Skip to Main Content
PCMag editors select and review products independently. If you buy through affiliate links, we may earn commissions, which help support our testing.

5 Amazing Videos Shot During Actual Solar Eclipses

Here are five of the best examples of a growing list of remarkable videos that include real footage of total solar eclipses.

By Tony Hoffman
August 19, 2017
Total Solar Eclipse 2016

It has often been claimed that no video or photo can truly capture the grandeur of a total solar eclipse, but videos can still do a remarkable job in evoking the experience of this phenomenon and in weaving a narrative around it.

Although many music videos—David Bowie's Blackstar, for one—have incorporated eclipse imagery, few filmmakers have used real footage taken at a solar eclipse in their works, let alone taken it themselves. Those who do, including the music video and the clip from a biblical epic shown below, incorporate a profound added dimension.

Only video can capture the amazing and often rapid changes in light and color on Earth and in the sky during the onset of totality. The music and airliner videos do this, though it is most profoundly seen in the snowboarding video. It goes a long way in explaining why dedicated eclipse chasers (aka umbraphiles) travel many thousands of miles and spend thousands of dollars to put themselves in the path of totality. Also note the (often profanity-laced) gasps of astonishment uttered by first-time and veteran eclipse gazers—it is that profound a spectacle.

What videos will come out of the Aug. 21 solar eclipse remain to be seen (and produced), but keep an eye on Western Sol, a classic Western film set to be shot in Wyoming during Monday's total solar eclipse (and live streamed for all to see).

1. Hamferd: Deydir vardar (Music Video)

More than a few music videos have included solar eclipse imagery, but we are only aware of one that was entirely shot during a total solar eclipse. On March 20, 2015, as the moon’s shadow crossed the Faroe Islands, the Faroese doom metal band Hamferd took this opportunity to record a live video. As they stood on a hilltop overlooking a bay surrounded by misty hills and clouds played tag with the Sun, these three impeccably dressed men performed their song "Deydir vardar." About a minute into the song, the two-minute period of totality begins; for most of it, nothing can be seen except the sun’s corona encircling the black disk of the moon, and an occasional glint off the water, until the scene quickly brightens and the musicians and background reappear.

I guess I'm a fuddy-duddy, as I don't know from doom metal, but after hearing Hamferd’s magnificently haunting performance, I could become their biggest fan. But along with a lot of praise, the video received some criticism and incredulity from the solar eclipse community. During the video, the band faces the audience, with the sun behind them, so at least during the period that we can see them, their backs are to the eclipsed sun. Some people chastised them for not bothering to look at this wondrous phenomenon.

I pointed out that we have no idea what they were doing when they were in darkness, and they could well have turned at some point to face the Sun. Someone insisted that he carefully examined the video and determined that they never looked at the eclipsed sun. I have viewed it on at least five different displays, and can’t see them at all during the period of totality. And I think those who criticize them are missing the point. As someone who is both a scientist and an artist, I am certain that when they are old men and someone mentions the video, they will remember the magnificent experience and have no regrets that they looked towards the camera and their audience and not at the eclipse, if indeed that’s what happened. Great art sometimes requires a measure of sacrifice.

2. Total Solar Eclipse Snowboarding in Svalbard

Total Solar Eclipse Snowboarding in Svalbard

After the moon’s shadow left the Faroe Islands, it continued northward to cross the Norwegian Arctic archipelago of Svalbard, the only other place it would make landfall. Even as I waited with a group of fellow eclipse chasers on Spitsbergen—the largest of Svalbard’s islands—Svian Aaland, a filmmaker and snowboarder, stood on a nearby windswept mountaintop, seeking the ultimate shredding experience, and it sure seems like he found it. Fortunately, he had the good sense to take in totality before pushing off downslope. His video magnificently captures the changing light and shadows on the wintry terrain with the onset of totality.

3. Barabbas: Crucifixion Scene

The crucifixion scene in the 1961 biblical epic Barabbas is particularly haunting and magnificently filmed, all the more so because it was taken during an actual total solar eclipse—in Roccastrado, 120 miles north of Rome, Italy, on February 15, 1961. The movie tells the story of Barabbas, who according to the gospels was a prisoner—an insurrectionist and murderer—who was pardoned by Pontius Pilate in accordance with a Passover custom in which the Romans would release a single Jewish prisoner. Given a choice between Jesus and Barabbas, the crowd called for Barabbas to be released, leaving Jesus to be crucified.

Longer clips containing the crucifixion scene from this film can be found online, but this one best shows the eclipse and concurrent darkness. Was there really an eclipse on the day of the crucifixion? The Gospel of Mark, the oldest reference to the crucifixion darkness, tells that after Jesus was crucified at nine in the morning; darkness fell over all the land, or the world, from around noon until 3 o'clock. Whether this was a physical, metaphorical, or supernatural darkness remains unknown, but it presumably wasn't a solar eclipse. Jesus was crucified on the eve of Passover, a holiday that coincides with the Full Moon, while a solar eclipse only occurs at New Moon.

The filmmakers were very fortunate that the skies cooperated so well; it seems it was a beautifully clear day, and they got some amazing footage (actual footage, as in those days they used film), which combined with the haunting music and crucifixion scene makes for an unforgettable scene.

4. Alaska Airlines Solar Eclipse Flight #870

Commercial airliners have occasionally flown through the moon's shadow during total solar eclipses, giving passengers an unexpected treat. In 2016, Hayden Planetarium associate astronomer Joe Rao convinced Alaska Airlines to delay the departure of a flight so it would pass through the moon’s shadow during a total solar eclipse. By delaying the departure of Flight 870, bound from Anchorage to Honolulu, by 25 minutes, the airline treated its passengers—both normal travelers and dedicated eclipse-watchers who had signed on for this experience—to 1 minute, 53 seconds of totality. Flying at 500mph at 35,000 feet, Flight 870 intercepted the moon’s shadow—which after passing across Indonesia tracked northeastward across the Pacific Ocean—695 miles north of Honolulu.

Michael Kentrianakis, Eclipse Project Manager at the American Astronomical Society, was in seat 6F, and took an amazing video (here posted by Alaska Airlines) of the approach of the moon's shadow as it darkened the clouds below them, and then the nearly two minutes of totality. His animated narrative captures the wondrous sight of a total eclipse, especially one seen from this incredible vantage.

5. Salomon Freeski TV

Salomon Freeski TV

In March 2015, photographer Reuben Krabbe set out into the frozen wilderness of Spitsbergen, a Norwegian island in the high arctic, in a quest to take a unique photo: skiers on a slope with a total solar eclipse in the background. This long video by Salomon Freeski TV, which specializes in skiing-related videos, follows Krabbe and his assistant, the two skiers he was to photograph, and the film crew itself through an encounter with a polar bear, a tour of an abandoned Russian mining town, and their trek through the wilderness—facing uncertain weather prospects—and efforts to find the perfect location to set up and frame a near-impossible shot. Did they succeed? It’s worth watching all 31 minutes to find out.

Get Our Best Stories!

Sign up for What's New Now to get our top stories delivered to your inbox every morning.

This newsletter may contain advertising, deals, or affiliate links. Subscribing to a newsletter indicates your consent to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. You may unsubscribe from the newsletters at any time.


Thanks for signing up!

Your subscription has been confirmed. Keep an eye on your inbox!

Sign up for other newsletters

TRENDING

About Tony Hoffman

Senior Analyst, Hardware

Since 2004, I have worked on PCMag’s hardware team, covering at various times printers, scanners, projectors, storage, and monitors. I currently focus my testing efforts on 3D printers, pro and productivity displays, and drives and SSDs of all sorts.

Over the years, I have reviewed iPad and iPhone science apps, plus the occasional camera, laptop, keyboard, and mouse. I've also written a host of articles about astronomy, space science, travel photography, and astrophotography for PCMag and its past and present sibling publications (among them, Mashable and ExtremeTech), as well as for the PCMag Digital Edition.

Read Tony's full bio

Read the latest from Tony Hoffman