Observation by Nick James: Eclipse plane spotting

Uploaded by

Nick James

Observer

Nick James

Observed

2026 Aug 12 - 18:30

Uploaded

2026 Aug 16 - 07:16

Objects

The Sun

Equipment

Sony A7s iii + Megrez 72 refractor, x2 Barlow

Exposure

1/400s, ISO800, S-log3

Location

La Revilla, Spain

Target name

Sun

Title

Eclipse plane spotting

About this image

This is a single frame from my eclipse video here. Just after third contact (which was at 18:30:36 for me) an aircraft flies through the field of view. The passengers would have had a very nice view of the eclipse if they were sitting on the right hand side. Nigel Evans has potentially identified the aircraft as flight ABF9, which left Venice and did a very eclipse-related set of racetracks to the north of Leon before landing at San Sebastian but I don't think that the aircraft profile looks correct. ABF9 was an small Embreaer Praetor 600 bizjet and this looks a lot longer.

Files associated with this observation

aircraft.jpg (293.3 kB)

Like this image

Miguel Araújo, Andy Wilson, Nigel Evans, John Thorpe, Martin Mobberley

Comments

Nigel Evans, 2026 Aug 16 - 12:10 UTC

I now believe ABF9 was south of due west from Nick at the time. A more promising candidate is the Ryanair flight RK3033, a Boeing B737-800 from London to Agadir

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