblarson
Alaska is a great airline. I fly about 70k miles per year on them and am very
rarely disappointed.

~~~
dforrestwilson
What do you like about them?

~~~
spraak
I also really like them as an Airline, and use them often to go to and from
Hawai'i. Their staff is usually very kind and the planes are clean. I don't
remember the seat sizes.. I am not a 'big' person so not an issue for me (at
least yet)

~~~
mataug
They get the basics right. The seat sizes aren't anything special but that's
okay for most people.

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jvermillard
another cool one is the 70's one using the Concorde:
[https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/8q8qwk/the-
concor...](https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/8q8qwk/the-concorde-and-
the-longest-solar-eclipse)

~~~
ge96
Love that plane looks futuristic, reminds me of that scene from 2001: Space
Odyssey

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ethbro
Does anyone have pointers on where I could get an estimate on average
maintenence costs / flight hour & fuel costs for a Boeing 737-900ER?

Interested in working up a rough number for how much this cost to make happen.
Can't imagine it was profitable.

And very cool!

 _Edit:_ Per Boeing [1], they quote $151 / flight hour in actual service on a
737-800. Random site [2] gives fuel on a 737-900ER as 0.17 km per litre / 0.40
NM per gallon.

 _Edit2_ : After some digging, here's the flight track:
[https://flightaware.com/live/flight/ASA9671/history/20170821...](https://flightaware.com/live/flight/ASA9671/history/20170821/1409Z/KPDX/KPDX)

[1]
[http://www.boeing.com/commercial/aeromagazine/aero_15/costs_...](http://www.boeing.com/commercial/aeromagazine/aero_15/costs_story.html#2)

[2] [https://www.aircraftcompare.com/helicopter-
airplane/Boeing-7...](https://www.aircraftcompare.com/helicopter-
airplane/Boeing-737-900ER/29)

~~~
danielvf
A small sized business jet charters for about $1,000 an hour. I'd guess a long
737 would go for between $10,000 and $25,000 an hour.

Edit: Here are some charter prices:
[http://www.aircharterguide.com/Aircraft/Manufacturer/BOEING](http://www.aircharterguide.com/Aircraft/Manufacturer/BOEING)

~~~
sokoloff
Conklin and de Decker are a respected (though not perfect) source for variable
operating costs for various airframes.

They list the various BBJs (which are based on 737s) at $5360-$5749 per hour.

[https://www.conklindd.com/ReportTemp/ACEWebReports/_%20BBJ_%...](https://www.conklindd.com/ReportTemp/ACEWebReports/_%20BBJ_%20BBJ%202_%20BBJ%203_2017082520125160.PDF)

BBJ3 is based on the 737-900ER

~~~
ethbro
Thanks! So that looks like ~$26,125 for a 4.75 hr flight in pure costs (fuel,
plane and engine maintainence) exclusive of crew pay. If the numbers are
totalling the line items above.

So call it around $50k all included.

Depreciation doesn't look like it's in that number either, but I'd say that's
probably ignorable when you're as heavily utilized as a major carrier plane
is.

That seems like a good ballpark number for something a carrier would agree to.
Not something to do every day, but arguably worth the PR and not going to
torpedo the company either.

~~~
sokoloff
The CdD figures usually do include crew costs, so they attempt to be "all-in"
numbers, minus cost of financing.

The reason they're $0 on the report you're looking at is they're trying to
sell you the report with the actual figures, not that those costs haven't been
included.

Crew rates for majors are published. Here's Alaska's:
[http://www.airlinepilotcentral.com/airlines/legacy/alaska_ai...](http://www.airlinepilotcentral.com/airlines/legacy/alaska_airlines)

Call the flight crew $300/hr, and the cabin crew probably another $150/hr.

~~~
ethbro
Ah, was confused as they lined them up below the total line, so was assuming
they might break them out.

------
limeblack
Here is a picture I took after messing with the aperture and having quite a
long lense
[https://i.stack.imgur.com/YvyJB.jpg](https://i.stack.imgur.com/YvyJB.jpg)
from Robinsville NC. I swear you can see stars in there but could be wrong.

~~~
DigitalJack
Mercury was visible to the naked eye, but I didn’t see much else. Was not
really looking for stars though.

Nice shot, btw.

~~~
tzs
Where I was watching (the "day tripper" area at Solartown in Madras, Oregon)
there was one bright point source reasonably near the Sun which I assume was
Mercury [1]. Overall the sky was brighter than I expected, and if there were
stars visible there were not many of them.

There was also some idiot's drone buzzing above us, with red lights on two of
its opposite arms and green lights on the other two arms.

[1] or rather, I assume it was the same planet you saw.

~~~
waynecochran
That was Venus. not Mercury.

~~~
4ad
It was neither. It was Regulus. Mercury was further away (still relativelly
close) and Venus was much further away.

~~~
4ad
Amazing how one gets downvoted for stating simple, trivially verifiable facts.

[https://i.imgur.com/VYqvYHAr.png](https://i.imgur.com/VYqvYHAr.png)

[http://www.americaneclipse2017.org/maps/the-sky-during-
total...](http://www.americaneclipse2017.org/maps/the-sky-during-totality/)

[http://www.skyandtelescope.com/astronomy-news/observing-
news...](http://www.skyandtelescope.com/astronomy-news/observing-news/total-
solar-eclipse-all-sky-maps/)

------
marcosscriven
I travelled last minute London -> Chicago -> Portland -> Salem to see my first
total eclipse. The Saturday night flight to Portland was packed with excited
passengers, all talking about the eclipse. The captain (Spirit Airlines) even
announced the flight as the 'Eclipse Express', to cheers from everyone.

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njarboe
I was watching the eclipse in Corvallis and, about 10 minutes before totality,
a plane jetted around at high altitude and left a contrail[1]. The new cloud,
in the otherwise perfectly clear sky, began to drift toward the sun and I
thought, "There could be few better symbols of the attitude that some of
%0.0001 have to the rest of us than this." Fortunately, even though the
contrail did drift over the sun during totality[1], it was very thin (and
dark) and did not distract and the event in the least.

I'm glad Alaska Air did this flight over the Pacific and not where they would
distract hundreds of thousands of people with their flight. Anyone know how to
find out what flight (or private jet) was the one I saw was? Would be an
interesting fact to add to my memory of the event.

Please forgive the many artifacts from this smartphone camera.

[1] Before totality
([https://njarboe.com/eclipse/beforeTotality.jpg](https://njarboe.com/eclipse/beforeTotality.jpg))

[2] During totality
([https://njarboe.com/eclipse/totality.jpg](https://njarboe.com/eclipse/totality.jpg)).
This photo was right at the beginning of totality and in no way captures what
I saw, but does show where the contrail ended up. I was more interested in
experiencing the eclipse than trying to get a photo.

~~~
ryanwaggoner
Fascinating that you have no idea what flight it was, but you immediately
chalked it up to another example of "the 0.0001%" harming you.

That's pretty ridiculous. For all you know, it was on some kind of
humanitarian mission. Statistically, of course, it was probably just a routine
commercial jet full of average people.

What's crazy to me is someone on the ground in a small town thinking that the
global ATC system should route around them (and apparently all small towns and
random gatherings of people) so that they won't miss seeing an eclipse.

~~~
njarboe
Earlier in the day, before the eclipse, there were a dozen or more private
jets flying over my sister's place into the local airport when the previous
days there were none. Some even had to circle (to wait for others to land?).
This probably primed my mind about private jets. Then this jet was not just
flying straight through but came from the south, turned to the east, and then
headed south. Could have been NASA? That is why I was querying about how one
would find out about it? My thought about it was more of how perfect the
symbolism would be if the jet was say Ellison's than a knee jerk reaction
against the 0.0001%. The efforts and accomplishments of many 0.0001% er's have
brightened my life over the years and I wish most of them the best of luck.

~~~
dingaling
Did you do a replay on one of the ADS-B sites?

Try fr24.com, you can go back one month without an account I think. Convert
your local date and time to UTC.

Here you go, jiggle the time slider around a bit. This is for 17:00 UTC, 09:00
PDT, on 21 August 2017:

[https://www.flightradar24.com/2017-08-21/17:00/12x/44.61,-12...](https://www.flightradar24.com/2017-08-21/17:00/12x/44.61,-123.26/9)

You can pause and click on an aircraft icon for more information. Some will
have their registrations blocked on request but usually have their type
indicated ( so you can determine bizjet or airliner ).

~~~
njarboe
That is a cool website. I would guess the plane is the one labeled FA7X on
this site. Looks like it came from Boeing Field, flew out near Newport on the
coast, followed the eclipse path just north of Corvallis out to eastern
Oregon, and then back to Boeing Field landing around 10:54am Pacific. It was
going fast and at high altitude (about 41,000ft and 430 knots), unlike most of
the other planes in the area. Its altitude probably explains why it was the
only jet creating a visible contrail. If this was the jet, it shows how bad
eye witness testimony can be as it flew almost due east over where I was. The
site says its a Dassault Falcon 7X; so a bizjet type plane. No tail number
like many other planes shown. A quick google did not get me a list of the
planes in and out of Boeing Field that day, but I would imagine it's available
somewhere.

~~~
dingaling
Glad you found it. The 7X is popular for eclipse hunters, they can cruise high
and stable and have good-sized windows and can take about 18 people with all
their kit; they also form their contrail aft of the tail due to the engine
location, so less interference for photography.

I have a couple of friends who flew on one over the Faroes during the 2015
eclipse, there were more than a dozen chartered aircraft circling for that
one.

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1024core
Best part of the video:
[https://youtu.be/8FwF1DvksIQ?t=52s](https://youtu.be/8FwF1DvksIQ?t=52s)

~~~
dredmorbius
Agreed. Seeing the moon's shadow racing across the Earth was pretty damned
slick.

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kukanani
I was on this flight, and it was incredible! AMA

~~~
senatorobama
What was it like EXITING totality? Was it like God said, let there be light?

~~~
kukanani
It was pretty incredible. The "diamond ring" really bursts out over the edge
of the moon, and then it's glasses on or look away, because the sun's back.

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gruez
How much do flights like these cost?

~~~
kukanani
You couldn't buy a ticket, invite and media only.

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Larrikin
How much did the guest have to pay?

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zeep
How many planes crossed the total solar eclipse's path? probably a bunch...

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astdb
Concorde (or the Tu-144) could've kept up with the shadow

~~~
planteen
They did this on June 30, 1973. While it stayed in totality 10x longer than
would have been possible on the ground, it did not stay for the entire path of
totality. Look at the umbral velocity - only the bottom of the parabola is
obtainable by even a Concorde.

[http://xjubier.free.fr/en/site_pages/solar_eclipses/TSE_1973...](http://xjubier.free.fr/en/site_pages/solar_eclipses/TSE_19730630_Concorde001.html)

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dmovsis
But it`s kinda very beautiful !!

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coss
God that music...

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nerd7473
Who's ready for the next one?

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reiichiroh
steve mnuchin is that you?

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whipoodle
Did people really call it the Great American Eclipse? I hadn't seen that
phrase before this.

~~~
kukanani
Yep, I think it was a Twitter trending topic.

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brndnmtthws
Is anyone else bothered by the term "American" eclipse? I don't think
astronomical events have any notion of nationality.

~~~
colecut
It was the first Total Solar Eclipse to be seen over North America since the
70's...

~~~
jrochkind1
First total solar eclipse visible in the contiguous U.S. since 1979. Not first
over North America if Mexico is in North America. Mexico in 1991.

~~~
eesmith
The August 1, 2008 total eclipse started in northern Canada.

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curiousgal
>Great American Eclipse

That is rather egocentric to be honest. It is just a solar eclipse that
happened to be visible in the U.S. this time.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_solar_eclipses_in_the_...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_solar_eclipses_in_the_21st_century)

~~~
crunksht
I disagree. Calling it the 'Great American Eclipse' is fair because it crossed
over the entire country coast to coast making it accessible to just about
every major population center by car. It was also only visible in America.

That's pretty neat.

~~~
rbg246
The title really rankles me -it was a brilliant eclipse and it was an eclipse
only viewable in America, I understand this completely but it still rankles
possibly irrationally.

I am not opposed to calling things American when, like I am not opposed to
calling the 20th Century the American Century but there is something deeply
annoying in claiming an astronomical thing as one's country.

It's like a form of possession and maybe its the Sun but for some reason it
really really annoys me to give the event an American adjective.

~~~
kinkrtyavimoodh
You should ideally be more annoyed at a century being called the American
century because it's insulting to all the other people and nations who also
existed and were doing their shit. On the contrary, the eclipse literally did
not exist for those outside America.

~~~
rbg246
But it is equally also not something you owned that is the only point I am
making - noone is saying 'literally' it's the world's eclipse, it just rankles
when someone takes possession of something they do not own - rational or
irrational. Perhaps something more interesting to explore would be me and 10
others in the thread above think that way.

