November 20, 2003
(updated Nov. 24th)
Contact:
Rick Fienberg, Editor in Chief
617-864-7360 x144,
rfienberg@SkyandTelescope.com
Marcy L. Dill, VP, Marketing & Business Development
617-864-7360 x143,
mdill@SkyandTelescope.com
| Note to Editors/Producers: Success! See page 2 of this press release for images from our flight to see the total solar eclipse of November 23rd over Antarctica! |
On November 23, 2003, between 5:24 and 6:14 p.m. Eastern Standard Time, a total eclipse of the Sun will be visible from a narrow track across Antarctica. A partial eclipse will be visible over a broader area, including the tip of South America and parts of Australia and New Zealand.
Airbus A340 in flight.
Courtesy LanChile.
Sky & Telescope magazine and TravelQuest International have chartered a LanChile Airbus A340 passenger jet to intercept the eclipse at 6:06 p.m. EST at an altitude of 38,000 feet. The 74 passengers and crew members aboard will experience 2 minutes 26 seconds of totality — 29 seconds more than is possible from the ground — with the Sun positioned 12° above the horizon and visible directly off the aircraft's port (left) wing. The 14-hour flight begins and ends at Punta Arenas, Chile, and includes a flyover of the South Pole.
Flight path of eclipse intercept over Antarctica.
Map courtesy Fred Espenak (NASA).
We will have a professional astrophotographer in the cockpit filming all stages of the eclipse. We expect a selection of images to be e-mailed to our offices via satellite telephone between 6:30 and 8:00 p.m. EST Sunday evening, barring unforseen technical glitches. Once the images are downloaded, we will post them on this Web page so that you may use them on your news broadcast or in your newspaper. There will be no charge for use of these pictures; we ask only that you include an appropriate credit notice (to be supplied with each image and caption) and, for online use, a link to SkyandTelescope.com.
