Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs

A spectacular total lunar eclipse graces the evening sky on January 20, 2000.

Next Thursday evening, January 20, the full moon launches itself over the eastern horizon near the time of sunset, 5 p.m. By 6:30, however, a ghostly pallor starts spreading across the ascending moon. A denser shadow follows, making landfall on the moon at 7:01 p.m. By 8:05 the formerly sunny face of the moon completely succumbs to Earth's shadow.

Lunar eclipses, often overlooked in favor of the more spectacular solar eclipses, deserve more respect than they get. Unlike a total solar eclipse, which is visible only along a narrow "path of totality" sweeping across Earth's surface, lunar eclipses can be observed from anywhere on Earth's nighttime hemisphere, weather permitting. Our last opportunity (here in San Diego) to see a totally eclipsed moon was in 1996; the next, after this January 20, will occur more than three years hence.

Sponsored
Sponsored

Although the sky over urban San Diego may be crisply clear next Thursday, the darker skies of far East County will allow you to appreciate the finer points of the upcoming eclipse. The eclipsed moon will lie below and to the left of the glittery winter constellations, which together contain nearly half of all the bright stars in the sky. These stars will shine opulently when seen from a location well away from the city lights.

Rather than being black or very dark, the totally eclipsed moon is expected to appear as a faintly glowing, red- or orange- colored disk. The glow exists because a small fraction of the sun's light is refracted (bent) into Earth's shadow when passing through the atmospheric layers encircling Earth. The long passage through the atmosphere reddens the light in the same way that sunlight is reddened near the time of sunset and sunrise. To understand this, imagine standing on the moon when it's being eclipsed: you could look upward at the black disk of Earth hiding the sun and see only a thin, reddish ring of filtered sunlight streaming around this disk.

Since the moon will plunge noncentrally across Earth's shadow during next Thursday's eclipse, the reddish glow on the moon will be irregularly bright at all times during totality. The part of the moon appearing brightest within the shadow is the part closest to the edge of the shadow. To see the subtle and colorful gradations of light promised by this eclipse, it's best to use binoculars or a small telescope.

Totality lasts between 8:05 p.m. and 9:22 p.m. Following this are the anticlimactic, tedious closing partial phases. These end at 10:25 p.m.

The latest copy of the Reader

Please enjoy this clickable Reader flipbook. Linked text and ads are flash-highlighted in blue for your convenience. To enhance your viewing, please open full screen mode by clicking the icon on the far right of the black flipbook toolbar.

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

The vicious cycle of Escondido's abandoned buildings

City staff blames owners for raising rents
Next Article

The Fellini of Clairemont High

When gang showers were standard for gym class

Next Thursday evening, January 20, the full moon launches itself over the eastern horizon near the time of sunset, 5 p.m. By 6:30, however, a ghostly pallor starts spreading across the ascending moon. A denser shadow follows, making landfall on the moon at 7:01 p.m. By 8:05 the formerly sunny face of the moon completely succumbs to Earth's shadow.

Lunar eclipses, often overlooked in favor of the more spectacular solar eclipses, deserve more respect than they get. Unlike a total solar eclipse, which is visible only along a narrow "path of totality" sweeping across Earth's surface, lunar eclipses can be observed from anywhere on Earth's nighttime hemisphere, weather permitting. Our last opportunity (here in San Diego) to see a totally eclipsed moon was in 1996; the next, after this January 20, will occur more than three years hence.

Sponsored
Sponsored

Although the sky over urban San Diego may be crisply clear next Thursday, the darker skies of far East County will allow you to appreciate the finer points of the upcoming eclipse. The eclipsed moon will lie below and to the left of the glittery winter constellations, which together contain nearly half of all the bright stars in the sky. These stars will shine opulently when seen from a location well away from the city lights.

Rather than being black or very dark, the totally eclipsed moon is expected to appear as a faintly glowing, red- or orange- colored disk. The glow exists because a small fraction of the sun's light is refracted (bent) into Earth's shadow when passing through the atmospheric layers encircling Earth. The long passage through the atmosphere reddens the light in the same way that sunlight is reddened near the time of sunset and sunrise. To understand this, imagine standing on the moon when it's being eclipsed: you could look upward at the black disk of Earth hiding the sun and see only a thin, reddish ring of filtered sunlight streaming around this disk.

Since the moon will plunge noncentrally across Earth's shadow during next Thursday's eclipse, the reddish glow on the moon will be irregularly bright at all times during totality. The part of the moon appearing brightest within the shadow is the part closest to the edge of the shadow. To see the subtle and colorful gradations of light promised by this eclipse, it's best to use binoculars or a small telescope.

Totality lasts between 8:05 p.m. and 9:22 p.m. Following this are the anticlimactic, tedious closing partial phases. These end at 10:25 p.m.

Comments
Sponsored

The latest copy of the Reader

Please enjoy this clickable Reader flipbook. Linked text and ads are flash-highlighted in blue for your convenience. To enhance your viewing, please open full screen mode by clicking the icon on the far right of the black flipbook toolbar.

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

The vicious cycle of Escondido's abandoned buildings

City staff blames owners for raising rents
Next Article

Tijuana sewage infects air in South Bay

By September, Imperial Beach’s beach closure broke 1000 consecutive days
Comments
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed Big Screen — Movie commentary Blurt — Music's inside track Booze News — San Diego spirits Classical Music — Immortal beauty Classifieds — Free and easy Cover Stories — Front-page features Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts Feast! — Food & drink reviews Feature Stories — Local news & stories Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore From the Archives — Spotlight on the past Golden Dreams — Talk of the town The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it Letters — Our inbox Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news News Ticker — News & politics Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated Poetry — The old and the new Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers Reading — The hunt for intellectuals Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds SD on the QT — Almost factual news Sheep and Goats — Places of worship Special Issues — The best of Street Style — San Diego streets have style Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves Theater — On stage in San Diego this week Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads Your Week — Daily event picks
4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
Close

Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

This Week’s Reader This Week’s Reader