eclipse viewing

Getting ready for the eclipse

 

Courtesy NASA

Like everyone else, I’m pretty darn excited about the Great American Eclipse taking place on August 21.

I’m luckier than most. Not only do I live not far from the path of totality, but I’ve been invited to join Alaska Airlines on a special flight that will leave Portland International Airport early Monday morning and head out over the ocean to meet the eclipse as it heads towards the west coast.

The plane will be filled with astronomers, airline employees, special guests and media representatives. And while I won’t have one of the highly coveted seats on the right side of the plane where passengers are promised a straight on view of the eclipse from their seats, I’ll have a front row seat for the festivities leading up to the flight and at least a sliver of a galley window during the flight.

There won’t be WIFI on the flight, so I won’t be able to do any live reporting – but my story and some of my photos from the adventure will be on USA TODAY, here on StuckAtTheAirport.com and on social media soon after we land.

In the meantime, I’m getting ready by watching this video taken by a passenger on Alaska Airlines Flight #870 in 2016, when astronomers convinced Alaska Airlines to change the course of the  course of a flight from Anchorage to Honolulu just a bit so that eclipse chasers – and regular passengers booked on the flight – could get  a view of an eclipse taking place over the Pacific Ocean.