On Friday, the world was a total solar eclipse: “Gazety.Ru” tells the story of how he had on board a special flight witnessed this bright natural phenomenon, which suddenly ended marriage proposal .
On Friday morning from Murmansk Airport flight took off on a strange route: Murmansk – Murmansk. The scoreboard reception destination of the flight looked more extensions: “District a total solar eclipse.” Band of the total solar eclipse March 20, 2015 had been laid away from the mainland: it hit the land of only the Faroe Islands and Svalbard. But if there is no favorable conditions for observing the eclipse from the Earth, why not go on the air? This idea is not new: in the XX century Soviet astronomers led by Joseph Shklovskii already made observations by sending a specially equipped Tu-104 flying along the strip of the total phase,
and got a very important understanding of solar physics information. Something similar was able to implement and Friday.
One of the authors of the idea of Flight was the scientific director of the observatory, “Ka-Dar” and founder of the educational project “Intelligence-tour” Stanislav Short, whose comments on the topic of observational astronomy appear regularly in the pages of science “Gazety.Ru”.
He explained how it was possible to organize the flight.
«Last fall, at the end of October, we were flying from Murmansk to Moscow, and almost immediately after take-off we saw the aurora. I managed to make a beautiful picture – the northern lights over Khibiny. I put a picture in the network “in contact”, where he received advice to print it and send it to the airline “Nordavia” – because we were flying flight this company. After that, we struck up communication with the pilots of the company, and at some point we started to chat on the topic of the possibility of observing the total solar eclipse from the aircraft. With the help of Murmansk news agency “B-Port” we were able to organize this trip. The flight plan was developed for a month, and in February, the owner of the airline – “Norilsk Nickel” – gave the nod to the organization of the journey and the beginning of a set of passengers. ”
Due to the short duration of the eclipse, it was decided that the sun during the total phase will be able to see only the passengers who are on the right window.
This point raises more concerns and the organizers – they say, do not come to blows over whether the place “under the sun” passengers port and starboard. But everything went very peacefully: passengers starboard most of the neighbors have left, so all fully enjoy the natural phenomenon.
An hour before arriving at the lunar shadow, the captain personally walked through the cabin, where the felt like a star: virtually every passenger asked him for an autograph. “I just like Sergei Mozyakin,” said the pilot, remembering the famous Russian hockey player.
Pilot behaved calmly and even said that it is not the most interesting of his flight: “I have to explore fish fly and mineral exploration».
The total phase of the eclipse was to last little more than two minutes, but the correspondent of “Gazety.Ru”, who had witnessed four total solar eclipses, from my own experience know that usually the total phase lasts a little longer than specified in the ephemeris. The total phase eventually lasted almost two minutes and thirty seconds, which, in particular, has allowed a greater number of passengers to see the eclipse.
The climax of the eclipse – the total phase – astronomers are interested in the fact that it makes the Earth see the solar corona – the outer layers of the solar atmosphere, the temperature reaches several million degrees. The shape of the crown can draw conclusions about what stage the activity is the sun.
Form crown, which was now on the eclipse once again demonstrated that the Sun is now very active – it is, however, evident from the fact that the observation of the Northern Lights on Wednesday night over Moscow that occurs every few years.
«Crown on the frame showed unusual structure, its width was about half a degree, while one could see a little screwed” mustache. ” Prominences observed mainly from the left edge of the solar disk was about 3-4 brightest “- said Short.
Among the passengers were astronomers – both professionals and amateurs. Among them were the winners of the Moscow City Olympiad on Astronomy.
«Before starting trips I have very often sad mood – said” Gazeta.ru “one of the winners of the Moscow Olympiad in grade 11 Ruslan Akmetdinov. – As this trip I changed it in connection with the aurora in the plane from Moscow to Murmansk, this winter in Murmansk. In eclipse, first struck me as a piece of the moon closes the sun. But the total phase was much steeper. Felt some peace and grandeur of the event: a huge sun loses its luster because of the small moon. ”
«For me, this flight – a very big event. I’ve never even private phase have not seen, and now – once complete. I was very impressed. And I’m the first time flew to Murmansk, traveled by plane for the first time in my life I saw the northern lights. It struck me, too, but certainly not as much as the eclipse, particularly the total phase. Very beautiful crown “- said” Gazeta.ru “the winner of the Moscow Olympics in grade 8 Ivan Starostin.
Since all the passengers it was the first experience of seeing eclipse, some things are only able to establish an experimental way.
«During the total phase I had to hold back the forward seat, so that it knocked the tripod with the camera, which is already held on the verge of stalling – shared his emotions Kirill Grishin, another winner of the Olympiad. – To tripod fell, we stick to it as a counterweight to water bottles strapped tape. Survey we carried out the so-called exposure fork, that is, each subsequent frame was shorter than the previous excerpt. This method allowed us to take pictures of the solar corona at different distances from the sun, from the nearest – internal – to the farthest – external “.
«Shooting with a focal distance of more than 500 mm had no sense – not perfectly transparent windows shaking and did not allow a good focus – said Stanislav Short after the eclipse is over. – Shorter gave a good picture. Many participants of the voyage came to shoot the moon shadow, running on the surface of the Earth. But in general, I believe that the scientific program was carried out very successful. ”
Dove Comment “Gazety.Ru” scientific expedition leader unexpectedly initiated conceived of flash mob: the passengers raised beads and Stanislav loudly made a marriage proposal to his girlfriend. That, of course, agreed. 
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