--- title: Total Solar Eclipse: How Airline Passengers Can View It description: Alaska Airlines will charter a flight to allow space enthusiasts to watch "The Great American Eclipse" from the sky on Aug. 21 canonical: https://time.com/4834045/total-solar-eclipse-alaska-airlines-flight/ author: Katie Reilly article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-06-26T22:12:08.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-08T09:20:24.864Z article:section: Science og:title: Here's How You Can Watch a Total Solar Eclipse From the Sky og:description: Alaska Airlines is planning to charter a special flight for the rare eclipse og:url: https://time.com/4834045/total-solar-eclipse-alaska-airlines-flight/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1beb34b5decf41cd/6988d361656a3f33e2bd0941/508898main_wide_corona_eclipse_ti3_0.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1600 og:image:height: 900 og:image:alt: 508898main_wide_corona_eclipse_ti3_0 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Here's How You Can Watch a Total Solar Eclipse From the Sky twitter:description: Alaska Airlines is planning to charter a special flight for the rare eclipse twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1beb34b5decf41cd/6988d361656a3f33e2bd0941/508898main_wide_corona_eclipse_ti3_0.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Here's How You Can Watch a Total Solar Eclipse From the Sky > Sponsored content. 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Future Proof is free at time.com/newsletters. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-futureproof-2026q3/newsletters?i=978f6ef4-d5fd-4baf-bdb0-432e784cfb8d&cr=time-nl-futureproof-2026q3-v1) ## Video: Why Seeing A Total Solar Eclipse Is So Rare [Watch (HLS stream): Why Seeing A Total Solar Eclipse Is So Rare](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/X6t8RKE9.m3u8) (1:28)  _Published 2017-06-29. TIME's Jeff Kluger explains the phenomenon of a total solar eclipse._  by [Katie Reilly](https://time.com/author/katie-reilly/)  ## Katie Reilly Jun 26, 2017 10:12 PM UTC TIME's Jeff Kluger explains the phenomenon of a total solar eclipse.  by [Katie Reilly](https://time.com/author/katie-reilly/)  ## Katie Reilly Jun 26, 2017 10:12 PM UTC Alaska Airlines is planning to charter a flight to allow space enthusiasts to watch “[The Great American Eclipse](http://time.com/4750899/total-solar-eclipse/)” from the sky on Aug. 21, the company announced Monday. The rare event will mark the first [total solar eclipse](http://time.com/4750899/total-solar-eclipse/) to be visible coast-to-coast in America since 1918\. The eclipse, during which the moon will completely block out the sun, will first be visible on land near Salem, Ore., and will then move diagonally across the country toward Columbia, S.C. The Alaska Airlines flight — set to depart Portland at 7:30 a.m. P.T. on Aug. 21 — will be filled with invitation-only passengers, but a contest beginning July 21 on social media will give away seats on the flight to one person and their guest. “As an airline, we are in a unique position to provide a one-of-a-kind experience for astronomy enthusiasts,” Sangita Woerner, the airline’s vice president of marketing, said in a statement. “Flying high above the Pacific Ocean will not only provide one of the first views, but also one of the best.” In 2016, Alaska Airlines adjusted the path of a flight from Anchorage to Honolulu to allow passengers to view a solar eclipse over the Pacific Ocean, [capturing the spectacle on video](http://time.com/4252428/total-solar-eclipse-plane-alaska-airlines/). ## Transcript [00:01] Total solar eclipses occur when the moon passes [00:03] directly between the Earth and the sun, blocking solar [00:06] light. They're exceedingly rare. The last one to touch [00:10] the US was in 1979. On average, they happen [00:14] where you live once every 375 years. The [00:20] sun is about 400 times larger than the moon, but the [00:23] sun is also 400 times farther away so the two bodies [00:27] appear about the same size to us on Earth. The moon [00:31] orbits the Earth once each month, so why doesn't the [00:34] moon shadow the Earth causing an eclipse with each [00:37] pass? Partly because the moon's orbit [00:41] is tilted slightly, which causes its shadow to miss the [00:44] Earth most of the time. Another reason [00:49] is if a moon's orbit is elliptical. For much of its orbit [00:53] the moon is farther away from Earth and appears too [00:55] small to block out the sun completely Those eclipses [00:59] are called annular. Only when the eclipse occurs at the [01:02] moon's closest approach is a visible total eclipse [01:05] possible even then the narrow band of totality usually [01:09] tracks over water or away from population centers [01:13] that's why this total solar eclipse is so special. As it [01:17] cuts a path of darkness across the US this August 21st, [01:20] it could be the most viewed total eclipse in history, and [01:24] for many the experience of a lifetime ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4834045/total-solar-eclipse-alaska-airlines-flight/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4834045/total-solar-eclipse-alaska-airlines-flight/"},"headline":"Here's How You Can Watch a Total Solar Eclipse From the Sky","datePublished":"2017-06-26T22:12:08.000Z","dateModified":"2026-10-08T09:20:24.864Z","description":"Alaska Airlines is planning to charter a special flight for the rare eclipse","url":"https://time.com/4834045/total-solar-eclipse-alaska-airlines-flight/","keywords":["Space","Aviation","Travel","solar eclipse","onetime","space 2017"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1beb34b5decf41cd/6988d361656a3f33e2bd0941/508898main_wide_corona_eclipse_ti3_0.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Katie Reilly","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/katie-reilly/"}],"articleSection":"Science","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1beb34b5decf41cd/6988d361656a3f33e2bd0941/508898main_wide_corona_eclipse_ti3_0.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"508898main_wide_corona_eclipse_ti3_0","caption":"https://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/508898main_wide_corona_eclipse_ti3_0.jpg","creditText":"NASA/Hinode/XRT","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/science/","name":"Science"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/space/","name":"Space"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4834045/total-solar-eclipse-alaska-airlines-flight/","name":"Here's How You Can Watch a Total Solar Eclipse From the Sky"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Why Seeing A Total Solar Eclipse Is So Rare","description":"TIME's Jeff Kluger explains the phenomenon of a total solar eclipse.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/X6t8RKE9/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2017-06-29T21:57:11.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/X6t8RKE9.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/4834045/total-solar-eclipse-alaska-airlines-flight/","duration":"PT1M28S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/4834045/total-solar-eclipse-alaska-airlines-flight/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```