Moon-Watchers Get Good Show Despite Clouds : Astronomy: The lunar eclipse was total--an infrequent event that was enjoyed by amateur stargazers young and old.

By the light of the silvery moon, Bob Brown set up shop Sunday night, positioning his refracting telescope ever so carefully to make the lunar eclipse come alive.

For amateur astronomers, Sunday was no evening to miss, and at age 74, Brown was not sure he was going to see another like it.

A total lunar eclipse is infrequent and about a dozen members of the Orange County Astronomers Club took advantage of the event, gathering at Carl Thornton Park in Santa Ana for a terrestrial turnout that also drew a large group of curious onlookers.

“For me, it’s a once-in-a-lifetime,” said Brown, who lives in Yorba Linda and bought his first telescope for $38 at a Toys ‘R Us in 1965. Now he owns eight.

“That first one hooked me,” he said. “I saw the moon, the rings of Saturn, Jupiter and four of its moons.”

For the lunar eclipse, he choose an orange fluorite with a 70-millimeter lens, which offered a powerful glimpse of the moon, about 175 times stronger than the naked eye. He had so anticipated the event that he arrived at the park at 6:30 p.m., about 3 1/2 hours before the eclipse occurred.

With banks of clouds drifting in and occasionally obscuring the view, the bright and full moon entered into a penumbra, or the outside of the earth’s shadow, by about 7:30 p.m. and then slid deep into an eclipse by about 10 p.m.

The eclipse is created when the earth’s shadow completely covers the moon. Because the earth’s atmosphere bends the sun’s light, the moon is cast in dark orange or red.

At the park, the astronomers had set up four telescopes and a pair of binoculars for viewing. John Sanford, former president of the astronomers club, even brought a video camera along with his 30-pound, computerized Meade telescope that automatically tracks objects in the sky.

Sanford arrived Sunday evening in his car with the license plate “SKYGAZR” and bumper sticker that proclaimed, “Night is a Right. End Light Pollution. Amateur Astronomer.”

He answered questions about the telescopes and the history of lunar eclipses, and encouraged spectators who had gathered at the park to take a peek at the moon’s numerous craters.

Of the Orange County Astronomers Club, which numbers about 625, Sanford said, “I would imagine a high percentage of our members will be looking at this eclipse tonight.”

But even those with only a passing interest in the heavens were on hand for the lunar event. Partial lunar eclipses occur once or twice a year, but Sunday night’s total eclipse was thought to be the most widely visible in North America since July, 1982. The next total lunar eclipse is not due to occur until 1996.

Alan Marsh and his wife, Leeann, brought their daughters to the park from their home in Garden Grove. Caitlyn, 7, and Tara, 5, took turns peering into a telescope the astronomers had provided but seemed more impressed with the ducks waddling along the banks of the park’s pond.

Caitlyn was born in 1986, the year Haley’s Comet made its last trek through the skies. The Marshes had driven to Joshua Tree National Monument for the best look, but it was so crowded that they headed back home and saw the comet along the way.

But here was another celestial celebration to behold and the Marshes were not going to let their daughters miss it.

“They need to see these things,” said Alan Marsh, an engineer for Honda in Los Angeles. “It’s a difficult concept to explain to them. They have to see it. I thought it was an event to be part of.”

The planetary party lasted until late Sunday because, after all, the 48-minute eclipse was the big show. Partial eclipses are not all that unusual and wouldn’t necessarily draw the same interest.

Patrick Patterson, 37, who lives in Santa Ana and is a member of the astronomy club, called the lunar eclipse “one of those events you want go out to. It’s better than the run-of-the-mill eclipse because it doesn’t happen every day.”

But, putting the joys of stargazing into perspective, he said, “it’s not as spectacular as a solar eclipse.”