February’s Lunar Eclipse – Not To Be Missed!

by Allison Pease, Executive Director

Last August, a few of my friends hauled themselves out of bed at the frightful hour of 3:00 a.m. Their excuse? To see a lunar eclipse! While aghast at their willingness to crawl from slumber at such a contrary time, I grudgingly wondered if I’d missed something wonderful, especially after glowing reports of colors that engulfed both moon and soul.

As I lamented missing the wondrous nocturnal wonder, our program director, Becky Gillette, announced, “February’s full moon is a total lunar eclipse visible around sunset. Our full moon hike will be under a lunar eclipse!” As Becky gleefully went back to planning the hike, I realized that the first total lunar eclipse of 2008 was perfect for those of us not predisposed to wee morning hours. Its timing was also a thing to be celebrated.

Each month, a full moon occurs when the Earth passes between the Moon and Sun. Peering through night’s darkness with the Sun behind us, what we see is reflected sunlight off the face of the Moon. Lining up in a near plane, light from the Sun illuminates the face of the moon forming an almost perfect circle of light.

Lunar eclipses don’t happen every month because the orbits of the Moon, Earth, and Sun don’t regularly form a perfect linear plane. Instead, the Moon’s orbit around the Earth is tipped about five degrees to Earth’s orbit around the Sun. Thus, the Moon spends most of its orbital path above or below the Earth/Sun orbital plane. Even during a full moon, the Moon usually passes just outside that plane missing the shadow the Earth. A few times each year however, the Moon aligns with the Sun/Earth orbital plane and passes through the Earth’s shadow. The result is a lunar eclipse in which the Moon takes on a deep, rich red color.

Unlike a solar eclipse, a lunar eclipse is completely safe to watch. What is so dramatic during a lunar eclipse is the vibrant red color of the Moon. That color results from sunlight first passing through Earth’s atmosphere, which filters out most of the blue-colored light, then bending (refracting) through the atmosphere. The resulting sunlight reaches the Moon dimmer and redder than normal. Without Earth’s atmosphere, the Moon would be completely black during a total eclipse.

On February 20, a total lunar eclipse will be visible across the Four Corners just after sunset. We invite you to join us at the Durango Nature Center at 6:30 pm for an evening of lunar exploration. Take a hike, learn cool Moon facts, or sit back to enjoy the show. For details, visit www.durangonaturestudies.org.