Fly me to the sun

The only populated places where the solar eclipse that will occur on March 20 can be seen in its totality, are the Faroe Islands and Svalbard, where people are expecting a rush of visitors.

The Arkhangelsk-based airliner Nordavia is offering passengers a four-hour flight from Murmansk airport to the Barents Sea and Norwegian Sea to see the solar eclipse, B-Port reports. A seat in the Boeing-737 to see the solar eclipse costs 10,000 rubles (€143).

The total solar eclipse is visible in the Faroes Islands and on Svalbard, where all hotels have been fully booked by astronomy enthusiasts for a long time already. The first ones booked their rooms already in 2007, according to Dagbladet. People living in Longyearbyen are renting out their apartments for as much as NOK 100.000 (€11,600) for the weekend, and the Governor of Svalbard has issued special warnings about weather, clothing, polar bears and capacity problems in restaurants in connection with the event.

The eclipse will also be partially visible from some parts Europe. For example Scotland, Northern Ireland, Norway and Greenland will see more than 90% of the sun covered, and most of Europe, Canada, Russia and northern Africa will see at least 40% covered by the moon.

It is the last total solar eclipse visible in Europe until the eclipse of August 12, 2026, Wikipedia writes.