Most instances within the Moon's umbral shadow

The record for the most total solar eclipses viewed is 35, jointly held by two American umbraphiles: Glenn Schneider and John Beattie. Their most recent trip into the path of totality was on 2 July 2019 onboard a special LATAM airlines flight to Easter Island.

The 2 July 2019 eclipse puts Schnieder and Beattie one ahead of fellow umbraphile Jay Pasachoff, who has witnessed 34 total eclipses as of the same date. Pasachoff has witnessed more eclipses overall, however; including partial and annular eclipses, his total count rises to 70 (compared with 48 for Schnieder and an unrecorded amount for Beattie).

The record for the longest cumulative time spent in the path of totality is 2 hours 35 minutes 13.7 seconds, achieved by Don Liebenberg (USA) between 1954 and 2017. Almost half of this total was achieved on 30 June 1973, when Liebenberg was part of a team of astronomers who followed an eclipse for 74 minutes on board the prototype Concorde supersonic airliner.