The Concorde zero zero one supersonic airliner allowed observers to keep pace with the arc of the eclipse. Across Africa, the plane took off from the Canary Islands and shot east. Concorde zero zero one chased the moon's shadow across Mauritania, Mali, Algeria, Niger, and Chad at more than 1000 mph. It flew 60,000ft above the infrared absorbing layers of the atmosphere. Rugged quartz plastic portholes installed in the fuselage allowed the team to position optical apparatus such as a telescope stabilized by gyroscopes and other instrumentation