Ex-International Space Station Commander Terry Virts spilled the beans on his space eclipse experience.
Maybe you ’ve see a few extraordinarymeteor showersin your animation , and counted more than 30 shooting stars in one night only . Or maybe , you ’ve dropped your jaw when an incrediblycolorful and vivid aurora borealispainted the night sky above a US commonwealth one clip . perhaps you ’ve also already been in gross totality during atotal solar eclipse , and were able to get a coup d’oeil of the sunshine ’s Saint Ulmo’s fire in all of its magnificence .
If you ’ve witnessed one or more of those phenomena , then congratulations — you’re by all odds up there with the most passionate stargazer and occultation pursuer , as catching lot of any of those event is , statistically , pretty rare .
You know what ’s even rarer , though ? Witnessing one of those events cite above … but from quad . Former NASA astronaut and International Space Station Commander Terry Virts can definitely say he saw an eclipse from space in 2015 — and according to him , it was a sight to behold .
Mark Garlick/Science Photo Libary/Getty Images
Commander Virts , who recently announced a partnership with the fast - food chain Sonic to celebrate the chemical chain ’s eclipse - inspired Blackout Slush Float ahead of the entire solar occultation on April 8 , sat down with Thrillist and told us all about his eclipse experience — from the ones he ’s spotted on Earth to the one he witnessed from space .
Thrillist : Commander Virts , to begin us off and give us an idea , can you tell us how many occultation you ’ve witnessed in your life?Terry Virts : That ’s a proficient question . I think I ’ve see two fond eclipses from Earth , then I ’ve seen one total occultation [ in ] 2017 , and then I saw an eclipse from space . So four or five , something like that .
And how would you trace the feeling of see totality?On a scale from one to 10 , a partial solar eclipse is a seven . It ’s passably coolheaded . It gets a small bit dark , but you do n’t really discover that much . The total occultation was like a million when I saw it in 2017 — I was shocked at how awe-inspiring it was .
What about seeing the occultation from space alternatively ? How did you feel?Seeing it from space was really unusual . I spend over seven months in distance — I kind of saw a destiny from the quad place , but I ’ve never seen anything like the eclipse .
What did it look like?You look down at Earth and you just see this black shadow moving across . [ In the past , ] I ’ve catch when the moon of Jupiter make a shadow on Jupiter or on Saturn , and you could see this black fleck that looks really interesting . But to see it from space on Earth was really awesome . I ’m glad they tell us there was die to be an eclipse because it would ’ve been unsettling , to say the least , to look over and see this giving jumbo black matter move across the planet .
Could you still make out the shape of the Earth?Oh , yeah . There was Earth , it was the midsection of the day , it was over the North Atlantic and it was nebulous . There were a lot of clouds down below . So it was just a normal Clarence Shepard Day Jr. with this big disastrous circle move across the planet .
Terry Virts (right) and Italian astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti pictured in a 2013 preflight training session.|AFP/Getty Images
Who did you see the eclipse from space with?It was me and Samantha Cristoforetti , an Italian spaceman .
And what was your guys ' reaction to it when it happened?Samantha ’s not easy to yarn-dye . She ’s done a batch . She ’s seen a lot . And she was really impressed . It was really special to see that from place . We did n’t actually fly through the Sun Myung Moon ’s phantom , so we did n’t see the genuine occultation from the space station , but I mean it was even more amazing to look down and see the shadow on the Earth .
What would you say was the main divergence between witness the full solar occultation from Earth and from space , aside from the fact that , manifestly , the visuals are different?Well , the crowing difference was it did n’t get dark , so it was still day where I was in space . Whereas when you see the entire eclipse from Earth , it turn into dark . It ’s really unwarranted .
I suppose it ’s good to say that for most of our reader ( and myself include ) , witnessing a total solar occultation from space is an impossible scenario . Some citizenry , though , will be able-bodied to vaporize on commercial-grade planes during the entire solar eclipse , which is possibly the closest thing to it . Would you be capable to excuse what they are go to see?Well , if you ’re on just a normal commercial flight going from A to B , you ’re probably not run low to be under the path of sum while the shadow goes over . But you may be able to calculate down on Earth and see it obscure , which will be really coolheaded ! If you ’re at least nearby , look out and you might get a chance to see it — like I see it from space .
If you luck out and you happen to be under the path of total [ … ] it ’ll get glowering inside the airplane , [ and ] you ’ll be able to see a sunset view on the apparent horizon , no matter what window you look out . If the pilot film ’s nice , he can bank up and one one-half of the airplane will be able to look up and see the eclipse .
Ready to go stargazing?
Here are allthe secure stargazing eventsthat you may get out and see this calendar month or you could delay in andstream the northern lightsfrom home . If you ’re just getting start , check out ourguide to uranology for beginnersoreasy stargazing road trips from big US metropolis .
