Lunar Eclipses

Though better known for stars of the big screen than those in the sky, Los Angeles had more than its share of amateur astronomers Wednesday night as the city got its first good look at a lunar eclipse in years. More than 500 people from all over Los Angeles and Orange counties converged on Griffith Park to watch the eclipse through the observatory's 12-inch refracting telescope and through a dozen smaller telescopes set up on the lawn.

This post has been corrected. Please see note at bottom for details. Sky watchers, it is time to look up once again, and watch the moon very, very carefully. A penumbral lunar eclipse will occur early Wednesday morning, but it will be subtle. Unlike a total lunar eclipse, when the moon passes behind the dark center of the earth's shadow, a penumbral lunar eclipse occurs when the moon passes through the hazy outer edge of the earth's shadow, called the penumbra. During a penumbral eclipse, the moon doesn't so much black out completely as darken subtly, but noticeably, if you are paying attention.  Quiz: What set the Internet on fire in 2012?

The moon will turn shades of amber and crimson tonight as it passes behind Earth's shadow in the first total lunar eclipse in three years. The eclipse will be at least partly visible from Asia to the Americas, although those in Europe, Africa and the Middle East will have the best view. Earth's shadow will begin moving across the moon at 12:18 p.m. PST, with the total eclipse occurring at 2:44 p.m. PST and lasting more than an hour.

The paparazzi staked out a spot in the Hollywood Hills before dawn. The western sky was the red carpet, the moon the day's celebrity. That was the scene early Saturday at the Griffith Observatory, where several hundred people gathered in the dark with binoculars, cameras and telescopes to watch a total lunar eclipse — the last one until 2014. "It's a celestial festival out here," Capm Petersen, 39, said as he set up his camera before the big event. The crowd began gathering on the observatory's lawn shortly after 4 a.m. in anticipation of "totality" — the moment when the Earth fully blocks the sun, leaving the moon in its shadow.

Budding astronomers are invited to check out a partial lunar eclipse and munch some toasted marshmallows tonight at Malibu Creek State Park. Steve Killgore, a park docent, will explain the "geometry and history" of eclipses. "Around the time the sun sets, the corner of the moon is going to be a little bit dimmed," Killgore said. The event is not a major eclipse, but it is one of several due in the coming months.

California residents can see a total eclipse of the moon Thursday evening, the first total eclipse visible in the United States since January 2000. The eclipse already will have begun when the moon rises above the horizon, with the total eclipse occurring at 8:14 p.m. The eclipse will be over at 10:17 p.m.

The moon darkened, reddened, and turned shades of gray and orange during the first total lunar eclipse in nearly three years, thrilling stargazers and astronomers around the world. The Earth's shadow took over six hours to crawl across the moon's surface, eating it into a crescent shape before engulfing it completely in a spectacle at least partly visible on every continent. The moon began moving out of Earth's shadow just after 5 p.m. PST. The eclipse ended a little more than an hour later.

Sky-watchers in every continent but Australia reveled in the relative rarity of a total lunar eclipse Saturday night -- but as stargazers have noted for centuries, it was a matter of celestial perspective. "From the moon, they're having a solar eclipse," said Dean Regas, an astronomer at the Cincinnati Observatory Center, which was founded in 1842 and claims to be the oldest in the U.S.

Amy Bruchmann came for the colors. Susan Ambriz wanted to see something she had never seen and wouldn't see again until 2000. And Jessica Hodes said she was just awed by the enormity of the experience. "The universe is so big and there's so much in it that no one knows about. This is awesome," Hode, 18, said as she stood on the softball field at Orange Coast College and stared up at the total eclipse of the moon.

The moon will be in partial eclipse on Thursday night, but don't expect a celestial show. John Mosley, an astronomer at Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles, said the moon will move only through the outer, or penumbral, part of the earth's shadow and will not darken noticeably. "Even with photographic or photometric equipment, it will be hard, if not impossible, to notice that an eclipse is happening," Mosley said. The partial eclipse will begin at 6:46 p.m.

A total eclipse of the moon will be visible throughout North and Central America from 11:41 p.m. PST Monday until 12:53 a.m. Tuesday, the first such eclipse in almost three years. Weather permitting, observers will see the moon enter the Earth's inner shadow, or umbra, at 10:33 p.m., with a red-brown shadow creeping across the bright moon. This shadow has a curved edge, a fact that was taken as proof to at least some ancients that the Earth is round. The sky will get darker as the shadow progresses across the moon, and more stars will be visible as sunlight reflected from the moon fades.

The moon darkened, reddened, and turned shades of gray and orange during the first total lunar eclipse in nearly three years, thrilling stargazers and astronomers around the world. The Earth's shadow took over six hours to crawl across the moon's surface, eating it into a crescent shape before engulfing it completely in a spectacle at least partly visible on every continent. The moon began moving out of Earth's shadow just after 5 p.m. PST. The eclipse ended a little more than an hour later.

The moon will turn shades of amber and crimson tonight as it passes behind Earth's shadow in the first total lunar eclipse in three years. The eclipse will be at least partly visible from Asia to the Americas, although those in Europe, Africa and the Middle East will have the best view. Earth's shadow will begin moving across the moon at 12:18 p.m. PST, with the total eclipse occurring at 2:44 p.m. PST and lasting more than an hour.

THE temperature drops, the day darkens and dots of sunlight turn into crescents on the ground, light on pale colors rippling as if reflected through a swimming pool. Then the moon fully obscures the sun, which appears to be a black dot in the sky surrounded by a diaphanous halo. Everyone cheers. In the world of fabulous travel experiences, watching a total solar eclipse has little competition. One occurs about every 18 months.

A total lunar eclipse expected to create views of a blood-red moon will be visible tonight throughout most of North America -- weather permitting. Tonight's event is the only eclipse -- solar or lunar -- visible from nearly all of North America this year, said Fred Espenak, an astronomer at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. (A partial solar eclipse Oct. 14 was visible from some parts of Alaska.

Sky-watchers in every continent but Australia reveled in the relative rarity of a total lunar eclipse Saturday night -- but as stargazers have noted for centuries, it was a matter of celestial perspective. "From the moon, they're having a solar eclipse," said Dean Regas, an astronomer at the Cincinnati Observatory Center, which was founded in 1842 and claims to be the oldest in the U.S.

Pull out your telescopes, binoculars and cameras, or simply point your eyes upward Sunday night, and get ready to be moonstruck. The moon, Earth's closest neighbor, will stage another spectacular show Sunday when it slides behind the Earth's shadow to create a total lunar eclipse. The eclipse--created by the alignments of the sun, Earth, and moon--will be visible from any point in Orange County not illuminated by urban night light, as long as the sky remains clear of clouds.

It was a close race Thursday between the low clouds creeping up from the south and the rose-gray moon trying to rise above it all in the sky. In the end, the clouds won, and the moon took an early exit from its own party. But none of the 4,000 moon worshipers gathered at Griffith Observatory to see the last total lunar eclipse until 2000 seemed to mind. On the observatory lawn, a circle of meditators swayed and chanted. Lovers cuddled.

Half the people trying to view Saturday's lunar eclipse will miss it because they'll forget to look up. Honest, says John Mosley, a Griffith Observatory astronomer who says the No. 1 piece of advice he gives is "remember to look up." If you don't forget, the rest is easy. Saturday's total lunar eclipse is the second and last of the year -- the first was in May. Another one won't appear here until next October. After that, those of us in the U.S. will have to wait until March 2007.