(meteorobs) My Eclipse Report . . .

[Skywayinc at aol.com]

December will mark 40 years since I saw my very first total lunar eclipse.  
Just a few hours ago, I witnessed my thirteenth totality.  This one might have 
come close to perhaps ranking near the top of my personal list so far as as 
brightness and coloration is concerned.  Prior to this eclipse, I had placed 
last November's eclipse at the top of my list (Danjon L rating of 3.5; a stellar 
magnitude of -3.0), but from what I saw tonight, this one seemed to be nearly 
as bright and colorful as that one.

I viewed this eclipse from two locations.  During the first half of the 
eclipse, I watched it from the studios of News 12 Westchester, in Yonkers, NY.  The 
timing of this event had the eclipse reaching totality during our 10 o'clock 
"Night Edition" newscast.  I had arranged with our News Director, Janine Rose 
and Operations Manager, Arnie Reif, to have a camera trained on the Moon 
during our newscast.  Everytime we cut to, or came out of a commercial break, we 
showed the progress of the eclipse.  Of course, I also discussed what was going 
on with the eclipse during our regular weathercast.

I was frequently in and out of the studio during the early stages of the 
eclipse.  I was most impressed by the fact that at 9:30 p.m. EDT, with less than 
one-quarter of the Moon's diameter into the umbra, that with 7 x 35 binoculars 
I could detect a subtle reddish hue on the shadowed portion of the Moon.  

By 10 p.m., there was no doubt about coloration . . . a very distinct 
brownish-red color was evident across most of the eclipsed portion of the Moon.

At 10:30 p.m., our show had ended and quickly rushed out to the parking lot 
to my car.  I planned a "quick getaway" so that I could get back to my home in 
Putnam Valley, NY so that I could catch the final 20 or 25 minutes of 
totality. We were already seven minutes into totality when I got to my car and paused 
to get a look at the now-totally eclipsed Moon before driving off.  With the 
naked eye and through the binoculars the deep red color was now very pronounced 
and contrasted beautifully with a bright bluish-white northern rim.

As I traveled north, I ended up driving right under a blanket of 
broken-to-overcast skies.  Upon arriving home just after 11:20 p.m. EDT, I could see very 
little of the stars or the eclipsed Moon, but within ten minutes, there were 
larger and more frequent breaks in the cloud cover which allowed me to get some 
good views through my 10.1" Dobsonian.  

I was periodically able to get some good views during the final 15 minutes of 
totality, but I also took a break of a few minutes to watch the Red Sox win 
the World Series (at 11:40 p.m. -- five minutes before the end of totality).  
Toward the end of totality, the Moon appeared a deep reddish-orange which faded 
into a dull whitish-gray rim that in itself contained a pale, yet evident 
trace of blue.  As totality ended, the bright rim produced a beautiful "diamond 
ring" effect to the naked eye; so bright and diffuse was the upper limb that it 
was next to impossible to determine just exactly when totality ended using 
the 10.1".

Through increasingly clearer skies, I watched the umbra progress off the 
Moon's disk during the next hour.  I could still see some hints of red color in 
the umbra as late as 12:34 a.m. EDT -- or only 20 minutes before last umbral 
contact.  Last contact itself was almost impossible to adequately time because 
the umbra was so diffuse in nature. 

It is unfortunate that I had to move around so much, thereby missing a good 
chunk of the total phase.  It is also unfortunate that cloudiness severely 
hindered the view at times as well.  

Nonetheless, from what I saw shortly after the onset of totality, as well as 
the final 15 minutes of total eclipse, I would have to say that this eclipse 
almost matched last November's in terms of unusual brightness and coloration.  

Unfortunately, it will now a while before we get another total eclipse that 
appears so high up and in a dark sky.  The March 3, 2007 eclipse will occur low 
in the east just after local sundown; the August 28, 2007 eclipse is just the 
reverse . . . low in the west just before sunrise.  Not until February 20, 
2008 while we have an eclipse with such similar favorable circumstances as this. 
 

-- joe rao       
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