1996 Lunar Eclipse Observations

IDAHO (Linda Selvig)

As the sky got darker the moon changed to a yellow and the part of the
moon in the shadow took on a light orange hue. During totality the moon was a deep red on the southern hemisphere and lighter red on the northern hemisphere with a small amount of yellow at the very northern limb.

ARIZONA (Renee Crawley)

My favorite part was when the light started showing again. We had a wonderful effect of rays of light coming onto one side and moving to the other as the eclipse was ending. It ended with these rays going from one side of the moon to the other and bathing Saturn in light, too. I've never seen anything like it.

VIRGINIA (Marilyn Wall)

And lo and behold though we had to play peek-a-boo with the clouds we were able to see all the various stages as the moon drifted in and out of the clouds. When the clouds opened the moon was as clear and as beautiful as you could possibly hope for. And to hear their oohs and ahs as the round shadow of the Earth passed over the moon...comments like "the Earth really is round" amused me in a wonderful way. Just after the total eclipse, enough of the sky was clear to reveal a reddish moon. It was really awesome! And right below this was Saturn! My students were so excited you would have thought they were the first men landing on the moon.

And the oddest thing about our star party last night...the rest of the Valley was pretty well socked in with cloudy overcast...the only breaks seemed to come over our school parking lot. This morning the local news reports were of an eclipse unseen! We were indeed the lucky ones. Someone sure was taking care of us.

MASSACHUSETTS (Charlie Lindgren)

Eclipse classification saw 13 saying the eclipse was black or almost invisible, 39 said it was gray, 104 said it was dark red, 82 said it was bright red, and 34 said it was brilliant orange.

This was a huge success in my coastal town! Comments about what the eclipse looked like, and what the ocean looked like during the various stages of the eclipse were great. During my class discussions, our toughest conclusion was deciding what the color was. Assorted comments on what the color of totality resembled: a photograph of a retina (substitute teacher); orange sherbert; a broken red marble.

NEVADA (Judy Gunderson)

We had a beautiful clear night to watch the eclipse, but the lights of the city sure didn't help our star count. We watched the colors change from brown to orange. Absolutely breathtaking!

WASHINGTON, D. C. (Susan Hurstcalderone)

Although not what we hoped for, a break in the skies did occur between 9:30 and 10:05. As the clouds moved in and out, there was just enough time to see the partial phase of the eclipse, Saturn, and a few stars. The students were in awe . . . In fact one commented that she didn't "realize so much was going on above her head." . . . a student came to me after class on Friday to say, "Thank you- we had a great time and I can't wait until 2000. It better be clear!" All I can say is "Ditto."

INDIANA (Margaretha Gebhart)

All twelve elementary schools in Muncie, Indiana, were prepared to complete Star Counts and Record information on the color. The weather did not cooperate. Muncie, Indiana was in the path of the rain and cloud cover in the storm that passed over the midwest. For a brief moment we saw the eclipse in black and white in between clouds. David Levy joined us on the campus of Ball State University to observe the eclipse. He called his fiancee during the eclispe. She had beautiful weather! David Levy was the first speaker featured in the BSU Provost Lecture Series this year. What a night to have David Levy speak!! The provost invited selected area schools and college staff members to the dinner prior to David's presentation.

GEORGIA (Charlotte Stevens)

We had our Astronomy Night at school and enjoyed seeing Jupiter and its moons as well as views of the moon from time to time. We had seven astronomers from the Atlanta Astronomy Club and about eight telescopes ranging in size from six inches to 17.5. One of the men brought a computer setup that he used to display CCD images. The 350 students and parents were patient and enthusiastic despite the clouds. We just feel lucky the rain held off for eight hours and we were able to meet. Needless to say, our star count was 0! Glad to hear the Crawleys had wonderful clear weather and that someone was able to count stars! I hope all of your students enjoyed their evening as much as mine did!

MARYLAND (Mellie Lewis)

We had over fifty fourth and fifth grade students participate in our Lunar Eclipse-Star Count Party last night. The students were outside from seven until almost 9:30. Unfortunately, the cloud cover prevented us from seeing anything. Parents stayed up to do the color cover, but still, there was 100% cloud cover.We were glad to see that other schools were able to see and do the count. We'll be using your data to do a lat/long star count correlation.

WEST VIRGINIA (Cindy Bonfini-Hotlosz)

We did get to see a great bit of the eclipse flitting in and out of the clouds. And my son (10) and daughter (3) had a great time sharing your stories with moon-gazers from our area. Our lunar picnic was a success, despite the clouds! As we headed back to our car, we spotted a majestic stag gazing up at the clouds. In a small voice, my three-year-old whispered, "Grandmother Moon must be pleased."

COLORADO (Janet and James Cook)

Our results in Denver, CO, 39.7 N and 105 W, were 0 stars with heavy cloud cover becoming snow around 9:00. Needless to say, the kids didn't want to go out and count. We did count with no moon (but parking lot lights on) a week later when it was warmer and got counts ranging from 48-468. We plan to repeat with the next warm, full moon.

VERMONT (David White) -

Here's my star count - eclipse data: Barre, Vermont 72 degrees 30 minutes West 44 degrees 15 minutes North. Clear Sky - Moderate Light Pollution. Stars seen with FULL moon: 276 168 264 214 840 252 432. Stars seen during TOTALITY OF LUNAR ECLIPSE 1164 456 660 636 1128 912 804.

TEXAS (Chris Rowan)

We had a very good turnout last night. Nearly 40 people showed up! Most were my students, but many were parents or interested staff members.

We really had a great time. We observed Saturn and Jupiter through a 10" reflecting telescope. I have asked my students to post their thoughts and feelings about the event on this listserv. Hope you don't mind. The responses will be sent as one message, so this listserv won't be inundated with student messages.---

Stars Visible Before Eclipse

3/4 up 1/2 up 1/3 up total North 3.52 3.24 1.88 8.64 South 3.64 3.88 2.68 10.2 East 1.44 2.04 2.08 5.56 West 1.72 2.44 2.44 6.6 Totals 10.32 11.6 9.08 31 Grand total 372 Approximate Number of Stars Visible Stars Visible During Eclipse

3/4 up 1/2 up 1/3 up total North 4.40 2.27 2.60 9.27 South 2.07 1.87 2.73 6.67 East 0.87 1.80 1.67 4.33 West 1.80 1.13 1.67 4.60 Totals 9.13 7.07 8.67 24.87 Grand total 298.40 Approximate Number of Stars Visible

General Comments

GEORGIA (Rhonda Toon)

Just wanted you to know I'm jealous of all the eclipse activity! We had to pick up a student visitor from Mexico City at airport so I couldn't schedule an eclipse event. We watched parts of the event from the parking lot of a restaurant that dishes up Southern food. In between sharing our amazement of the natural wonder we were explaining things like blackeye peas, red eye gravy, grits, and sweet tea.....(not necessarily served all together). (-:

JAPAN (Syu)

Dear discuss-lfm members, We are enjoying "tukimi" (Moon gazing party). I show you "hoshi" in kanji character. Hoshi is star in Japanese.

Hoshi

Wish on hoshi, dream come true.
Thank you everybody.
Syu

John Gallagher

Our Port Angeles High School astronomy students hosted a star party for the eclipse up here at the high school in Port Angeles. We had between 200 and 300 folks show up! They patiently waited in lines for our three school telescopes - one looking at the moon, one at Jupiter and one at Saturn. We are known for our rainy Septembers but there wasn't a single cloud in the sky all night long. My students helped the elementary and middle school kids do star counts while waiting once it got dark enough. By 8:30 we were clear and dark enough to see most major constellations and the Milky Way. Everyone had a great time and the community is really turning on to astronomy.

FLORIDA (Mike Dean)

We had uninterrupted viewing of the entire event with the exception of about 2 minutes of one cloud passing by. About 40% of my students came out to the local planetarium (Astronaut's Memorial Planetarium in Cocoa, Florida) to look through over thirty telescopes and many more binoculars. Jupiter's four major moons (Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto) were all strung out like a string of precious pearls. Saturn's rings and its beautiful deep orange-gold color were easliy seen. Comet Hale-Bopp may or may not have been seen, as the faintness of the object and the general uncertainty among the viewers left some debate about whether or not what we saw was the comet. The whole event was received by the families (parents) extremely well and did much to bring all the students, families, and teachers closer together.

WASHINGTON (Jo Lynne Roberts)

The Pacific Northwest is well known (or is that infamous) for our clouds and rain....but Mother Nature cooperated to give us the most awe inspiring clear skies for the eclipse. In the Northwest we are fortunate to have single majestic snow covered mountain peaks, and it was above this outlined mountain that the moon was visible in all its glory. It was absolutely picture perfect!

Info compiled by Charles F. Lindgren (Charlie)