Friday, November 7, 2003
Don´t howl, just look at the moon
ANDREW LYONS
STAFF WRITER
DAYTONA BEACH — Time to stare at the sky again.
After Earth´s recent brush with Mars and this month´s serious solar flares, amateur astronomers are readying for another heavenly happening.
Star hounds will once again be seeking a dark, secluded spot, this time to watch the full moon transform Saturday night into a reddish-orange celestial satellite as it drifts through Earth´s shadow.
“We astronomers are riding on a string of successes,” said Kelly Beatty, executive editor at Sky & Telescope magazine. “We want everybody to get jazzed about looking at the night sky because we think it´s inherently beautiful and interesting and cool.”
Weather cooperating, people in the eastern United States will witness the entire eclipse as the moon rises at about sunset. The eclipse reaches totality at 8:06 p.m. when the moon, Earth and sun are lined up and the moon sneaks through the darkest part of Earth´s shadow.
“All you have to do is be outside to see the moon,” local astronomer Roger Hoefer told a planetarium full of second-graders and their parents Thursday.
Forecasters are predicting partly cloudy skies and a slight chance of showers with 15- to 20-mph winds for Saturday night.
“Parents and teachers, you will never have a more perfect eclipse for your children to see,” said Hoefer, curator of astronomy for Volusia County Schools and the Museum of Arts and Sciences.
Amateur astronomers have had plenty of reason to tinker with telescopes.
A few weeks after the Red Planet made its closest approach to Earth in 60,000 years, skygazers across the country caught red and green aurora displays this month after monstrous explosions on the sun sent solar flares hurling toward us.
Jim Blanke has seen a spike in traffic at the popular Internet site, www.space.com. Blanke, senior producer at the site´s Cape Canaveral bureau, said the recent string of space occurrences couldn´t have come at a better time.
The same week NASA released its report on the space shuttle Columbia explosion, Earth was making its history-making approach to Mars. Rather than scaling back on space exploration, Blanke said the country should press forward.
“You have all these reminders from space that there is something out there,” said Blanke, a graduate of Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. “It´s reality; it´s not just a science fiction movie.
“The point is, we need to do something. We need to get out there; maybe we need to be more aware of what´s around us.”
Stephen Maran said NASA´s Web sites have also been swamped. The reason: Recent celestial events have been so accessible.
“These are things the public has really been able to see, as opposed to the comet of the century that happens every 14 or 20 years and rarely is (truly the comet of the century),” said Maran, assistant director of NASA´s Goddard Space Flight Center and spokesman for the American Astronomical Society.
Another bonus is that Saturday´s event will be safe to watch with the naked eye or binoculars, unlike eclipses of the sun, said Laurent Pellerin, production manager of the Seminole Community College Planetarium.
A plethora of colors could erupt during this total lunar eclipse, from dark brown and red to bright orange, yellow and gray. What color emerges depends on how much dust and clouds are in the Earth´s atmosphere at the time.
If clouds block the show this weekend, don´t fret: A Leonid meteor shower is coming.
The shooting star display peaks Nov. 19 with 100 or so meteors per hour.
A total solar eclipse is expected Nov. 28, although viewing it will take a bit of time and money.
The solar eclipse will only be visible in Antarctica.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Eclipse Facts
An eclipse of the moon can only occur during a full moon, and only if the moon passes through some portion of the Earth´s shadow.
The shadow is composed of two cone-shaped components: the outer, or penumbral, shadow is the area where some portion of the sun´s rays are blocked; the inner, or umbral, shadow is devoid of all direct sunlight.
Astronomers recognize three basic types of lunar eclipses:
PENUMBRAL -- The moon passes through the Earth´s penumbral (partially dark) shadow.
PARTIAL -- A portion of the moon passes through the Earth´s umbral shadow.
TOTAL -- The entire moon passes through the Earth´s umbral shadow.
SOURCE: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center
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