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>> ET is an independent project – unique in the world; this idea belongs to Mariusz Krukar and has never been implemented anywhere, at any time.

>> The project belongs to the team behind the Eclipser-1 stratospheric flight, a mission into the shadow cone of a total solar eclipse in the Earth’s stratosphere – unique at the time, in 2012.

In brief:

>> WORLD PREMIERE – Deployment of a gliding wing into the cone of a total solar eclipse, BEYOND the ground-based limit of totality observation (at 600 km)

>> A world premiere because the interception of the shadow cone will take place at approximately 600 km from the eclipse terminator line at ground level. From the ground, the eclipse is INVISIBLE due to the curvature of the Earth.

>> The interception of the Moon’s umbral cone occurs when the Sun has already set for approximately 25 minutes and is located 5 degrees BELOW the horizon (as seen from the ground).

>> The interception will be carried out using a gliding wing, deployed at an altitude of 35 km in the stratosphere with the aid of a helium balloon.

>> The launch will take place from the western part of Sicily, and the wing will glide across the Mediterranean Sea toward a point located roughly 50 km southwest of Marsala/Sicily, in the direction of Africa, within the stratosphere.

>> The interception will occur at an altitude of 33–34 km, where the wing will still be able to see the Sun about 1 degree above the horizon, beyond the Earth’s curvature.

“Climatology is what we expect, but the weather is what we get” a famous meteorogist once said, and is very accurate for eclipse chasing. The chances to have cristal clear skies from Mexico were almost 80%, from Texas (Mexican border) some 70% and on the other side of the umbral path, in Maine or Canada, 10-15% chances of clear sky. 10 days prior to the Eclipse-Day we had the first reliable forecast: Texas 10% chances and Maine 90%! The situation is real and stayed that way till the day of the eclipse. We had to change plans, not to chase the eclipse in Texas but to escape clouds in northern Arkansas. And we did just so, with the help of live satellite images and good last minute forecast (ICON, GFS and ECMWF, in this order).

This is a 10 seconds time-lapse from Clinton, Arkansas, from where we had good clear sky with a very thin layer of cirrus, visible only at C2 and C3 when I exposed the photographs for diamond rings.