Moon’s Night Out : Sky-Watchers Are Awed by a Total Lunar Eclipse

COSTA MESA — Amy Bruchmann came for the colors. Susan Ambriz wanted to see something she had never seen and wouldn’t see again until 2000. And Jessica Hodes said she was just awed by the enormity of the experience.

“The universe is so big and there’s so much in it that no one knows about. This is awesome,” Hode, 18, said as she stood on the softball field at Orange Coast College and stared up at the total eclipse of the moon.

“This is an event that many of the ancients witnessed,” said Nick Contopoulos, an assistant professor of astronomy and physics at the college. “It had a tremendous impact on culture and society.”

To prepare for Thursday’s unusual heavenly occurrence, Contopoulos and his class set up nine telescopes on field, ranging in diameter from seven to 12 inches and in power from 300-power to 500-power. Then they invited other students and members of the community to the show.

“This gives people a way to connect to the sky,” Contopoulos said. “The stars and the planets are one of the most fundamental connection points to nature and the physical universe. I think we’ve become very detached today--stars have been replaced by other things, such as McDonald’s signs. This gives people a way to understand our place in the cosmos and recapture the wonderment.”

Caused by the lineup of the Earth, sun and moon in space, an eclipse happens when the Earth’s shadow falls across the moon, causing it to disappear from view for a period of time. While partial lunar eclipses occur once or twice a year, the last total eclipse happened in 1993 and the next is expected in the year 2000.

The 200 spectators began arriving about 6:30 p.m., many with children and blankets. At 7 p.m., when the already partially eclipsed moon came into view, the mood grew festive as people lined up to peer through telescopes and watch the image on a video screen. Then, beginning about 7:40 p.m., the totally eclipsed moon gradually turned a burnt orange.

“It’s so poetic and beautiful,” said Bruchmann, 26, a fine arts major at the college. “From an artistic standpoint, it’s so rare to see something so beautiful.”

Jon Ransom, 17, said the eclipse brought people together.

“It makes them interested in the world they live in,” he said. “It makes people ask questions.”

And Michael Montrief, a 17-year-old history major, said the eclipse was “like a field trip, but you don’t have to go too far from home. It’s a field trip into the cosmos.”