Jay,

I definitely have at least one Citation II business jet (and probably two, possibly three) leaving from Norwood, Massachusetts, USA at approximately 4:00-4:15am on August 11 to view the eclipse near sunrise. The chief pilot of the charter company is supposed to get back to me today with a final plan of how to get to the position and course I desire, or if there are flight planning problems requiring me to re-choose the location.

The first plane has 7 people on it, plus the 2 pilots, and 2 unused seats. The eclipse-side windows are all taken. There are 6 passenger windows on each side of the plane. One is in the exit door, and is of the same size as the ones in the seating area. The other 5 windows are in the main seating area. Seating is in two sets of 4 (plus one in the back next to the lavatory with no window.) Each set has 2 seats facing forward and 2 facing backward. The aircraft is quite narrow, so someone sitting on the opposite side does not necessarily need to get out of their seat to use their reserved window, nor to share a window with their partner.

There are several more people interested, as well as media. None have firmly committed yet, so I haven't prepaid for a second plane. I still have first right of refusal on a second identical plane, and possibly a third if someone who reserved it for "a week in August" doesn't choose that week. There are enough of these planes in the area that I could bring others in if necessary, probably at a slightly increased cost, but for now I'm assuming they're all from the same operator. The price for one person with exclusive use of a window is $700. Two people sharing one window is $1000, provided that they are together, work out their own arrangements for using the window, and don't weigh too much! I will not assign strangers to share a window.

It seems that the track is close to US, Canadian, and various other types of defense and international airspace over the ocean which this charter operator doesn't have to deal with very often, but he's supposed to figure it all out by today.

The flight path I requested them to try making an initial plan for, is to be at approximately 40 deg 55 minutes North, 64 degrees 55 minutes West at 09:29:52 UTC (09:30:56 TDT for Jay's benefit) on a heading of 338 degrees true (not magnetic) at as high an altitude as possible given flight planning considerations and the plane's certified ceiling of 43,000 feet. It is desired to be in straight level flight at high cruising speed on that course for 5 minutes before that time, and for 2 to 5 minutes after that time.

Essentially, this puts us directly above the first point of external tangency of the umbra with the ocean, and moving in the direction for optimal viewing and extension of totality.

Totality will occur 12-15 seconds earlier at altitude than at the surface. It will be extended by 5.5 to 6.4 seconds from its nominal 46.5 seconds by flying the prescribed course in this airplane, and up to 8 seconds in faster business jets in a slight descent. This is because a given point on the shadow cone axis has large components of motion in both the downward and flight-path directions, neither of which is the direction the shadow traces across the surface! The flight path was primarily chosen to give a view straight out the windows. The eclipse will be well above the Earth horizon due to altitude, assuming no high cloud layers. If there is a high cloud layer, we might wish to go farther east-northeast along the path. I will be taking a digital video of the eclipse, and attempting to download still photos from it to a website before the eclipse reaches land in England, via the airplane phone and a laptop PC.

Best Wishes for Clear Viewing!

John Hopper
JohnLX200@aol.com
(617) 988-1268 business voicemail