With mostly clear skies over the Icelandic capital this morning, people gathered together to watch the solar eclipse which reached its maximum at 09.37.
People gathered at Harpa, Perlan, Hallgrímskirkja, the University of Iceland, and other places to catch a glimpse of the unusual solar event, which is the most-complete solar eclipse seen in Iceland since the mid 1950s.
The total eclipse was seen in the Faroe Islands and Svalbard, as well as a strip of the Atlantic Ocean, starting some 70 km off Iceland’s south-eastern shore.
As a result, that particular sector of Icelandic airspace was extremely busy this morning, with up to 20 planes submitting flight plans especially to go out and see the total eclipse from above the clouds, and most scheduled flights traversing the North Atlantic also choosing to divert and enjoy the spectacle.
Icelandic air traffic control had prepared carefully for the eclipse and had eight air traffic controllers working on that sector, where no more than two are usually needed in that sector of airspace at that time of day, Vísir reported.
