Rush to grab seats in plane for solar eclipse

Astronomy enthusiasts in India have taken full advantage of the opportunity to witness solar eclipse from the flight. As a result, almost all tickets of the special solar eclipse flight organised  by Cox & Kings (C&K) in coordination with Eclipse Chasers Athenaeum (ECA) are sold out.

Deepak V Bhimani, 70, managing director (MD) of a chemical manufacturing company in Gujarat, did not mind shelling out Rs79,000 for watching a solar eclipse from a plane. “I am interested in watching eclipses and this is a fantastic opportunity to watch it from so near,” said Bhimani, an amateur astronomer who has been following such events right from his childhood.

“Since it is monsoon, the eclipse of July 22 will not be visible from Mumbai due to clouds. So watching it from a plane is a good idea. Moreover, I do not have any addiction. It’s a good investment and I do not have to go to China to watch it,” he said.

The special “historic eclipse flight’ by JetLite, will take off from Delhi at 4.30 am on July 22. It will fly towards Gaya and hold over it for 6.44 minutes during the eclipse time. For this the seats have been divided into four sections — sun side (right window), middle, aisle and earth side (left window).

Eclipse chasers sitting on the Sun side seats of the aircraft will be able to photograph the eclipse, while the chasers sitting on the earth side seats will be able to photograph the lunar shadow moving over the earth cloud top. The duration of the flight is three hours and there will be customised games, activities and announcements.

The price for sun side, middle seat and aisle side seat is Rs79,000, Rs67,000 and Rs59,000 respectively.