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Prime-time eclipse is expected Wednesday
Best viewing is on the East Coast.
And it does seem thye weather will permit:
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Posted on Tue, Oct. 26, 2004
Prime-time eclipse is expected Wednesday
Nature invites you to a spectacular free show this week. Just go outside Wednesday night, look up and watch the lunar eclipse.
A stunning and accessible source of celestial wonder materializes this week, right in your backyard.
Astronomers say a total eclipse will darken the moon Wednesday night.
The prime-time sky show will be visible . . . everywhere.
''This is one of the few phenomena that people in the city can see, even with bright city lights,'' said Jack Horkheimer, executive planetarium director at the Miami Museum of Science and Planetarium.
``You don't even need binoculars or a telescope.''
The spectacle -- the last total lunar eclipse visible in South Florida until March 2007 -- begins at 9:14 p.m. and ends at 12:54 a.m. Thursday.
If the clouds stay away, as forecasters anticipate, totality arrives at 10:23 p.m., with the moon likely to turn, appropriately enough for this time of year, pumpkin orange-red.
Which brings us to the first of three main questions: What's with that color?
The autumnal tint is produced by blocked sunlight that is bent by the Earth's atmosphere.
The exact shade cannot be predicted, as it depends on several factors, including the concentration and composition of dust in the atmosphere.
So, what exactly is a lunar eclipse?
It occurs when the Earth passes directly between the sun and the moon. As you watch the shadow move across the moon, keep this in mind: It's actually racing along the surface at three times the speed of sound.
And why exactly should we care about this?
''Years ago, people used to say lunar eclipses have no scientific value. Intrinsically, they don't,'' Horkheimer said. ``But extrinsically, they do have value because they pique the curiousity of young people.
``Eclipses are what turned me on to astronomy when I was a child in Randolph, Wis. My grandfather would take me out to look at the stars.
``When a parent takes a kid outside and they spend the night looking up at an eclipse and discussing it, who knows? Maybe one out of 1,000 kids are so turned on that they become the great astronomers of our society.
``So, if you want to understand the basic wonder of celestial bodies, well, here you go.''
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Lunar eclipses put us in our rightful place in the cosmos by offering a visual perspective on our relationship to the entities that dominate our skies. Catch it if you can...
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