14 DAY TRIAL // You might have heard of storm chasers, people so passionate about storms that they're willing to risk their lives to find the perfect one. That is nothing compared with the attempt to capture a perfect solar eclipse while flying at 44,000ft / 13,411m and 500mph / 804km/h.
Former NASA photographer, Ben Cooper along with some colleagues attempted to catch November 3 total solar eclipse while aboard of a 12-person Dassault Falcon 900B jet charter from Bermuda.
The attempt was quite daring as the Moon's shadow traveled across the Atlantic Ocean at 8,000mph / 12,874 km/h leaving them only 7 seconds to capture the solar eclipse at its highest peak.
Cooper said that “There was zero margin for error, with the plane, traveling near 500mph and hitting the eclipse shadow where it touched down on earth at some 8,000 mph, required to hit a geographic point over the ocean at a precise instant (read on).”
He then added, “It is also just the second time a flight to intercept any such super-short eclipse was accomplished successfully!”
As you can see from the snapshot, he did not manage to capture the eclipse at its highest peak, taking instead this gorgeous shot of what is called a “diamond ring.”