We were going to Edwin Warner Park in Nashville for the total lunar eclipse the night of February 20, 2008, Michael, Karen and I. A group was meeting at the Nature Center. It got cold, and snow was predicted. We decided not to go. I figured clouds would ruin the eclipse anyway.
I held up in my apartment at Vanderbilt. Michael and Karen were in Murfreesboro. I called cousin Larry on the phone. He had forgotten about the eclipse. It was to begin at 7:43pm central time. He looked out his window and said it did not look like a full moon. I realized the eclipse was already in its penumbral stage.
I went outside with my binoculars. There were patches of clouds, but things were looking good. The moon was in the constellation Leo between Saturn and the first magnitude star Regulus. I saw all three at once through the binoculars.
The moon began to appear dark and dusky at the bottom on its left side. It looked like someone took a bite out of a cookie. I saw the moon's features: Tycho, Plato and the "foot with three toes." The curvature of the earth's shadow dawned on me as the moon entered the umbra. The curve was well-defined. It became clear how the ancient Greeks knew the earth is round. I also understood how less enlightened people devised weird stories. The Vikings told of a wolf chasing and catching the moon.
The moon darkened. At first, I was not aware of any copper color. It looked as if the moon would totally disappear. I thought there may be a lot of dust in our atmosphere. The partial stage was striking with half the moon inside the umbra and half of it still outside.
The lighted portion shrunk to a sliver on the upper right side. The partial eclipse is more eerie than the total because the darkened portion is in stark contrast to the lit portion. During totality, a copper hue washes the entire surface, taking away the drama. I anticipated the moment when the moon would be completely inside the umbra.
A totally eclipsed moon is still visible due to our atmosphere bending light onto its surface. Our atmophere scatters light with short wavelengths. Long wavelengths like red and orange reach the moon. I imagined myself on the moon and watching the earth block out the sun. I would see a "ring of fire" around the earth, the sum total of all sunrises and sunsets.
Totality lasted 50 minutes as the moon traveled through the umbra at 2,300 miles an hour. During totality, Saturn and Regulus brightened as did all the stars in the sky. It was hard to see them because I was in the center of Nashville. I called Michael. He and Karen were watching. He took pictures. Totality is boring. It is the going in and coming out which inspire. The action picked up again as the moon emerged on the other side of the earth's shadow. The moon began to lighten around its right bottom rim. It looked like "the old moon in the new moon's arms" as the process reversed. The moon was again one-third lit, then half-lit. I stood on my balcony. It reminded me a snowman's head with a toboggan on it. The roundness of the earth was once more obvious. I sat on a bench in the courtyard and watched the full moon emerge as if nothing had happened. The instant the eclipse was over, a cloud cover rolled in. Too late! I had witnessed one of natures's great spectacles!
The eclipse lasted 3 hours, 26 minutes and was visible across North America. Everyone on the night side of the earth could see it.
Lunar eclipses occur about every six months. The reason there is not one every month is because the plane of the moon's orbit is tilted 5 degrees with respect to Earth's orbit.
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