Unique footage of a lunar eclipse from an altitude of 11,000 m

On September 7, the first Astro Night flight took place to observe a lunar eclipse, which united patrons, entrepreneurs, scientists and artists, amateur and professional astronomers, as well as Roscosmos cosmonauts and everyone who loves space under the starry sky. The Astro Night team is working on possible directions for future flights: passengers will be able to observe solar eclipses, meteor showers, comets, northern lights, spacecraft takeoffs and other events and natural phenomena. 

The Astro Night flight was calculated by Stanislav Korotkiy: in 2015, the astronomer developed a flight route to view the solar eclipse. This time, he made more than 50 calculations of the position of the Moon and the required direction of the nose of the aircraft relative to it for each of the four aircraft participating in the flight. The route was calculated for every 150 kilometers of the flight. Thus, passengers were able to observe the Moon from the window throughout the entire journey. The team also had to take into account factors such as wind speed and the movement of the Moon across the sky, the need to depart from the flight zone of Moscow and the Moscow region with further entry to the required trajectory. 

The planes were accompanied by Roscosmos cosmonauts: Oleg Kononenko, commander of the Roscosmos cosmonaut detachment and world record holder for the amount of time spent on the International Space Station, Dmitry Petelin, Konstantin Borisov, and Andrei Babkin, deputy commander of the detachment for scientific research and testing work.

"Everyone is used to the idea that popular science is lectures and educational programs. We want to expand this idea as much as possible, come up with new formats, integrate popular science into all spheres of life. The ASTRO NIGHT project and the interest in it reflects this idea. This is popular science for everyone, for the widest audience!"

Ilya Chekh, founder of the Frontiers of Science guild

Astronomers and popularizers of science — Vladimir Surdin, Maxim Shishkin, Dmitry Vibe, Dmitry Epshteyn and ASTRO NIGHT scientific director Stanislav Korotkiy — told the flight participants about how a lunar eclipse occurs and why the Earth's satellite turns red. Popular science blogger Yan Topless flew to the lunar eclipse as a special guest.

"About six months ago, we had the idea to organize a flight to view a solar eclipse, but then we decided to start even earlier - with a lunar eclipse. Our flight is unique - it is the first flight in the world to view a lunar eclipse, and four aircraft participated in it. Famous astronomers and cosmonauts of Roscosmos commented on the events and answered questions. All the seats were booked, and there were many people left who, unfortunately, could not join us this evening. In the coming months, we plan to organize more such events."

Stanislav Korotkiy, the project's scientific director, who calculated the trajectory necessary for viewing the eclipse

The world's first space music concert at an altitude of 11,000 m during an eclipse was held on board the TU-204 of the Roscosmos Cosmonaut Training Center. It was organized by astronomer, composer and musician Andrey Klimkovsky. A total of four planes took to the skies as part of the ASTRO NIGHT project. Tickets were sold out in less than 2.5 weeks after the announcement. Technical support for all planes and the flight on the Challenger 850 were provided by the business aviation broker Charter Evolution. 

"I have always had a dream - to give people the opportunity to observe the rarest astronomical phenomena from the sky. And until recently it seemed like science fiction. But in a short time we managed to organize the first special flights directly to the lunar eclipse. This is how the ASTRO NIGHT project appeared - in its best and most correct embodiment. We will continue to give impressions that cannot be experienced anywhere else except with us."

Evgeniy Polkhovsky, co-founder of ASTRO NIGHT

A buffet for the participants was organized in the VIP Lounge of Vnukovo Airport. The planes took off from the airport, flew to the Northern Urals, turned around over the Arctic Circle and returned to the capital. Thus, first the eclipse was observed by the passengers on the right side, then by the passengers on the left side.