Special flight provides lifetime experience to eclipse chasers

New Delhi/Onboard: Around 30 astronomy enthusiasts boarded a chartered plane at the Indira Gandhi International Airport on Wednesday to chase the total solar eclipse up to Gaya above the clouds at a height of 41,000 feet
It was an initiative of travel agency Cox and Kings India, under the guidance of Eclipse Chasers Athenaeum (ECA), a wing of the Science Popularisation Association of Communicators and Educators (SPACE), an organisation working to make science and astronomy popular among the youth.
Though quite popular in other countries, the idea of an eclipse flight was new in India and garnered a good response in the country.
“We did not even bother how many people would come here or not. Just to have that first flight. We did not even bother what are we going to do? How many tickets are we going to sell? But since the response is so good,” said Sachin Bamba, owner, SPACE, organiser of the flight.
Priced at a whopping 70,000 rupees, a seat in the plane might have caused a dent on the eclipse chaser’s pockets, but the excitement of witnessing the grand celestial event of the century surely overshadowed the money factor.
What made the flight all the more special was the fact that next such event will take place 105 years later, in 2114.
The turnout on the flight, though not much, was still something to go by, and that too in a country where an eclipse is associated with lots of myriad superstitions and is considered inauspicious.
The eclipse flight and the enthusiasm it generated, sent out a strong message to the people across India to shed their apprehensions and fears and enjoy an eclipse as another natural phenomenon, at par with rains or hailstorm.
22/07/09 Smita Srivastava/Thaindian.com, Thailand

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Categories: JetLite Jul 2009, New Jul 2009