This eclipse was observed by a group of scientists, which included
Donald Liebenberg, from the
Los Alamos National Laboratory. They used two airplanes to extend the apparent time of totality by flying along the eclipse path in the same direction as the Moon's shadow as it passed over
Africa. One of the planes was a prototype (c/n 001) of what was later to become the
Concorde, which has a top speed of almost (Mach 2). This enabled scientists from Los Alamos, the Paris Observatory, the Kitt Peak National Observatory, Queen Mary University of London, the University of Aberdeen and CNRS to
extend totality to more than 74 minutes; nearly 10 times longer than is possible when viewing a total solar eclipse from a stationary location. The Concorde was
specially modified with rooftop portholes for the mission, and is currently on display with the Solar Eclipse mission livery at
Musée de l’air et de l’espace. The data gathered resulted in three papers published in
Nature and a book. The eclipse was also observed by a charter flight from
Mount San Antonio College in Southern California. The DC-8 with 150 passengers intercepted the eclipse at just off the east coast of Africa and tracked the eclipse for three minutes. The passengers rotated seats every 20 seconds so that each passenger had three 20 second opportunities at the window to observe and take pictures. A separate observation opportunity was provided on a specialized commercial cruise by the
S.S. Canberra, which traveled from New York City to the Canary Islands and Dakar, Senegal, observing 5 minutes and 44 seconds of totality out in the Atlantic between those two stops in Africa. The cruise's passengers included notable people in the scientific community such as
Neil Armstrong,
Scott Carpenter,
Isaac Asimov,
Walter Sullivan, and the then 15-year old
Neil deGrasse Tyson.
Gallery File:Madagascar74.104.jpg|From Manafiafy,
Madagascar File:Ecl73-1 (4321619182).jpg|As seen off the
Mauritanian coast File:Eclipse à Moussoro.jpg|From
Moussoro, Chad == Eclipse details ==