NASA Plans to Chase Solar Eclipse With Special Jets
Special viewing glasses, or not, this is the ring side seat for this epic solar eclipse.
I'll be on the air rocking with some cool sun and eclipse related songs for you all today, so I won't be running outside to take a glimpse at this historic event. Besides, I didn't get my hands on those special eclipse watching glasses. But I know I can find numerous ways to sneak a peak if you will. Maybe even a birds eye view from a jet!
NASA plans to send two specially equipped jets airborne to follow the path of today's solar eclipse. There are various ways to view the event listed on eclipse2017.nasa.gov
According to nasa.gov the noses of two NASA research jets have been retrofitted with telescopes and these jets tracking the eclipse will fly one behind the other 70 miles apart. NASA says that Amir Caspi of the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado, and his team will use two of NASA’s WB-57F research jets to chase the darkness while taking observations from the twin telescopes. The team is expected to capture the clearest images of the Sun’s outer atmosphere, what's known as the corona, to date and the first-ever thermal images of Mercury, revealing how temperature varies across the planet’s surface.
So while most American's will be taking in this epic event, as best they can, and it will last less than two and half minutes, for one team of NASA-funded scientists, the eclipse will last over seven minutes. I'm definitely checking the NASA
By the way, NASA is live streaming the eclipse on the NASA TV Public Channel