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

On September 7, the first Astro Night flight took place to observe the lunar eclipse, which brought together patrons, entrepreneurs, scientists and artists, amateur and professional astronomers, as well as Roscosmos cosmonauts and everyone who is in love with space under the starry sky. The Astro Night team is exploring possible destinations 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 designed by Stanislav Korotkoi: 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 flight. Thus, passengers were able to observe the moon from the window throughout the trip. 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 fly out of the flight zone of Moscow and the Moscow region with further access to the required trajectory.

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

Ilya Cech, founder of the Frontiers of Science Guild:

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

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

Stanislav Korotky, the scientific director of the project, calculated the trajectory necessary to view the eclipse:

About six months ago, we had the idea to organize a flight to view the solar eclipse, but then we decided to start even earlier — with the Lunar Eclipse. Our flight is unique — it is the world's first flight to view a lunar eclipse, and four planes participated in it at once. Famous astronomers and cosmonauts of Roscosmos commented on the events and answered questions. All the seats were booked, and there were a lot of people who, unfortunately, could not join us this evening. We plan to organize even more similar events in the coming months.

On board the TU-204 of the Roscosmos Cosmonaut Training Center, the world's first space music concert took place at an altitude of 11,000 m during the eclipse. It was organized by astronomer, composer and musician Andrei Klimkovsky. In total , 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 of all aircraft and flight support to The Challenger 850 was provided by Charter Evolution, a business aviation broker.

Evgeny Polkhovsky, co-founder of ASTRO NIGHT:

It has always been my dream to give people the opportunity to observe the rarest astronomical phenomena from the sky. And until recently, it seemed fantastic. 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 you impressions that cannot be experienced anywhere else except with us.

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, the eclipse was first observed by the passengers on the starboard side, then by the passengers on the port side.