Moonlight in Vermont Beats That in Ventura

Though better known for stars of the big screen than those in the sky, Southern California had more than its share of amateur astronomers Wednesday night as the region got its first good look at a lunar eclipse in years.

More than 500 people converged on Griffith Park to watch the eclipse through the observatory’s 12-inch refracting telescope and through a dozen smaller telescopes set up on the lawn.

In San Diego, guests at an eclipse party took in the phenomenon from a more modest setting atop a North Park roof.

‘Ashen White Sphere’

“It looked like an ashen white sphere suspended in the universe,” said John Blount.

” . . . Abolutely incredible,” said Julie Brent.

Dan Bressler was reminded of “cosmic track lighting.”

In Chula Vista, however, a police dispatcher wasn’t as fortunate.

“We went out to see if we could find it, but it wasnt there.” The moon appeared red during the eclipse, except for a large dark spot in the upper right-hand quadrant.

Tony Cook, operator of the Griffith Observatory’s telescope, said the spot was caused by interference in Earth’s atmosphere.

Because the moon rose earlier in the Eastern United States on Wednesday, sky gazers there witnessed the dramatic transformation process as Earth’s shadow took progressively larger “bites” out of the moon.

By the time the moon rose on the West Coast at 7:35 p.m., it had already entered the innermost part, or the umbra, of Earth’s shadow. California viewers were able to see a similar process, however, as the moon first left the umbra, then the outer shadow, or penumbra, and finally orbited out of the shadow altogether.

Spectacular Color Changes

Once the moon passed out of the smog, Cook said, the eclipse “began to look quite good. It has a tremendous range of colors and shades on it compared to other eclipses I’ve seen. On the East Coast they probably had a beautiful view of it while we were waiting to see it. But this was very beautiful.”

The color change provided the most spectacular aspect to the eclipse. Although the moon received no direct sunlight during the eclipse, light rays that bent around Earth and filtered through the lower layers of the atmosphere did reach the lunar surface. Dust and pollution in Earth’s atmosphere filtered out all colors except an orangish red and gave the moon a copper glow.

A lunar eclipse occurs when the moon travels through the shadow created by Earth blocking the sun’s light. The moon’s orbit usually takes it above or below this shadow line, but occasionally it follows a path that puts it completely in shade. It is when the whole moon passes through the shadow that astronomers refer to it as a total eclipse.

“It looks so bizarre that if you painted a painting that looked like this, no one would believe it,” Megan Blake of Los Angeles said.

But Rochelle Robinson of Pasadena was unimpressed.

“It was anticlimactic,” she said. “When you see the moon without the eclipse, it’s got so much to offer, because you can see the craters and the seas. But with it behind the smog, it looks dirty as opposed to something astronomically interesting.”

The last total lunar eclipse visible over North America was in December, 1982, and the next one will not occur until December, 1992. A total lunar eclipse last occurred in Los Angeles in May, 1986, but fog and clouds largely kept it from sight.

Lunar eclipses have captured the imagination throughout recorded history and no doubt before.

In 1504, a marooned Christopher Columbus is said to have turned a lunar eclipse to his advantage by telling Jamaican natives that God would remove the moon from the sky if they did not provide his crew with food and supplies. As Earth’s shadow slowly enveloped the moon the natives quickly agreed to the explorer’s terms.