Sky gazers brave frigid temps to view total eclipse of the moon
by Andy Phipps, posted Feb. 25, 2008
At 9:15 on a freezing February night, some 60 people group together outside Laws Observatory on the roof of the Physics Building on the MU campus. The group is diverse, from fifty-somethings to students to families with young children. All are ignoring the incredible nighttime view of downtown Columbia below and, instead, gaze upward to catch a glimpse of something natural, fleeting and rare.
The total eclipse of the moon that took place on Feb. 20 was the last of its kind until 2010. Such celestial events take place only on the rare occasion that a full moon slips into the shadow of the earth, when both bodies and the sun are in nearly perfect alignment. The effect is what is sometimes referred to as a “blood moon” because as the earth moves in front of the moon the sunlight passing around its edges through the atmosphere scatters, causing the moon to glow red.
With only a quarter of its surface left in direct sunlight, the effect was clear to those braving the bitter cold on the roof.
“Is that ... is that a glider?” a man standing at the railing shouted.
All eyes focused on a slowly evolving shape crossing the sky.
“No, it’s a flock of birds,” answered another.
As the birds approached and the lighting shifted, the difference became more obvious. As the flock passed over the building, the already increasing amount of refracted light in the atmosphere reflected off the feathered bodies. As the birds passed over the building, their bellies were bright orange, giving them the appearance of sparks drifting across the night sky.
Inside, where it was warmer, an even greater view of what could be seen with the naked eye awaited. A waxing and waning line of people came and went through the night, climbing a narrow set of curved stairs into the observatory, waiting for a chance to gaze through the 16-inch telescope housed in its upper dome. Although it was a clear night and Saturn was visible, the telescope trained its eye on the edge of the moon, magnifying it and offering a spectacular view of the event at hand.
“It zooms in very close and you can see the texture very well,” said Adam Saunders, a forestry and statistics major.
“This is definitely a great view,” Saunders said. “You can see the red and the shadow, which is very interesting … like a sunset, but it’s reflected on the moon.”
Downstairs the sent of French vanilla coffee filled the air as visitors browsed through a mini-museum dedicated to the exploration of space. One of its curators, Val Germann, president of the Central Missouri Astronomical Association, seemed to be constantly talking to a stream of reporters out to get an easy and interesting story.
“It just so happened that they dialed up an eclipse for us when were open, which hardly ever happens. In fact it’s never happened before,” Germann said. “This is our normal night to be open and we have an eclipse, so, can you beat that?”
Although the observatory is open most Wednesdays from 7 to 10 p.m, the so called “prime time eclipse” brought out more visitors than usual.
By the time the eclipse was reaching its zenith, a crowd of close to 100 were out on the roof, with even more inside still waiting for a chance to catch a glimpse of the lunar event through the telescope. The Physics Building was not the preferred place to view it, however. All across campus groups of students gathered outside buildings to catch a glimpse. On Frances Quadrangle four people stood in front of the columns gazing up at the sky.
“By coincidence, my organic chemistry test was scheduled at eight o’clock,” said Sayeed Kahn, a chemistry major. “I noticed a crowd of people standing around outside of Ellis and I realized that the lunar eclipse was tonight so, I thought, ‘What better place to look at it than at the columns?'”
“It’s good that it’s a clear night; its something worth seeing I guess,” he added.
