First lunar eclipse of century tonight

Telescopes will be set up for students

Julie Finley
Dm Senior Staff writer

North America will have a clear view tonight of the millennium's first total lunar eclipse.

Don Summers, associate professor of physics and astronomy at Ole Miss, explains a lunar eclipse as when the moon moves into Earth's shadow.

"While the moon is moving into Earth's shadow some light still makes it through and it (the moon) usually turns a deep red," he said. "Unlike a solar eclipse when everything gets dark and street lights come on."

The redness of the moon is due to the bending of light in the Earth's atmosphere.

Earth's shadow will start to cover the moon at 9 p.m., and the moon will move to the middle of the shadow at 10:44 p.m. After the shadow completely covers the moon, it moves back across following the same steps backward. The whole process will take about three hours.

During the eclipse various stars that the moon's light normally hides may be visible.

Lunar eclipses only take place when the center of the sun, Earth and moon are almost in a straight line. Earth stays between the sun and the moon and casts its shadow on the moon. A person standing on the moon would see a solar eclipse.

The eclipse usually occurs once every year, but North America has been in a "dry spell," according to Summers. The last lunar eclipse visible in Western hemisphere occured in March 1997.

Summers said that when the moon's orbit is tilted a little it can miss Earth's shadow, which is what has happened in the past few years.

Students will have the opportunity to view the first total lunar eclipse in several years through telescopes set up at Kennon Observatory.

"We expect a fair number to come out," Summers said.

Nick Donnaway, a sophomore pharmacy major from Vancleave, who has never seen a lunar eclipse before plans to watch this one.

"I'm probably going to watch it, but I don't think I'll go out there (Kennon Observatory). I'll probably just watch it from where I am," he said. "I think it1ll be interesting."

Unlike a solar eclipse, a lunar eclipse may be safely viewed with the naked eye.

Western Europe, western Africa and South America will also be able to see the lunar eclipse, while far western Alaska will not see all of the eclipse because the moon will rise already in eclipse. The moon will set before the eclipse ends in central and eastern Europe and Asia, and the whole eclipse will take place during the day in southeast Asia and Australia.