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Total Lunar Eclipse
Fred Lehman - May 15, 2003
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Although Thursday evening's skies were completely filled with clouds, being basically an optimist, I loaded my scope into the van and braved the treacherous I-95 on my way to the South Florida Science Museum to experience the total lunar eclipse with my fellow astronomers. I arrived shortly before 8 PM and found several even more optimistic colleagues already on location. Mostly they were looking upward towards the sky and mumbling estimates of when it was going to clear enough for proper viewing. The clouds looked quite ominous to the West, and by 8:15 we were experiencing a few scattered drops of rain. As the evening's twilight slowly faded into darkness, more people arrived, accompanied by additional optimistic forecasts of clear skies and fair weather. Unfortunately, and to the great disappointment to all of us, the clouds continued to thicken, and by 9 PM the western skyline was ablaze in lightning.
I didn't feel that there was much I could contribute to our somewhat lackluster moon party, so I hopped back onto the "I" and headed for home. While enroute, I received a call from a friend at the Buehler Observatory on the Central Campus of Broward Community College in Davie. I was told that the skies there were hazy but clear, and that I was invited to join the festivities, so long as I volunteered to help. Being the sucker that I am, I altered course and headed for BCC. By the time I arrived, there was a reasonable crowd of mostly college students and their parents, and the moon was already partially into eclipse. I helped set up a few of the scopes to point to Jupiter, Castor, and of course, the moon.
The haze continued to diminish throughout the night, and by the time of totality it was almost completely clear. I set up one of the scopes to observe the occultation of the 5.5 magnitude star ZC2217, but it turned out to be a non-event because I was several miles too far North of the optimum graze point. It was now well past Midnight and the crowd had dwindled to a small handful of hearty soles. After the last of them had departed, Arno brought out his digital camera, and together we took an assortment of "through the lens" photos as the moon emerged from totality. We talked and joked for a bit longer, and I finally made it home and in bed by 2 AM. |
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